Amazing new ultrasound technique

The BBC is reporting on a new type of ultrasound scan that has produced vivid pictures of complex fetal behavior, including a 12 week-old fetus "walking" in the womb, yawning and rubbing his eyes. The technique has important implications from a scientific and medical perspective. The technique was developed by Stuart Campbell at London's Create Health Clinic who had this to say:

"This is a new science for understanding and mapping out the behaviour of the baby...Maybe in the future it will help us understand and diagnose genetic disease, maybe even conditions like cerebral palsy which puzzles the medical profession as to why it occurs."

Longevity Uncorked?

We published an important report about resveratrol at Betterhumans today, "Longevity Uncorked?" by Shannon Klie. A press release was issued to accompany the report:

Longevity Uncorked?
Found in red wine, resveratrol may be the first real antiaging drug -- but don't drink to your health just yet

It seems too good to be true: A drug that would let you eat all the bread, cheese, cream sauce and red meat you wanted without risking coronary disease, while at the same time decreasing insulin levels, decreasing blood pressure, increasing good cholesterol and extending your lifespan to a degree normally achieved through strict dieting.

New research suggests that resveratrol, a compound in red wine, could do all this and possibly more. Writer Shannon Klie explores the research in an extensive report on resveratrol published this week on Betterhumans.com.

Resveratrol first gained recognition for its possible role in the French Paradox -- the fact that the fatty food-consuming French have low levels of heart disease. It is now gaining attention as an antiaging compound that could have the same impact as an extremely low-calorie diet.

"We hope we will be able to mimic the effects of caloric restriction," says researcher David Sinclair of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, who along with researcher Konrad Howitz first identified resveratrol's ability to extend lifespan. Mimicking caloric restriction, says Sinclair, "would mean that people would be much healthier in their old age and could possibly live many years longer, free of disease."

Resveratrol is a polyphenol and phytoalexin. Polyphenols act like antioxidants and protect the body against free radicals, which contribute to tissue damage. Phytoalexins are a type of antibiotic that protects plants against disease.

A 1992 study found that resveratrol protects against heart disease and other aging-related illnesses. In 1997, researchers found that it fights cancer. Such studies have led to an explosion of resveratrol supplements on the market.

But the compound isn't without controversy. This April, for example, researchers found that it doesn't appear to enter the bloodstream. And since there haven't been any clinical trials done in mice or humans with resveratrol pills, it's too early to tell whether or not they actually work and what their long-term effects on humans might be.

So is this another supplement scam? Not necessarily. As Klie reports, evidence continues to mount that resveratrol pills -- at least, some of them -- may extend lifespan. This includes evidence from new studies showing that the longevity enzyme Sirt1, activated by a low-calorie diet, is also activated by resveratrol.

But while such studies are promising, they're just the beginning. "While I can show with little or no room for doubt that pure resveratrol is an effective activator of Sirt1 enzyme," says Howitz, "getting an answer on whether resveratrol has an antiaging effect in mice will take several years."

Getting an answer in humans will take even longer. So for now, it's buyer beware.

READ THE FULL REPORT

Black Hole Eschatology

I've been conversing with cosmologist Milan Cirkovic about the fate of black holes. Here's his latest response to me (you can find out more about Milan at his Website):

Dear George,

Great to hear from you! The answer to your question is not known with any certainty at present -- I'll just sketch major ideas and am attaching my resource letter on physical eschatology, where (in Sec. III C) you may find pretty close to exhaustive list of references on this, very difficult issue [Milan emailed me a Resource Letter on physcial eschatology]

First of all, let us separate two issues: (1) the fate of an ideal, isolated black hole, and (2) the fate of realistic black holes in specific universe such as ours. Obviously, we would like to have a firm idea on (1) in order to try to answer (2), but this is not the case. Due to the tough problem of information loss in black holes, which was first raised by Stephen Hawking, there are basically three options for a fate of an isolated black hole (in asymptotically flat background spacetime):

i. it may evaporate completely, leaving nothing but blackbody (incoherent) radiation (this is Hawking's personal favorite, the trouble is it violates unitarity, which is the reason it is widely disliked among physicists)

ii. it may evaporate completely, leaving a mixture of blackbody radiation emitted in early phases of evaporation and COHERENT (i.e. information-rich) radiation from the later phases of evaporation (many people believe this, say t'Hooft and other bigshots)

iii. it may leave a stable remnant, amusingly called cornucopion, of several Planck masses. The remnant contains all relevant information, thus presenting an ideal memory chip ;o))))

At present, I would judge that option ii. is the most supported one, but nobody really knows.

Now, as to the fate of black holes in the real universe, we have two interesting complications here. The first, and rather obvious one, is that black holes, whatever their final fate is, are the most durable objects larger than elementary particles. That is, they are going to increase in mass, generally speaking, until at least 10^35 yrs from now. This is especially important if, as almost all particle theories suggest, proton is unstable and will eventually decay, destroying any other physical object but black holes in at least 10^34-35 yrs. Only then can they begin to really evaporate, leading to evaporation of Solar-mass black holes (or at least cornucopion formation) in further 10^65 or close yrs. The most massive black holes in galactic centers will evaporate (according to the basic picture) in about 10^98 yrs.

This basic picture is complicated and possibly disrupted by the second major issue, which is the cosmological constant (or dark energy, as it is sometimes called; people claim that "dark energy" is more general than "cosmological constant", although I do find this hair-splicing rather shallow; we should honor Einstein and retain the classical name, even if it turns out to be variable -- after all, Hubble "constant" is also changing with time!). In itself it creates an incredibly weak radiation field permeating the entire universe, which is many, many (really MANY) times order of magnitude weaker than any known source at present, and is like energy your body receives from somebody reading with 40W bulb somewhere in the Andromeda galaxy).

However, at one point in deep future time, this emission will become dominant, since all other sources will be extinct long ago. The idea -- which is still VERY controversial, see the references of Griest, Adams, Shiromizu, etc. in the attached -- is that this weak emission (of photons with wavelengths equal to the size of cosmological horizon!) limits the evaporation of black holes, since black holes will at some point absorb this energy at exactly the same rate as they lose energy by Hawking evaporation, thus making themselves eternal. Of course, this is possible only with the largest black holes, if at all. Some people find this argument false -- the question is still not settled. But again, this happens so far in the future, that it is almost irrelevant by definition: any traces of intelligent life will have to migrate to another universe (or to create one) or become extinct loooooong before it becomes an issue.

You mention the Big Rip idea. Well, this is an interesting speculation, by Bob Caldwell and some other theorists, that if the cosmological constant possesses a particular equation of state, characterizing what is called "phantom matter" -- which there is absolutely no observational, or even compelling theoretical reason to believe! -- matter could become subject to infinite repulsive forces in a finite amount of proper time and hence be obliterated. Frankly speaking, I don't know how the black holes will behave in such a scenario -- I'll do some research in literature (the entire "phantom matter" thing is just a few years old idea) and tell you. But, for the moment I won't bother too much about this, since the entire idea is just possible, but still completely unsupported speculation!

OK, I hope that this helps a bit! I'll certainly be glad to discuss these things any time! (And if you invite me to give a talk on this or some other eschatological topic, I could help even better... ;o))) )

Cheers,
Milan

New Book Review: The New Humanists

My latest book review for Betterhumans has been posted. It's for John Brockman's book, The New Humanists: Science at the Edge:

Cutting Edge Science as a Candle in the Dark: The New Humanists brings together leading scientists to show how their work contributes to the humanities

More Wiki entries

I created three more entries in Wikipedia today that I couldn't believe weren't there already:

Aubrey de Grey
Biogerontology
Methuselah Mouse Prize

Articles on the Fermi Paradox

Here are a several interesting articles that address the Fermi Paradox:

The Fermi Paradox: An Approach Based on Percolation Theory by Geoffrey A. Landis
Fermi's Paradox (i.e. Where are They?) by James Schombert
Answering the Fermi Paradox: Exploring the Mechanisms of Universal Transcension by John Smart
Our Galaxy Should Be Teeming With Civilizations, But Where Are They? by Seth Shostak
The Possibilities of FTL: Or Fermi's Paradox Reconsidered by F.E. Freiheit IV

And peripherally related:

On the Importance of SETI for Transhumanism by Milan M.Cirkovic

My TV04 Talk

I've settled on a theme and title for my TransVision 2004 talk: "Art and Recreation in the Age of Cognitive Self-Modification."

Ooookay, now all I have to do is write the damn thing. And no, it's not going to be about psychedelics. It'll be more about identity and psychology modification through things like simulations, virtual and augmented reality experiences, etc.

Max More coming to TransVision

This happened unbelievably suddenly (like, in the last 24 hours), but Max More is coming to TransVision 04. He'll likely be sharing the closing address on the morning of Sunday August 8 with WTA chair Nick Bostrom. Wow.

On the WTA Board of Directors

Today I officially join the World Transhumanist Association's Board of Directors along with Michael Anissimov and Erik Aronesty.

Added astrosociobiology to Wikipedia

I created my first ever Wikipedia entry today: Astrosociobiology.

Simulation clock speed issues

Yesterday at our Toronto Transhumanist Association event I was debating the Simulation Argument with local physicist Matt Schultz. We were discussing the processing power required to run a sufficiently complex simulation and I noted that even the most sophisticated simulation could be expressed simply by slowing down the clock speed to give the computer time to crunch the numbers. Schultz complained that at some point a massively reduced clock speed would defeat the purpose of the simulation for those running it.

True, that's an interesting limitation. If you're running a simulation for the purpose of observing the results, and if you have to slow it down so much that it runs at an unacceptably slow rate, it would simply not be worth it. That being said, if the simulation is for the benefit of the simulated agents or participants inside the simulation (where clock speed is irrelevant -- time elapsement will still feel "real time"), then the external clock speed of the supercomputer is a non-issue.

Moreover, with the potential for quantum computing, the whole issue of processing power may be a moot point anyway. But as Schultz told me, "Simulating everything with qubits might indeed make it a moot point, but that's assuming a way can be found to actually stabilize that many qubits. Keep in mind that qubits are formed by entangling every subatomic particle in the system, and then protecting them from any outside disturbance until the compution is complete and computers' wavefunction can be collapsed. Every qubit added to the system makes the whole thing essentially exponentially more difficult to maintain. Not that I'm saying it's impossible, simply far more difficult than anything we could possibly contemplate today."

TV04: Sneak Preview

Check out this preliminary schedule for TransVision 2004. It does not get much cooler than this:

Friday August 6, 2004

8:00 PM to 9:30 PM
Keynote address by Steve Mann (JJR McLeod Auditorium)

Saturday August 7, 2004

9:30 AM to 10:30 AM
Opening Keynote Address: Aubrey de Grey “The feasibility and desirability of indefinite youth: recent advances from unexpected quarters”

10:45 AM to 11:45 AM
MANAGING RISKS
Mike Deering: “Telluris of Cyborgs: Safety Passage through Great Filter of Evolution” (with Pavel Vassiliev)
Michael Vassar: “Nanotech Safety is AI Safety”
Mark Walker: "The Ship of Fools: An Argument for Surviving Apocalyptic Risks through Cognitive and Ethical Enhancements"

THE EMERGING TRANSHUMAN CULTURE
Jende Huang: “Humanism and The Culture Wars”
Kip Werking: “The Transhuman Condition”

PUBLIC POLICY
Anders Sandberg: “Transformative Technology, Patient Culture and Health Policy”
Robin Hanson: “The Future of Debate”
Simon Smith: “Automatic for the People: How Humans Can Benefit from the Rise of Machines”

12:00 PM 1:00 PM
JBS Haldane Award Banquet
Address by Ron Bailey

1:15 PM to 2:45 PM
NANOTECH
Mike Treder: “Making a Safe Transition into the Nano Era”
Nano Tihamer Toth-Fejel: "Self-Replicating NanoMachines: A Kinematic Cellular Automata Approach"

WRITING AND PUBLISHING TRANSHUMANIST BOOKS
Ramez Naam, author of More than Human
Ron Bailey, author of Liberation Biology
James Hughes, author of Citizen Cyborg

BABIES AND PUPPIES
Linda MacDonald Glenn: “Vexation of Viability: Arbitrary or Valid? (Legal and Ethical Issues in ARTs)”
Jeff Medina: “Transpuppyism? The Status of Non-Humans in Transhumanist Ethics”

3:00 PM to 4:30 PM
SOCIAL CHANGE
Phil Goetz: “Calibrating Accelerating Change”
Mark Hopkins: “The Fourth Wave”

ART, REPRODUCTION AND THE FUTURE
Linda Wallace: "Female Infertility and Reproductive Technology: An Artist's Perspective”
Monica Bock: “Art and the Maternal Experience”

HUMAN ENHANCEMENT
Tihamer Toth-Fejel: "A Critical Look at Leon Kass and Transhumanists on Ageless Bodies: Enhancement and Degradation of the Human Person”
Natasha Vita-More: “Entertainment Tomorrow: Cover Story 'Debating Leon Kass'”

8:00 PM to 9:30 PM
Keynote presentation by Stelarc (JJR McLeod Auditorium)

Sunday August 8, 2004

9:30 AM to 10:30 AM

AGING
Joao Pedro de Magalhães: “The genetic network of human ageing: a system-level approach”
Rafal Smigrodski: “How to buy new mitochondria for your old body”
Aubrey de Grey: "Removing toxic aggregates that our cells can't break down"

THE FUTURE OF INTELLIGENCE
Michael Anissimov: “Enhancing Intelligence; from Neurohackers to Self-Improving Ais”
Sean Kearney: “Can Social Software Increase Human Intelligence?”
Stelarc: "Avatar and Machine Intelligence"

10:45 AM to 11:45 AM

THE FUTURE OF THE BODY
Dale Carrico: "Vulgar Biocentrism Among the Technophiles"
Kenneth Evans: "Random Feed Switch Every Twenty Five: Gender and Technology in Transmetropolitan"
Robin Zebrowski: “Posthuman AI: How Recognizing the Importance of the Body Will Change Things”

UPLOADING AND IMMORTALITY
Ben Hyink: “Toward Non-Fatal Uploading: A New Framework”
Allen Randall: “Quantum Miracles and Immortality”
Peter Passaro: “Reimagining Uploading”

TRANSHUMAN ART AND AESTHETICS
Simon Levy: “The Fractal Beauty of Emergence : Re-envisioning Intelligent Behavior in Man and Machine”
George Dvorsky: "The Impact of Enhanced Humans on the Future of Art and Expression."

12:00 PM 1:15 PM
Closing Address: Nick Bostrom "Human Enhancement: Answering the Why Question"

1:15 PM to 1:30 PM
Final Announcements & Acknowledgments

Here's how the Faith, Transhumanism and Hope Seminar will look:

Thursday August 5, 2004

9:15 AM to 10:45 AM
Atheism, Rationalism and Transhumanism: Are Transhumanism and Religious Faith Compatible?
Jende Huang “Humanism and Transhumanism”
Tihamer Toth-Fejel “Is Catholic Transhumanism Possible?”
Patrick Hopkins “Transcending the Animal: How Transhumanism and Religion Are and Are Not Alike”

11:00 AM to 12:00 PM
The Future of Religion
Peter Addy “Mutant Religious Impulses of the Future”
Michael LaTorra “Trans-Spirit: Religion, Spirituality and Transhumanism”

12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
Box Lunch - Lunch Speaker (box lunch included with registration)
Nick Bostrom “Transhumanism and Religion”

1:00 PM to 2:15 PM
Neurotheology and the Moral Duty of Self-improvement
Mark Walker “Becoming Godlike”
James Hughes “Buddhism and Transhumanism: The Technologies of Self-Perfection”

2:30 PM to 3:45 PM
Immortalism: Sublimated Religious Impulse?
Andrei Chiril Istrati “On the Correlation between Religion and Immortality”
Jose Cordeiro “Religion, Science and Immortality”

4:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Closing Panel: Advancing the Religious Transhumanism Conversation

Go here to register.

The Scary Future of Pro-Death Bioethics

Reason from Longevity Meme had some interesting insight into my "Deathist Nation" column.

New Transitory Human column: Deathist Nation

My latest column for Betterhumans has been posted: Deathist Nation: Critics of life extension fear the risks of longer lives but don't acknowledge the danger and difficulty of enforcing death.

Good Quotes

Good quotes I've read recently:

"I would define the human species as that species that inherently seeks to extend our own horizons. We didn’t stay on the ground, we didn’t stay on the planet, we’re not staying with the limitations of our biology." -- Ray Kurzweil

"Science with technology together with human affection will be constructive." -- Dalai Lama

"For me, the essence of individual life is to use one's complexity in the matrix in which it was born. Attempts to transmit it more than a short distance away from that environment are bound to be exercises in frustration, missing one of the basic motives of life, to do great things with your contemporaries." John Smart

"Modern science fiction is the only form of literature that consistently considers the nature of the changes that face us, the possible consequences, and the possible solutions." -- Isaac Asimov

"It is impossible to calculate in detail the long-range future of the Universe without including the effects of life and intelligence. It is impossible to calculate the capabilities of life and intelligence without touching, at least peripherally, philosophical questions. If we are to examine how intelligent life may be able to guide the physical development of the Universe for its own purposes, we cannot altogether avoid considering what the values and purposes of intelligent life may be. But, as soon as we mention the words value and purpose, we run into one of the most firmly entrenched taboos of twentieth-century science." -- Freeman Dyson

Has the Riemann Hypothesis been solved?

A Purdue University mathematician who goes by the name de Branges claims that he's proven the Riemann hypothesis.

The Riemann hypothesis, first formulated by Bernhard Riemann in 1859, is a highly complex theory about the nature of prime numbers - those numbers divisible only by 1 and themselves. More technically, it's a conjecture about the distribution of the zeros of Riemann's zeta function ζ(s). It's considered to be one of the most important open problems of contemporary mathematics; a $1,000,000 prize has been offered by the Clay Mathematics Institute for a proof.

De Branges has posted a 23-page paper detailing his attempt at a proof on his university Webpage. Called, "Apology For The Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis," it's actually an interesting read, even for those of us who are mathematically hopeless.

...and we're supposed to take these guys seriously why?

I don't know whether to laugh or cry about these GMO protesters who mistakenly targeted a pharmaceutical conference in San Francisco today. As one conference attendee noted, "This is a protest rooted in ignorance.” You got that right, buddy -- in more ways than you know.

WTA Candidacy Statement

I'm running for a seat on the WTA's Board of Directors. Vote for me and I'll set you free :-)

Here's my candidacy statement:

Background

I'm single, 34, and the father of two boys. I have a BA (Hons) in history from the University of Western Ontario, specializing in the history of political thought, religion and science, and minoring in political science and philosophy. I'm also an accomplished electronic music composer with formal training in recorded audio production and digital audio editing. My current paying job is as the operations manager and office administrator for an information technology and communication design firm in downtown Toronto.

Over the past several years I have made a number of significant contributions to the WTA and to the transhumanist movement in general.

In 2002 I co-founded the Toronto Transhumanist Association. I am currently the President of the TTA, an organization that has turned out to be one of the WTA's most influential, dynamic and socially active chapters.

I am also the Deputy-Editor of Betterhumans, the popular Webzine and editorial production company that openly and progressively deals with issues surrounding human enhancement. My bi-weekly opinion column, Transitory Human, appears on Betterhumans in which I comment on the latest in transhumanist thought and culture, science, technology, philosophy and bioethics.

My articles have been published around the world and translated into several languages. My works have appeared in Transhumanity, The Humanist and even university texts. I am also a regular contributor to two popular transhumanist blogs, Sentient Developments, my personal blog, and Cyborg Democracy, a collaborative blog for leading transhumanist thinkers.

In addition, I am on the Institute for Accelerating Change's Civic, Humanist, and Transhumanist Advisory Board.

I have been a member of the WTA in good standing since 2002. In addition to my work with the TTA, I have contributed to the WTA through my work as a contributing editor for Transhumanity, I helped with the recent WTA FAQ update, and most significantly, I am contributing as Chair of the Organizing Committee for TransVision 2004, the annual WTA conference to be held in Toronto later this summer.

Values and Goals

My primary motivation and concern as a transhumanist involves the promotion and protection of what I consider to be the tripod of human enhancement, namely our procreative, morphological and cognitive liberties. As a transhumanist social activist, I am particularly driven to ensure that these freedoms are respected and upheld. To that end, I have published various opinion editorials and press releases here in Canada commenting on what I see as overly restrictive laws against such things as stem cell research, therapeutic cloning and gender selection. My efforts tend toward real-world concerns that are of direct consequence to humanist and transhumanist values, as well as the non-anthropocentric personhood ethic.

My interest in transhumanism also stems from my convictions as a secular humanist. I am becoming increasingly concerned by the faux bioethics frequently espoused and popularized by the various bio-Luddites and the religious right. Consequently, I have made an extra effort to reach out and offer people alternative and accessible perspectives on science, technology, bioethics and issues of human enhancement.

At the same time I have raised my voice when it has come time for me to be critical of the transhumanist movement itself. In the past I've gone toe-to-toe with a number of transhumanists, questioning what I see as inconsistent, poorly thought out or dangerous perspectives, including such things as overly enthusiastic techno-optimism, utopianism, and varying forms of determinism.

If I am to make any contribution to the WTA, it will be to keep it tempered, focused, stable and rooted firmly in reality. Further, as a member of the WTA Board, it would be my intention to see a concerted effort put into the recent initiatives put forth at the recent WTA Board meeting. It's time to see the WTA evolve to the next level.

Outside of transhumanism my interests include spending time with my kids, Hatha yoga, Vipassana meditation, jogging, secular Buddhism, vegetarianism, music history and criticism, science fictions films, and drinking fine beers.

50th anniversary of Alan Turing's death

It was 50 years ago today that Alan Turing passed away. He is indisputably one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th Century, who's life included such accomplishments as the development of the Church-Turing Thesis and the Turing Test. He is considered the father of the modern computer and cognitive computationalism. He was also the guy who successfully hacked the Nazi's Enigma code during WWII -- one the first ever real-world situations in which a computer was utilized.

For all his successes he led a very tragic life, living at a time when homosexuality was considered both a crime and a mental disorder. At one point he had to take estrogen to curb his libido. He eventually killed himself with an apple laced with cyanide.

The BBC has a good retrospective of his life and accomplishments. Here's a great site dedicated to Alan Turing.

Running for a seat on the WTA Board of Directors

Tomorrow I will be making a formal announcement that I am running for a seat on the World Transhumanist Association's Board of Directors. Look for my candidacy statement to be posted here tomorrow.