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With all the news articles lately on transgenic humans and animals, etc., I decided this topic needed a page of its own. It brings to mind the "Frankenstein monster", who was put together with body parts from this cadaver and that cadaver. At least Frankenstein was not real; these ARE, and it will get more and more REAL as the world moves toward the Rapture of the Church and the coming Tribulation! Love, Peggy.
Artificial Sperm And Eggs To Create Babies Without Natural Parents <- FEATURE!!!
Human eggs and sperm have been grown in the laboratory in research which could change the face of parenthood. It paves the way for a cure for infertility and could help those left sterile by cancer treatment to have children who are biologically their own. But it raises a number of moral and ethical concerns.
Posted 11/2/09Can The Human Mind Be Uploaded For Space Exploration?
The idea of uploading out of these meatsacks has always appealed to certain people, and you can tell an awful lot about them by their use of the phrase "meatsacks." Athena Andreadis recently wrote an article on why we can't be uploaded, explaining how any ghosts in the machine would just be copies. But we ask the more important question: is that a problem? Human consciousness is irrevocably integrated in our organic components.
Posted 11/2/09New Body Worlds Exhibition Opens At Science Centre
The controversial anatomical exhibition known as "Body Worlds: The Original and The Cycle of Life" is in town, and this is the first time the exhibition will be shown in Asia under this theme. The exhibition uses plastinated corpses for its displays, and the human bodies seem to come 'alive' as they engage in activities such as playing basketball and painting – a realism that organisers of the exhibition hope to achieve.
Posted 11/2/09Students Use DNA To Bring New Life To The Classroom... And The World
Creating an original organism required no bolt of lightning for a team of University of Virginia students. But it did take buckets of ice, vials of bacteria and a FedEx delivery. Nestled in the package were bits of DNA, whipped up in California and ordered online.
Posted 11/2/09Unnatural Selection: Evolving, Improving, Implacable Robots
It's official: robotics scientists are now just daring the things to kill us. An Aberdeen University have built a robot programmed to fulfill one objective no matter what, to evolve in order to do so, and to make use of extra materials when they're available. We're assuming the only reason they didn't call it "Terminator" is because they don't have enough to kill all the MGM lawyers. Yet.
Posted 11/2/09Science To 'Stop Age Clock At 50'
Centenarians with the bodies of 50-year-olds will one day be a realistic possibility, say scientists. Half of babies now born in the UK will reach 100, thanks to higher living standards, but our bodies are wearing out at the same rate. To achieve "50 active years after 50", experts at Leeds University are spending £50m over five years looking at innovative solutions. They plan to provide pensioners with own-grown tissues and durable implants. New hips, knees and heart valves are the starting points, but eventually they envisage most of the body parts that flounder with age could be upgraded. The university's Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering has already made a hip transplant that should last for life, rather than the 20 years maximum expected from current artificial hips. The combination of a durable cobalt-chrome metal alloy socket and a ceramic ball or "head" means the joint should easily withstand the 100 million steps that a 50-year-old can be expected to take by their 100th birthday, says investigator Professor John Fisher. Meanwhile, colleague Professor Eileen Ingham and her team have developed a unique way to allow the body to enhance itself. The concept is to make transplantable tissues, and eventually organs, that the body can make its own, getting round the problem of rejection.
Posted 10/22/09DARPA Wants Terminator 2 Technology
Moviegoers were captivated as they watched a metallic assassin morph before their eyes in "Terminator 2." The villain turned to liquid before assuming new forms capable of squeezing through narrow openings and transforming its arms into bladed weapons and solid metal tools. Scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency were wowed too. Now they're working to deliver that same kind of technology to support the good guys: warfighters on the battlefield. Mitchell R. Zakin, program manager for DARPA's Programmable Matter division, said he's convinced the concept depicted for decades in blockbuster movies and comic books has real-life applications. He's leading up the effort to develop "programmable matter," which he calls "the ultimate adaptable material." It will be capable of changing size and shape and taking on new properties for one use, he explained, then adapting to a whole different form for another use. Zakin clarified that he's not out to change warfighters themselves, just the equipment they use, the clothing they wear and the loads they carry. "Warfighters carry an incredible amount of stuff and they don't have any more room to carry more," he said. "Yet they are facing much more complicated battle spaces. They're going into caves and working in cities. They need more sophisticated tools to deal with these environments, yet they can't carry them."
Posted 10/20/09Transhumanism And The Hunger To Become Part Of The Borg Collective
There are many radical leftist and scientific groups that want to re-invent seeds, the earth, genetically alter plants and animals, fire God and transform humans into a new creature of power, influence and perfection. Who needs God they say, we can live forever soon or for hundreds of years, be integrated with software and advanced technology while controlling the world. Transhumanism is a growing, intellectual, philosophical and technological push into human evolution and attempts at perfection, with the end game of control. Nick Bostrom is one of the appointed messiahs behind this group and he is not a bean head sitting in a small cabin in Montana somewhere. He is a respected professor at Oxford University in the school of Philosophy. He has written tons of articles and books on this subject but I will share with you just a few of his ever so enlightened statements: “The enhancement options being discussed includes radical extension of human health-span, eradication of disease, elimination of unnecessary suffering, and augmentation of human intellectual, physical, and emotional capacities.” “Transhumanists view human nature as a work-in-progress, half-baked beginning that we can learn to remold in desirable ways. Current humanity need not be the endpoint of evolution………they hope through the use of technology and science they will survive long enough to become post human…..cryonically suspended then de-animated.”
Posted 10/20/09Transhumanists Philosophize On Altering Humanity
I’ve often said that transhumanism is supported and strengthened by three basic impulses, namely the upholding of our reproductive, morphological and cognitive liberties. Should any one of these be absent, the tripod cannot stand. We transhumanists stand divided on any number of issues; put us in a room together and you’re guaranteed to get an argument. But one aspect that unites virtually all of us is our steadfast commitment to biolibertarianism —the suggestion that people, for the most part, deserve considerable autonomy over their minds, bodies and reproductive processes. Granted, conceptions of what is meant by biolibertarianism varies considerably. I’m sure there are many transhumanists who feel that any state involvement in the development, regulation and implementation of transhumantech is completely unwarranted. But a number of transhumanists, including those of us who are affiliated with the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET), believe there’s more to it than that...
Posted 10/20/09New Stem Cell Research Bill Could Promote Human Cloning Labs
President Barack Obama issued an executive order this year to force taxpayers to fund embryonic stem cell research that destroys human life. Now that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has issued the guidelines to implement that decision, a pro-cloning member of Congress wants to open the door further. Rep. Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat, will soon introduce the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2009. DeGette, as the Washington Post did in a supportive weekend editorial, will likely tout the legislation as a was to codify, or make as permanent law, Obama's decision. That means a future pro-life president would not be able to undo the decision with another executive order. But, DeGette's measure will likely go further and "enhance" or promote human cloning and the destruction of human embryos. DeGette introduced a similar bill earlier this year that would allow NIH to invest in other kinds of research -- perhaps including so-called "therapeutic cloning," which is human cloning done for dubious research purposes. Otherwise known as somatic cell nuclear transfer, it is the kind of human cloning in which scientists purposefully create days-old human embryos -- unique human beings -- for the sole purpose of killing them for research.
Posted 10/15/09On The Path Towards Creating Synthetic Life
“Know thyself”—words of wisdom from the Delphi Oracle in ancient Greece. Over 2,000 years later, few men can boast having followed that timeless advice as literally as Craig Venter. This American scientist has mapped his own genome, or hereditary information in the DNA, and made it available online. He has since been creating life from scratch. Some see in him a menace that must be stopped. Others hail him as a pioneer who could make tremendous contributions to medicine and green energy supplies. Craig Venter is in Geneva to give a talk on synthetic biology—the science of making life—and reporter Lucas Chambers caught up with him yesterday.
Posted 10/14/09Artificial Super-Intelligence On Horizon: Will It Destroy Us For Our Own Good?
The top thinkers in the world of Future Study, Transhumanism and advanced computer programming recently descended upon the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan for the Singularity Conference to discuss all things Artificial Intelligence. The question on everyone's mind was: "Will the Robots Kill us or Not?" Many theories state AI becoming benevolent "higher beings", others cite human programming error as the ultimate reason why AI will destroy us all. My burning question of the day is "Will Artificial Intelligence Be Compassion Machines?" In an ideal scenario a computer could be programmed to exclude the malfunction that allows humans to "short circuit", what Buddhists call "attachment" to selfish action. Getting stuck on ourselves makes us miss the fact that we are a part of a larger web of compounding actions. AI could essentially be programmed to take Interdependence as a given, and never place its own self-preservation above that of others. The flip side to that scenario is that the super smart robot computers may more clearly see the confusion and suffering perpetuated by humans and seek to eliminate us for our own good.
Posted 10/12/09Designer Babies And Consuming Children
On September 18, I attended a debate in which this question is central. The topic: "Designer Babies: The Morality of Pursuing Perfection." Totally creepy, the issue of making of our children in our own image. At this debate in particular, we were faced with genetic technology and its proposed use to determine what and how and who our children will be. The match-up for this event: Wesley Smith, bioethics watchdog and consultant to the CBC, arguing that genetically designing progeny is wrong, and Gregory Stock, PhD, CEO of Signum Biosciences, defending the practice of designing babies. It was a lively debate, on a tough, complex issue. Here I can only offer a brief (and hopefully fair) representation of both views, and then I'll offer some of my own thoughts. Stock, a biophysicist, claims that science is ever-revealing the very substance of humanity (e.g., mapping the human genome). He applauds human rational-technical control of the world, and infers that, as a part of the world, we humans will (and should) turn to ourselves, to recreate humanity, just as we do our environment. We're human, we're technological; it's what we do, it's our destiny...
Posted 10/12/09Singularity Summit 2009: Ten Unanswered Questions For Our Future Robot Overlords
While I undoubtedly learned a lot at the Singularity Summit, the conference's greatest benefit was the questions it didn't answer. Unresolved issues regarding the Singularity have provided a lot of philosophical grist for my admittedly limited intellectual mill, and working through those problems has been as exciting as any talk I saw at the Summit. To wrap up our coverage of the Singularity Summit, I'm going to count down my ten most vexing unanswered questions about Kurzweil's theoretical baby, the eventual merge of human and artificial intelligence, and I am interested to hear any opinions, questions or (hopefully) answers you all have about any or all of these still unexplained facets of our future. During his talk, Ray Kurzweil, the pioneer of the concept of Singularity, referred to intelligence as prediction. It evolved so that humans could look at an animal on the savanna, and guess where it would go next. Clearly, computers have already surpassed us in predicting a wide range of events (chess moves, the weather, economic trends, etc.). Assuming there are different forms of intelligence, how do we know machines won't take on a new one that we won't recognize as intelligence? And if there are different kinds of intelligences, are there different kinds of consciousness, too? Could a machine arrive at a new kind of consciousness that we don't recognize, leading us to miss the Singularity?
Posted 10/9/09Opposition to Therapeutic Cloning About Ethics, Not Religion
The Brave New World crowd and the media continually pretend that the only objections to scientific projects such as human cloning are religiously based. The latest example is in a profile of the new head of the NIH, Francis Collins, an evangelical Christian, in the New York Times. From the story: "Dr. Irving L. Weissman, director of the Stanford Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, said he was nervous about the appointment until Dr. Collins promised in a phone call not to let faith interfere with scientific judgment. But Dr. Weissman said that when therapeutic cloning proved successful, as he predicted it would, Dr. Collins would face a conflict between his job and his faith. “There will be a moment of truth for Dr. Collins,” Dr. Weissman said. In a recent interview over French toast at a diner near the agency’s sprawling campus here, Dr. Collins rejected any notion that faith and science conflicted in substantial ways. Indeed, he said, science illuminates the work and language of God. And he pointed out that he wrote in his book about God that he supports therapeutic cloning. When his book on personalized medicine comes out early next year, he hopes to move the conversation about his writings back to science." I certainly agree that religion and science are not incompatible, although some scientists are certainly at war with religion. But that is beside the point.
Posted 10/8/09Quickly Approaching Transhuman Distopia
Gyger agrees that, nonetheless, dark times call for utopian thought. "There's a strong need for this today. One of the most intriguing utopias right now is that of the permanent environment. There are also techno-utopias and something called the transhumanism movement which is occupied with cyborgs. And the vision which sees human beings achieving a very high technological level is also a kind of utopia." What are some current subjects in the field? "In the past, science fiction explored the physical spaces around us. Jules Verne, for example, was occupied with the bottom of the sea, the air, and outer space. The golden age of science fiction took these ideas from Verne and went further with them. There was a tendency to move outward from ourselves, toward our environment. Looking inward started in the 60s and 70s with artificial worlds and virtual spaces. I think we are still trying to explore our mental worlds: how we change, and how we feel with regard to technology. We live in a highly technological world."
Posted 10/7/09Transgender, Transhuman, Transbeman: Uploading With Martine Rothblatt
If anyone is going to persuade us to abandon the flesh, be downloaded, and live forever as information, it is Martine Rothblatt. A satellite scientist of distinction (she started GeoStar and Sirius Satellite Radio), who succeeded in saving the life of the child of her and her partner by throwing money at research, and saved scores of other children by doing so, she decided a few years ago that the next thing to conquer was death itself... Some of the first advocates of uploading thought in terms of replacing one’s flesh body with a machine. Rothblatt sees a more fluid relationship — evolving a visionary idea she calls “transbemanism.” She describes it as “a philosophy that supports transitioning to a view of ourselves as unique patterns of thoughts (bemes), rather than as bodies per se, and consequently accepting of a ‘one mind, many instantiations’ society.”... Some in transhumanist circles have suggested that the future is postgender. Should the future be discussed in terms of transgender or postgender or both? Rothblatt responds: “I think the future should be discussed in terms of transgender, not post gender, because we are not abandoning gender. Indeed, gender is one of the coolest avenues for human expression. Transgendered people have too much gender for the sexual dimorphic paradigm of male or female. In the future, everyone will explore the countless gender possibilities along the male-female continuum.”
Posted 10/7/09Transhumanists Celebrate Vulcan Science And The Woman Without A Pulse
The Woman Without A Pulse isn't a trashy zombie movie or a cut Star Trek episode, but instead a new kind of cyborg with a totally mechanical heart which fundamentally alters the human design. Which still sounds like a movie, but at least it's science-fiction instead of horror. Madam Salina Mohamed So'ot received a total artificial heart to replace her own ailing organ which was undergoing end-stage failure. Which is bad. The interesting aspect is that her new heart doesn't mimic the mammalian model but instead uses centrifugal forces to continually pump blood around her body, meaning she doesn't have a pulse (and might want to get a medalert bracelet which just says "Check for breathing, doctor! Don't give up!") The new pulse-free pump is extremely exciting for the futurists, transhumanist, and anyone else interested in improving on the human design.
Posted 10/7/09Calling All Transhumanists
Technology futurists love to talk about the Singularity as the point in time when technology starts to progress so rapidly that machine intelligence melds with and surpasses human intelligence. It is to futurists what the Rapture is to fundamentalist Christians. Those who welcome or fear this eventuality are gathering this weekend in New York City for the fourth annual Singularity Summit. Speaking at the summit are some of the better-known tech soothsayers, including author and programmer Ray Kurzweil; Steve Wolfram, the founder of the novel search engine Alpha; and Aubrey de Grey, an expert on anti-aging science. Also giving talks are Australian philosopher David Chalmers, whose idea inspired the Matrix film series, and Pay-Pal co-founder Peter Thiel, who has donated in the six figures to the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, the organization putting on the event. Last year, the summit drew 1,000 curious academics and entrepreneurs in San Jose, Calif.
Posted 10/6/09Genetic Manipulation Is Path To Eternal Life Say Scientists
The fountain of youth may exist after all, as a study showed that scientists have discovered means to extend the lifespan of mice and primates. The key to eternal — or at least prolonged — youth lies in genetic manipulation that mimics the health benefits of reducing calorie intake, suggesting that aging and age-related diseases can be treated. Scientists from the Institute of Healthy Ageing at University College London (UCL) extended the lifespan of mice by up to a fifth and reduced the number of age-related diseases affecting the animals after they genetically manipulated them to block production of the S6 Kinase 1 (S6K1) protein. Scientists have shown since the 1930s that reducing the calorie intake by 30 percent for rats, mice and — in a more recent finding — primates can extend their lifespan by 40 percent and have health benefits. By blocking S6K1, which is involved in the body's response to changes in food intake, similar benefits were obtained without reducing food intake, according to the study published in the US journal Science. The results corroborated those of other recent studies. "Blocking the action of the S6K1 protein helps prevent a number of age-related conditions in female mice," explained UCL professor Dominic Withers, the study's lead author.
Posted 10/5/09Artificial Intelligence "Adam" Robot Achieves Scientific First. "Eve" Is Even Better Designed
A laboratory robot called Adam has been hailed as the first machine in history to have discovered new scientific knowledge independently of its human creators. Adam formed a hypothesis on the genetics of bakers’ yeast and carried out experiments to test its predictions, without intervention from its makers at Aberystwyth University. The result was a series of “simple but useful” discoveries, confirmed by human scientists, about the gene coding for yeast enzymes. The research is published in the journal Science. Professor Ross King, the chief creator of Adam, said robots would not supplant human researchers but make their work more productive and interesting. “Ultimately we hope to have teams of human and robot scientists working together in laboratories,” he said. Adam is the result of a five-year collaboration between computer scientists and biologists at Aberystwyth and Cambridge universities. The researchers endowed Adam with a huge database of yeast biology, automated hardware to carry out experiments, supplies of yeast cells and lab chemicals, and powerful artificial intelligence software. Although they did not intervene directly in Adam’s experiments, they did stand by to fix technical glitches, add chemicals and remove waste. The team has just completed a successor robot called Eve, which is about to work with Adam on a series of experiments designed to find new drugs to treat tropical diseases such as malaria and schistosomiasis. “Adam is a prototype,” says Prof King. “Eve is better designed and more elegant.”
Posted 9/23/09Machines Could Match Human Intelligence
Will machines ever be as smart as humans? Intel CTO Justin Rattner thinks that someday, they might. The notion of a technological “singularity,” a time when machines match and surpass human intellect, has been popularized by thinkers such as inventor and author Raymond Kurzweil, who commonly cites Moore’s Law in his arguments about the exponential growth of technology. Rattner’s views on the singularity are sought after, given that he is CTO of the world’s biggest chipmaker and the head of Intel Labs, the company’s primary research arm. In a recent interview with Network World, Rattner said he has “tried to sidestep the question of when [the singularity] might occur,” but says machine intelligence is constantly increasing due to laws of accelerating returns, “of which Moore’s Law is perhaps the best example.”
Posted 9/23/09Flashback: Wired Magazine Censors Tom Horn Comments Over Transgenic Human/Animals Concerns
Two weeks ago a writer for Wired Magazine, Elizabeth Svoboda contacted me to let me know she was writing an article "about research advances using transgenic animals to produce pharmaceutical compounds." She had come across an editorial by me raising caution about this kind of experimentation, and wondered if I might be willing to provide points for her article, elaborating areas where I saw producing transgenic animals as potentially harmful. She stated that most of the scientists she planned to quote were "pretty gung-ho about the practice," and thought it would be important to provide some balance. I thanked her for the invitation, and sent a short summary of some, though not all, of the areas where concerns about this science could be raised. When the article was published by Wired last week, I was surprised that none of my notes had made it into the story. When I contacted Elizabeth and asked why, she said, "Unfortunately, my editors cut your quotes (originally included in "Pharm Animals Crank Out Drugs") during the editing process." She apologized and said she hoped the experience had not soured me on dealing with Wired Magazine. "It doesn't sour me," I assured her. "I just think the reporting by most agencies is lopsided and missing the opportunity to thoroughly engage such an important issue."
Posted 9/22/09Genetic Seamstress Uses Molecular Fingers To Tweak DNA
The genetic equivalent of a tailor who uses molecular "fingers" to grab onto DNA, before snipping it apart and stitching in a new sequence could lead to safer gene therapies. In principle, genetic engineering is simple, but inserting a new gene into the right place in an organism's genome is fraught with difficulty. For example, in a gene therapy trial for X-SCID - or "bubble-boy" disease - inserting a gene in the wrong place triggered cancer in some of the recipients. One approach for locating and snipping DNA strands involves "zinc fingers" - proteins that bind to DNA and can be linked together to recognise extended stretches of DNA with very high specificity. Zinc fingers are usually attached to enzymes called nucleases, dubbed ZFNs, which cut both strands of DNA.
Posted 9/22/09New (Old) Watchers Want New (Old) Life Forms
Keasling and a rapidly growing number of colleagues around the world have something radical in mind. By using gene-sequence information and synthetic DNA, they are attempting to reconfigure the metabolic pathways of cells to perform entirely new functions. Eventually, they intend to construct genes—and new forms of life—from scratch. Keasling and others are putting together a kind of foundry of biological components—BioBricks, as Tom Knight, a senior research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who helped invent the field, has named them. Each BioBrick part, made of standardized pieces of DNA, can be used interchangeably to create and modify living cells. “When your hard drive dies, you can go to the nearest computer store, buy a new one, and swap it out,” Keasling said. “That’s because it’s a standard part in a machine. The entire electronics industry is based on a plug-and-play mentality. Get a transistor, plug it in, and off you go. What works in one cell phone or laptop should work in another. That is true for almost everything we build: when you go to Home Depot, you don’t think about the thread size on the bolts you buy, because they’re all made to the same standard. Why shouldn’t we use biological parts in the same way.
Posted 9/22/09Wired Mag Joins Gregg Easterbrook To Sell Human Cloning
Human clones, it is widely assumed, would be monstrous perversions of nature. Yet chances are, you already know one. Indeed, you may know several and even have dated a clone. They walk among us in the form of identical twins: people who share exact sets of DNA. Such twins almost always look alike and often have similar quirks. But their minds, experiences, and personalities are different, and no one supposes they are less than fully human. And if identical twins are fully human, wouldn't cloned people be as well? Suppose scientists could create a clone from an adult human: It would probably be more distinct from its predecessor than most identical twins are from each other. A clone from a grown-up would have the same DNA but would come into the world as a gurgling baby, not an instant adult, as in sci-fi. The clone would go through childhood and adolescence with the same life-shaping unpredictability as any kid. The eminent University of Chicago ethicist Leon Kass has argued that human cloning would be offensive in part because the clone would "not be fully a surprise to the world." True, but what child is? Almost all share physical traits and mannerisms with their parents. By having different experiences than their parents (er, parent) and developing their own personalities, clones would become distinct individuals with the same originality and dignity as identical twins—or anyone else.
Posted 9/22/09