Links for 2022-06-27
"AI Makes Strides in Virtual Worlds More Like Our Own: Intelligent beings learn by interacting with the world. Artificial intelligence researchers have adopted a similar strategy to teach their virtual agents new skills" (learning in simulations) https://www.quantamagazine.org/ai-makes-strides-in-virtual-worlds-more-like-our-own-20220624/
A cautionary tale: the experts were wrong again - ‘How an Alzheimer’s ‘cabal’ thwarted progress toward a cure’ https://www.statnews.com/2019/06/25/alzheimers-cabal-thwarted-progress-toward-cure/
America’s first CRISPR trial is still nearly 100% effective 3 years on https://newatlas.com/health-wellbeing/crispr-vertex-long-term-follow-up-gene-editing-sickle-cell/
The Homunculus Problem: “The homunculus fallacy is a terrible picture of the brain (or machine learning models), yet, any talk of subjective experience (including phenomena such as visual illusions) falls into the fallacious pattern of "experience" vs "the experiencer".” https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/GBXKZujXSZe84aAL9/the-homunculus-problem
Computer hardware mimics brain functions: New microelectronics device can program and reprogram computer hardware on demand through electrical pulses. https://www.anl.gov/article/computer-hardware-mimics-brain-functions-0
“Cannabis makes us nicer. Cannabis usage is associated with an increased sense of prosociality and prioritization of humanitarian behaviors that declines with time following cannabis consumption.” (Cohen's d 0.76 for harmlessness, 0.5 fairness, 0.34 prosocial behavior) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-12202-8
Kuo: Apple’s AR Headset Will Be Its ‘Most Complicated Product’ Ever—And It’s Coming Soon https://gizmodo.com/apple-ar-mr-vr-headset-release-date-2023-kuo-analyst-re-1849104690
“Our most detailed observations of the distant universe, from the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field, gave us an estimate of 170 billion galaxies. A theoretical calculation from a few years ago—the first to account for galaxies too small, faint, and distant to be seen—put the estimate far higher: at 2 trillion. But even that estimate is too low. There ought to be at least 6 trillion, and perhaps more like 20 trillion, galaxies, if we’re ever able to count them all.” https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/galaxies-in-universe/
Nancy Pelosi’s PAC is actively boosting a far-right election denier: “...two Democratic groups, House Majority PAC and 314 Action, are each spending $46,000 on TV ads designed to make sure that Republicans nominate far-right Weld County Commissioner Lori Saine rather than state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer on June 28. HMP's commercial tries to make Kirkmeyer unappealing to conservatives by decrying how she "refused to publicly support Trump" in 2016 and "even refused to support Trump's audit of the election" four years later.” https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/6/17/2104588/-Morning-Digest-Ex-congresswoman-launches-surprise-comeback-bid-after-guilty-plea-on-tax-fraud