Links for 2021-12-20
A deep dive into an NSO zero-click iMessage exploit: “JBIG2 doesn't have scripting capabilities, but when combined with a vulnerability, it does have the ability to emulate circuits of arbitrary logic gates operating on arbitrary memory. So why not just use that to build your own computer architecture and script that!? That's exactly what this exploit does. Using over 70,000 segment commands defining logical bit operations, they define a small computer architecture with features such as registers and a full 64-bit adder and comparator which they use to search memory and perform arithmetic operations. (...) It's pretty incredible, and at the same time, pretty terrifying.” https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2021/12/a-deep-dive-into-nso-zero-click.html
Human brain cells in a dish learn to play Pong faster than an AI: Hundreds of thousands of brain cells in a dish are being taught to play Pong by responding to pulses of electricity – and can improve their performance more quickly than an AI can https://www.newscientist.com/article/2301500-human-brain-cells-in-a-dish-learn-to-play-pong-faster-than-an-ai/
Antiaging diets: Separating fact from fiction https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abe7365#T1
An analysis of different corpora shows that there has been a marked shift in public interest from the collective to the individual, and from rationality toward emotion https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2021/12/the-rise-and-decline-of-thinking-over-feeling.html [Regarding a collectivistic vs. individualistic focus: Many heads are more utilitarian than one: collective consensual judgments made via group interactions were more utilitarian than individual judgments. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0010027721003887]
Rebalancing the unbalanced aged immune system - a special focus on zinc https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1568163721002889?dgcid=rss_sd_all
"Contrary to previous research, we find no health impact when TV consumption increases. For life satisfaction, we even find positive effects." http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14721&r=&r=exp
Discovery of 'split' photon provides a new way to see light https://phys.org/news/2021-12-discovery-photon.html
"We review empirical evidence and conclude that the size of [working memory] in chimpanzees is 2 ± 1 versus Miller's famous 7 ± 2 in humans... Regardless of the domain, chimpanzee WM performance is comparable to that of humans around the age of 4 or 5." https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763421005674
Tengchong Observation Tower, China by Delugan Meissl Associated Architects [interesting architecture] https://amazingarchitecture.com/skyscrapers/tengchong-observation-tower-china-by-delugan-meissl-associated-architects-dmaa
How the Native American population in the US increased 87% says more about whiteness than about demographics: "In my interviews with race shifters, for example, they frequently associated their former whiteness with racial and cultural emptiness. ... They also associated whiteness with social isolation, unearned privilege and guilt over colonialism and slavery." https://theconversation.com/how-the-native-american-population-in-the-us-increased-87-says-more-about-whiteness-than-about-demographics-170920
It might surprise you to learn that I have, in principle, no problem with a lot of what's cherished on the political left.
I support veganism. I have no problem with transsexuality. Indeed, as a transhumanist, I believe in bodily autonomy, including abortion. I think climate change should be taken seriously. And I just got vaccinated a third time.
The BIG difference between me and the regressive left is that my approach to these topics is technological in nature and free of coercion:
- I don't want to prevent people from eating meat by making it expensive or socially taboo. I want veganism to win by creating artificial meat alternatives that are cheaper and on a molecular level indistinguishable from real meat.
- I don't want to dismantle capitalism in order to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases. I want to build next-generation nuclear power and geothermal energy plants all around the world so that the economy can continue to grow and lift everyone out of poverty.
- I am against compulsory vaccination. I want to remove bureaucratic hurdles and build the ability to quickly deploy variant-specific boosters and approve drugs that prevent hospitalization and death so that those willing to take them can protect themselves.
- I don't want to undermine language and biology in order to make a small group of people feel a little bit better. I want to make sex reassignment therapies so cheap, easy, and perfect that third parties will be unable to tell what sex someone had at birth.
Social engineering and coercion is a terribly ineffective and divisive approach to any of these topics. And that is why I believe it to be necessary to oppose the regressive left. Their approach is antimeritocratic, dysgenic, and dysfunctional.
Here are some examples of how the regressive left tries to solve problems:
1. Opposition to standardized testing; diversity quotas (antimeritocratic).
2. Blank slatism; unrestricted mass immigration; creating a positive correlation between the social standing someone has and how much of a victim they are (dysgenic).
3. Defunding and restraining the police; dismantling capitalism to save the environment; demanding absurd standards such as equity that require the forcible expropriation of wealth (dysfunctional).
All of these policies are disastrous for society. Their effects are MUCH worse than the problems they attempt to solve.
So when activists try to gaslight society with terms like 'birthing person' and make the use of "wrong" pronouns a hate crime then I will oppose and ridicule them in the same way that I oppose and ridicule the extremists working for PETA, even though I am myself a vegetarian who cares about animal rights. I am not in fundamental opposition to these causes; I am in fundamental opposition to the way the regressive left approaches these causes.