Comments on: Going, Going, Gone… Part 3

By: “Rising Plague” « Entitled to an Opinion

“Rising Plague” « Entitled to an Opinion — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 06:08:04 +0000

[...] notes that there has been much more success treating that than bacteria. This is in accordance with Mike Darwin’s account of the early “AIDS underground”, which almost seems to have been written to illustrate Sailer’s Mancur Olson-esque point [...]

By: Abigail Hesterly

Abigail Hesterly — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:50:53 +0000

Thanks for good info :)

By: TGGP

TGGP — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:34:13 +0000

That wouldn’t still be a secret now, would it? I would have expected a decent number to have died of AIDS and had that become public knowledge.

By: admin

admin — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 01:54:02 +0000

This is the end of of the missing sentence: (if for no other reason than that others will do that work and do it better). I will correct it in the post. — Mike Darwin

By: admin

admin — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 21:43:23 +0000

Thanks, I’ll see if I can find and fix it. — Mike Darwin

By: admin

admin — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 21:42:49 +0000

Yes and no. I think that’s generally true of smaller, territorial issues. When I was a teenager I actively lobbied for the creation of the National Institutes of Aging. I met with both of my Reps in Indiana and I found they had a good understanding of the demographic problem that an aging and much longer lived population presented. While they both had reservations about the money a NIA would cost, and whether it would really be effective, I had no doubt that if they believed that it would work, they would have voted for it. (They may have anyway.) Today, the situation is absolutely critical and this not hyperbole. We are spending 12% of our GPD on healthcare and that will explode to over 20% in less than a decade! That isn’t sustainable. Everyone knows this. Everyone with half a brain – including at least a slim majority of Congress. If you credibly lay a program before them that would vastly extend healthy productive lifespan – even absent rejuvenation – most would bite. This is the case because it would mean that the young people today could work far longer and pay off the cost of sending their parents and grandparents to the grave.absent euthanasia or neglect and with some measure of dignity. Unfortunately, no such assurances can be given and no such program exists. — Mike Darwin

By: gwern

gwern — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 19:14:45 +0000

> Project 2010b is Big Medicine, disease-specific research that, at least in my opinion, is one of the last places cryonicists, and others who are trying to stay alive and cognitively healthy now, should put their time, their effort, or their money into (if for no

Cut off.

By: Abelard Lindsey

Abelard Lindsey — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 17:00:08 +0000

I can venture a guess. Government is a bureaucracy. The last thing bureaucrats want is to have all of the problems solved. This eliminates the need for the bureaucracy and that is the last thing that they want.

By: Abelard Lindsey

Abelard Lindsey — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:47:23 +0000

Functional MRI scanners are being developed and, yes, they will be a game changer in crime investigation. There are “activitists” who claim that fMRI represents “cruel and unusual punishment” and is analogous to torture. However, I do not see this point at all. The process involves no pain and suffering on the part of the subject and is no different in this regard than a polygraph.

I’ve been saying this every chance I get on the blogosphere for nearly a decade. I always get ditsy responses like “it will cost too much”, “it disrupts family life”, “generational cycles” or other such crappola. I think a lot of peoples’ brains just don’t work properly.

As to the idea of true web security/privacy, I’m aching to know how that might be practically possible.

I don’t think there is. My attitude is that you simply do not put details of your private life on the net (e.g. social networking sites) where it will be publicly cast in concrete for next to eternity.

By: admin

admin — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 08:00:13 +0000

It seems an all but completely forgotten epoch. As far as I know , Paul Sergios’ book is the only one written on the subject. Almost all of those who were intimately involved are dead (or in a case or two, cryopreserved). That’s unfortunate, because I believe it is a useful example of what is possible.

I’ve never understood the rationale for why governments would be antipathetic to life extension drugs. The only thing that will bail out the West economically is for just such drugs to materialize, and now! As to the idea of true web security/privacy, I’m aching to know how that might be practically possible. There are two kinds of secrets: those that need to be kept for a short while (months to a decade) and those that need to be kept for a long while (decades to a century or more). The rate at which cryptography is advancing makes the latter really problematic.

On a related topic, I’m really surprised that there has been so little attention paid to fMRI for lie/truth detection. It is physically impossible to deliberately lie without that being reflected in the physiochemistry of the brain and more specifically without it inducing metabolic activity in areas not :activated under “no-lie” conditions. I find it hard to believe that, quite aside from commercial concerns like No Lie MRI, that there is not considerable effort going into perfecting and validating this technology. IMHO that will be a game changer. This is a topic I hope to see explored here in the future. — Mike Darwin