Links for 2021-11-11
"Study finds a striking difference between neurons of humans and other mammals: Human neurons have fewer ion channels, which might have allowed the human brain to divert energy to other neural processes." https://news.mit.edu/2021/neurons-humans-mammals-1110
"Would you donate to a charity that won’t pay out for centuries? A new philanthropic initiative Patient Philanthropy Fund (PPF) aims to act as an insurance policy for humanity’s future" https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2021/11/3/22760718/patient-philanthropy-fund-charity-longtermism
“The possibility of a profoundly, unimaginably good future is, modulo certain exotic scenarios, just a basic fact, a feature of our actual situation that we need to act in light of.” — Joseph Carlsmith https://handsandcities.com/2021/01/18/actually-possible-thoughts-on-utopia/
How weird or alien may "ultimate moral truths" be? Alienation and meta-ethics (or: is it possible you should maximize helium?) https://handsandcities.com/2020/12/20/alienation-and-meta-ethics-or-is-it-possible-you-should-maximize-helium/
Neocortical layer 1—the memory layer? Accumulating evidence in rodents suggests that the outermost layer of the brain might be a key site for long-term plasticity and learning. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abk1859
Bryan Johnson is going all out to reduce his biological age and sharing his data and protocols publicly. https://blueprint.bryanjohnson.co
“The best lecture on AI-powered drug discovery by a recent Nobel Laureate in Chemistry with a smooth explanation of how aging research can be used for target discovery for a major disease.” https://www.linkedin.com/posts/zhavoronkov_drugdiscovery-chemistry-deeplearning-activity-6861623540119154689-IduQ/
Great-Filter Hard-Step Math, Explained Intuitively https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/JdjxcmwM84vqpGHhn/great-filter-hard-step-math-explained-intuitively
The Ups and Downs of the Hope Function In a Fruitless Search: “On Bayesian updating of beliefs in sequentially searching a set of possibilities where failure is possible, such as waiting for a bus; the psychologically counterintuitive implication is that success on the next search increases even as the total probability of success decreases.” https://www.gwern.net/docs/statistics/bayes/1994-falk
Machine Learning, Deep Fakes, and the Threat of an Artificially Intelligent Hate-Bot https://quillette.com/2021/11/04/machine-learning-deep-fakes-and-the-threat-of-an-artificially-intelligent-hate-bot/
Did you know that deaths from climate-related disasters like floods, hurricanes, fires and droughts have declined by 96 percent over the past century—even as the global population quadrupled? https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/11/02/climate-change-is-not-an-existential-threat/
Genomes contain relics of a triplet code connecting the origins of primordial RNA synthesis to the origins of genetically coded protein synthesis https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.03.467149v1
Intersexual and intrasexual selection for neck musculature in men: "...larger neck musculature in professional combatants (N = 715) was associated with greater real-world fighting success...the human neck is the most sexually dimorphic feature of human anatomy when compared to 91 other anatomical features (N = 6,068; Study 2)...men (N = 564 stimuli) with larger neck musculature...are rated (N = 772 raters) as stronger, more masculine, and higher in fighting ability and short-term attractiveness..." https://psyarxiv.com/yez3t/
“To guarantee France’s energy independence and achieve our objectives, in particular carbon neutrality in 2050, we will for the first time in decades relaunch the construction of nuclear reactors in our country.” — French President Emmanuel Macron https://www.thelocal.fr/20211109/france-to-relaunch-construction-of-nuclear-reactors-macron-announces/
“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the UK to deploy more low carbon energy than ever before and ensure greater energy independence.” — UK Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng on committing £210 million to develop small modular reactors https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-backs-new-small-nuclear-technology-with-210-million