Using a modular construction kit of tailor-made cell systems, the researchers hope to simulate various properties of biological systems in the future. The idea is that cells react to their environment and learn to act independently.
The first applications are already on the horizon: In the long term, artificial cell assemblies can be deployed as mini-factories to produce specific biomolecules, or as tiny micro-robot sensors that process information and adapt to their environments.
Biological life extension may hit limits. “Clearly, there are biological reasons for each species’ average lifespan, so why would anyone think that people could live for much longer than we do now?” Perhaps new breakthroughs will nudge lifespans upwards, but maybe these scientists are correct. This is why I still work on artificial death (non biological uploading to MVT awareness engines). Even if average ages go up many folks will still become terminally ill, and apart from MVT artificial death (second best to life) they will only have expensive cryogenics or doubtful religious faith as alternatives.
The average age of people over 110 has not increased for nearly 50 years.
Posted in biological, mathematics, robotics/AI | Leave a Comment on The Independent Core Observer Model Computational Theory of Consciousness and the Mathematical model for Subjective Experience
Graeme Ross: “Once again the over-riding need to measure the immeasurable raises it‘s ugly head. Statistics are proof of ignorance. Numbers are not knowledge. It has been mooted that we are a mental construct that incorporates multiple persona in our subconscious and semi-conscious mind. Find the theory for yourself. I wont quote what you can find yourselves. If we are a construct, ever-changing, ever-evolving in complexity and moment-to-moment inner focus, and if, as it has been mooted, we have constant and endless conversation with these ever-changing inner mental persona, then it follows that without capturing that process in mid-flight (as it were) we can‘t deduce the reasoning that results from these conversations. Therefore we are not able to quantify these processes in any way at all. It is ephemeral. Thought takes place in the interval between knowing and asking. Trying to build a machine that will think would take far more resources than mankind will ever possess.”
Abstract: This paper outlines the Independent Core Observer Model (ICOM) Theory of Consciousness defined as a computational model of consciousness that is objectively measurable and an abstraction produced by a mathematical model where the subjective experience of the system is only subjective from the point of view of the abstracted logical core or conscious part of the system where it is modeled in the core of the system objectively. Given the lack of agreed-upon definitions around consciousness theory, this paper sets precise definitions designed to act as a foundation or baseline for additional theoretical and real-world research in ICOM based AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) systems that can have qualia measured objectively.
Published via Conference/Review Board: ICIST 2018 – International Conference on Information Science and Technology – China – April 20-22nd. (IEEE conference) [release pending] and https://www.itm-conferences.org/
Introduction The Independent Core Observer Model Theory of Consciousness is partially built on the Computational Theory of Mind (Rescorla 2016) where one of the core issues with research into artificial general intelligence (AGI) is the absence of objective measurements and data as they are ambiguous given the lack of agreed-upon objective measures of consciousness (Seth 2007). To continue serious work in the field we need to be able to measure consciousness in a consistent way that is not presupposing different theories of the nature of consciousness (Dienes and Seth 2012) and further not dependent on various ways of measuring biological systems (Dienes and Seth 2010) but focused on the elements of a conscious mind in the abstract. With the more nebulous Computational Theory of Mind, research into the human brain does show some underlying evidence.
The bacteria in your gut may offer an accurate way to measure your biological age, according to a new study.
The microbiome
In recent years, it has become increasingly apparent that the communities of bacteria, fungi, and other microbes living in our gut, known as the microbiome, are likely involved in aging, particularly the chronic age-related inflammation that accompanies it.
2019 will be the year in which we discover molecules and properties that are as yet unknown to humans. The breadth of biology and the enormous flexibility of genetic material will provide us with an ideal platform to explore an effectively unlimited number of molecules for novel materials and solutions. We will ultimately leave behind hydrocarbons and truly enter the biological age.
Joshua Hoffman is cofounder and CEO of Zymergen
– Meet the companies fixing depression by stimulating neurons.
I’m excited to share my new article from Quartz on how science will make it safer and easier for a 50-year-old woman to have a child in 2028 than a 25-year-old woman today. #IVG and #DelayedFertilityAdvantage are game changers.
Women’s biological clocks drive human conception—and, in turn, human history.
Biology’s inflexible window of female fertility is generally agreed to be between the ages 18 and 35. Any older, and the risk of miscarrying, not getting pregnant at all, or bearing unhealthy children skyrockets. When the average lifespan for a woman in the Western world now hovers at around 80 years old, this means that less than 25% of her life can be spent easily (and safely) procreating.
Men have the luxury of being able sow their seed for most of their lives with few health ramifications (which is why someone like 72-year-old US president Donald Trump has a 12-year-old child). By comparison, the average woman will only ovulate 300 to 400 eggs in her lifetime, which means she only has the same amount of menstrual cycles to ever pursue procreation.
This seemingly unfair accident of human biology is all about to change, thanks to transhumanist science. Genetic editing combined with stem-cell technology will likely make it safer for a 50-year-old woman to have a baby in 2028 than for a 25-year-old woman in 2018. In two decades’ time, healthy 75-year-old women could be starting new families once more.
Living in extreme conditions requires creative adaptations. For certain species of bacteria that exist in oxygen-deprived environments, this means finding a way to breathe that doesn’t involve oxygen. These hardy microbes, which can be found deep within mines, at the bottom of lakes, and even in the human gut, have evolved a unique form of breathing that involves excreting and pumping out electrons. In other words, these microbes can actually produce electricity.
Scientists and engineers are exploring ways to harness these microbial power plants to run fuel cells and purify sewage water, among other uses. But pinning down a microbe’s electrical properties has been a challenge: The cells are much smaller than mammalian cells and extremely difficult to grow in laboratory conditions.
Now MIT engineers have developed a microfluidic technique that can quickly process small samples of bacteria and gauge a specific property that’s highly correlated with bacteria’s ability to produce electricity. They say that this property, known as polarizability, can be used to assess a bacteria’s electrochemical activity in a safer, more efficient manner compared to current techniques.
This new study, led by the MRC’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, used microscopic imaging to observe the detailed internal molecular clock timing of the astrocytes and neurons of the SCN. Surprisingly, this showed that although both types of cell have their own circadian clocks, they are differently regulated and were seen to be active at different times of the day. This delicate interplay was found to be critical in keeping the entire SCN clockwork ticking.
A new study has found that astrocytes, previously thought of as just supporting neurons in regulating circadian rhythms, can actually lead the tempo of the body’s internal clock and have been shown for the first time to be able to control patterns of daily behavior in mammals.
