No evidence for general intelligence in a fish: "results provide a first indication that endotherm and ectotherm vertebrates may process cognitive tasks in fundamentally different ways due to differences in brain organisation" https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/eth.13275?campaign=woletoc
New Brain Maps Can Predict Behaviors: “Rapid advances in large-scale connectomics are beginning to spotlight the importance of individual variations in the neural circuitry. They also highlight the limitations of “wiring diagrams” alone.” [published in 2021] https://www.quantamagazine.org/new-brain-maps-can-predict-behaviors-20211206/
Alignment and Deep Learning: “There is, however, a potential way to apply deep learning to value alignment: train agents on predicting each other's values.” https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/KvHCboMeNBEcZrdaw/alignment-and-deep-learning
This talk discusses the connections between thermodynamics and machine learning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5E91rsiKU0
Scott Morrison says Chinese military base in Solomon Islands would be 'red line' for Australia, US https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-24/scott-morrison-china-naval-base-solomon-islands-red-line/101011710
Israel Has Shot Down Drones With An Airborne High-Power Laser https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/41192/israel-has-shot-down-drones-with-an-airborne-high-power-laser
“Among women in the midlife in recent years, lower levels of state structural sexism were associated with greater alcohol consumption and binge drinking.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277953622002829
Apple ($AAPL) has completely transformed its business around custom chips. (wsj.com) https://archive.ph/Ru9Ni
Finding Moons’ Hidden Oceans with Induced Magnetic Fields https://eos.org/research-spotlights/finding-moons-hidden-oceans-with-induced-magnetic-fields
The Case for American Seriousness: “We don't need aging institutions to pave the way for 21st-century dynamism. What we need is will. And audacity.” https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/the-case-for-american-seriousness?s=r
How the gut talks to the brain. https://mindblog.dericbownds.net/2022/04/how-gut-talks-to-brain.html
Groundbreaking Study Confirms Pterosaurs Really Did Have Feathers – And That's Not All https://www.sciencealert.com/groundbreaking-study-confirms-pterosaurs-had-feathers-with-a-colorful-secret
Controlling How Fast Graphene Cools for an Unprecedented Level of Control of Optical Properties https://scitechdaily.com/controlling-how-fast-graphene-cools-for-an-unprecedented-level-of-control-of-optical-properties/
Creating Deepest Hole on Earth For Geothermal Energy Revolution https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF5cfhOx2ww&t=1s
The closure of a Michigan nuclear plant 10-years before its operating license expires will remove more carbon free energy from the state than all operating wind mills. https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/599132-if-governors-cared-about-the-climate-they-wouldnt-oppose-nuclear/
I believe we need to take the fate of humanity into our own hands rather than continue to play the genetic lottery. Our children deserve to receive the best opportunities we can give them rather than a roll of the genetic dice.
It is time to face up to the responsibilities that accompany our reproductive choices. We should not stand in the way of technological progress that could potentially make the next generation healthier, happier, and smarter.
We need to wrest control of our genetic destiny from the uncaring claws of nature and shape our future according to our values.
The knee-jerk reaction is to call this attitude eugenics and to conjure the specter of fascism. But there is a big difference between desiring a counterfactual world in which someone would have not existed and desiring that someone does not exist.
Desiring a world without congenital heart disease is not the same as hating people with that disease.
If your parents would have had access to advance reproductive and gene-editing technologies then you and I might not exist. A smarter, more healthy person, with better opportunities, would exist in our place. This person isn't bothered by their nonexistence. Neither would we be.
Ironically, the same people who believe this attitude to be evil want to take away your liberty to decide which traits your children should have and make you accept whatever fate the uncaring forces of nature have in store for them.
P.S. Here is a good overview of one technique we could use: https://www.gwern.net/Embryo-selection
See also: Risk reduction from embryo selection is NOT modest: ~50% risk reduction for schizophrenia from selecting the lowest risk embryo from a set of 5; 9-18% relative risk reduction (RRR) of hypertension and an absolute risk reduction (ARR) of 4-8.5%; 7-16% RRR of type 2 diabetes (ARR: 2.6-5.5%); 8-17% RRR for coronary artery disease (ARR: 0.55-1.1%). https://infoproc.blogspot.com/2021/10/embryo-screening-and-risk-calculus.html
Fully agreed on genetic editing/selection, well said. I'm not convinced we're nearly mature enough to deal with that and the potential consequences of these technologies however. Though turning that around, we've not been mature enough to deal with most powerful tech we've invented in the last 100 or so years and we're still here not doing too shabby.. so..
This was a particularly great post. Thank's Alex.