22.6.11

Muistilinkkejä

"Perfection Is Not A Useful Concept"
Bostrom: We have to distinguish between positional and non-positional goods. In economics, a positional good benefits you only because others lack it. Height may be an advantage in men, but if everybody were three inches taller, nobody would be better off. Attractiveness may be another example of a positional good. A gain for one person implies a relative loss for others. I would contrast that with a trait like health. Your life is better when you are healthy, even if others are also healthy. Cognitive enhancements are a complex topic, but they have aspects that are intrinsically valuable. It is good if we can understand the world better. Arguments against positional goods are no arguments against enhancements as such.

Memory Implant Gives Rats Sharper Recollection
“Turn the switch on, the animal has the memory; turn it off and they don’t: that’s exactly how it worked,”

Humans Could Have Geomagnetic Sight
Tests of cryptochrome 2, a key protein component of geomagnetic perception, found that its human version restored geomagnetic orientation in cryptochrome-deficient fruit flies.

Lab-grown meat would 'cut emissions and save energy'
‘What our study found was that the environmental impacts of cultured meat could be substantially lower than those of meat produced in the conventional way,’ said Hanna Tuomisto of Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, who led the research. ‘Cultured meat could potentially be produced with up to 96% lower greenhouse gas emissions, 45% less energy, 99% lower land use, and 96% lower water use than conventional meat.’

6.4.11

Äänestä Piraattia

Mieluummin ääni hukkaan Piraateille kuin löysä taktikointiääni kakkosvaihtoehdolle galluphypetyksen perusteella.

2011.piraattivaalit.fi
Uskonnonvapaus.fi vaalikone
Älä äänestä homofobiaa eduskuntaan

11.2.11

Odota heilahduksia

2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal
They think in terms of deep time, they believe in the power of technology to shape history, they have little interest in the conventional wisdom about anything, and they cannot believe you're walking around living your life and watching TV as if the artificial-intelligence revolution were not about to erupt and change absolutely everything. They have no fear of sounding ridiculous; your ordinary citizen's distaste for apparently absurd ideas is just an example of irrational bias, and Singularitarians have no truck with irrationality. When you enter their mind-space you pass through an extreme gradient in worldview, a hard ontological shear that separates Singularitarians from the common run of humanity. Expect turbulence.

Transcending the Human, DIY Style - Jos lääkärit eivät suostu asentamaan magneetteja ihon alle, hätäilijät tekevät sen itse ja päätyvät lääkäriin.