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The Hedonistic Imperative

Tue, 06 May 2008 01:34:35 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: This manifesto outlines a strategy to eradicate suffering in all sentient life. The abolitionist project is ambitious, implausible, but technically feasible. It is defended here on ethical utilitarian grounds. Genetic engineering and nanotechnology allow Homo sapiens to discard the legacy-wetware of our evolutionary past. Our post-human successors will rewrite the vertebrate genome, redesign the global ecosystem, and abolish suffering throughout the living world.

Clip Source: hedweb.com

The Hedonistic Imperative outlines how genetic engineering and nanotechnology will abolish suffering in all sentient life.

The abolitionist project is hugely ambitious but technically feasible. It is also instrumentally rational and morally urgent. The metabolic pathways of pain and malaise evolved because they served the fitness of our genes in the ancestral environment. They will be replaced by a different sort of neural architecture - a motivational system based on heritable gradients of bliss. States of sublime well-being are destined to become the genetically pre-programmed norm of mental health. It is predicted that the world's last unpleasant experience will be a precisely dateable event.

The feasibility of its abolition turns its deliberate retention into an issue of social policy and ethical choice.

Tags: the hedonistic imperative, transhumanism, transcendence

A few good guys

Tue, 06 May 2008 01:23:30 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: You must go to the web site and see a few of the greatest names in 20th century science

Clip Source: ginasiomental.com

Tags: science, history of science

Where Are They?Why I hope the search for extraterrestrial life finds nothing.

Tue, 06 May 2008 01:08:36 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Fascinating read

Clip Source: www.technologyreview.com

People got very excited in 2004 when NASA's rover Opportunity discovered evidence that Mars had once been wet. Where there is water, there may be life.

Such a discovery would be of tremendous scientific significance. What could be more fascinating than discovering life that had evolved entirely independently of life here on Earth? Many people would also find it heartening to learn that we are not entirely alone in this vast, cold cosmos.

But I hope that our Mars probes discover nothing. It would be good news if we find Mars to be sterile. Dead rocks and lifeless sands would lift my spirit.

Tags: astrobiology, xenobiology. aliens

Learning from the Virtual You

Tue, 06 May 2008 01:03:32 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver

Clip Source: www.npr.org

Listen Now [5 min 21 sec] add to playlist

All Things Considered, April 27, 2008 · How you appear in the virtual world could affect your behavior in real life, according to researchers at Stanford University. Andrea Seabrook speaks with Stanford's Jeremy Bailenson about his research into how people interact psychologically with their virtual-reality representations.

Tags: virtual reality, psychology

Scientists provide explanation for how cancer spreada

Tue, 06 May 2008 00:44:17 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver

Clip Source: physorg.com

Metastasis, the spread of cancer throughout the body, can be explained by the fusion of a cancer cell with a white blood cell in the original tumor, according to Yale School of Medicine researchers, who say that this single event can set the stage for cancer’s migration to other parts of the body.

Their work was Published in the May issue of Nature Reviews Cancer. The studies, spanning 15 years, have revealed that the newly formed hybrid of the cancer cell and white blood cell adapts the white blood cell’s natural ability to migrate around the body, while going through the uncontrolled cell division of the original cancer cell. This causes a metastatic cell to emerge, which like a white blood cell, can migrate through tissue, enter the circulatory system and travel to other organs.

“This is a unifying explanation for metastasis

“To date, the fusion theory and the considerable evidence supporting it have largely been overlooked by the cancer research community,” said Pawelek.

Tags: medicine, cancer