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Contents RU Sirius
H+ Magazine 8
9
Here’s Jewels in Your Eye
EPOC Neuroheadset
It’s a sort of test. Will anybody ever
have a clue as to what I’m talking about?
So far, the answer is no. Not one stranger
Make it so.
#1 #1
4 Fall 2008 Fall 2008 5
Fast Blasts Fast Blasts
HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) The notion that tissue cultures could be
Cybernetic Suit developed into veritable animal flesh
without the necessity of raising and
Tristan Guillford slaughtering living creatures has been in
circulation among tech enthusiasts for
Cyberdyne Corporation of Japan, in several years. With current off-the-shelf
conjunction with Daiwa House, has begun biotechnology, it should be possible to grow
mass production of a cybernetic bodysuit edible meat in laboratory vats, starting from
that augments body movement and a single cell.
increases user strength by up to tenfold. Recently, this idea got a boost from
The HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of
suit works by detecting faint bioelectrical Animals). The animal rights group is offer-
signals using pads placed on specific areas ing a $1 million prize for “the first person
of the body. The pads move the HAL suit to come up with a method to produce com-
accordingly. The Cyberdyne website ex- mercially viable quantities of in vitro meat
plains: “When a person attempts to move, at competitive prices by 2012.” The chal-
nerve signals are sent from the brain to the I ma ge by J i m M i e l ke lenge has been controversial among PETA
muscles via motoneuron, moving the mus- supporters because… well… like, I mean…
culoskeletal system as a consequence. At yuck!
this moment, very weak biosignals can be
detected on the surface of the skin. HAL Skin Phone
catches these signals through a sensor at-
tached on the skin of the wearer. Based on Kristi Scott
the signals obtained, the power unit is con-
trolled to wearer’s daily activities.” Welcome to the conceptual solution that combines the beauty of
Among the potential applications, Cy- a tattoo with the convenience of your cell phone and Bluetooth
Im ag e by D C Sp ens ley
berdyne is emphasizing helping people technology, the “Digital Tattoo Interface.” DTI, developed by
with movement disabilities, augmenting Jim Mielke, debuted at this year’s Greener Gadgets Design
strength for difficult industrial tasks, disas- Competition 2008, receiving Notable Entry award. This is one
ter rescue, and entertainment. tattoo with a lot of potential: a phone that would be implanted
The HAL suit is not currently available. under the skin, with microscopic spheres that would act as the
But according to Nikkei News, Daiwa and touch-screen buttons. Don’t want to show off your phone? The
Cyberdyne are planning an annual produc- concept has a button that, when pushed, can render the phone
tion of 400 units and they should be mar- invisible. If you get a call, just push the same button to answer More-reasonable commentators may
keted at approximately $4,200 US dollars. the display and have the phone reappear, with video capability. note that any person or organization that
Where’s the battery? There isn’t one. You just eat something can make commercially viable fake meat
(preferably food), and the phone works off your own blood supply. in sufficient quantity to have an effect on
With luck this phone quickly moves on from concept to actuality animal suffering won’t need PETA’s mon-
for a fashionable future enhancement. ey. Still, you never know. The competition
could supply motive simply by calling more
attention to the possibilities. Guilt-free
meat eating -- a yummy idea.
Resources Resources
#1 #1
6 Fall 2008 Fall 2008 7
Fast Blasts Inter MINI view
Resources
#1 #1
8 Fall 2008 FALL 2008 9
AI AI
Than Ever is a huge gap between Roombas, industrial from scratch... and more possible than get- www.symbio.jst.go.jp/PINO
robot arms, and their ilk, and mobile hu- ting your hands on Qrio or Asimo, which
manoid robots with the capability for com- have not been publicly released. And unlike iCub Drumming
Ben Goertzel plex interactions in the physical and social Sony’s Aibo, the robotic dog who has be- www.robotcub.org/index.php/robotcub/content/
April 2008 world. come a staple of academic AI research -- if download/1135/3982/file/icubFullDrumming3.
Open source humanoid robots have one finds aspects of the hardware platform wmv
iCub, the New Open Source been proposed before, e.g. PINO created by inadequate, one can always modify it, since
Humanoid Robot Japanese scientists and launched in 2001. the specs are completely open. Different Open source AI software platforms
These earlier projects were technically solid researchers are bound to take the iCub in
Where’s C3PO when we need him? but didn’t really take off in the community. radically different directions. For instance, Robot simulators
Compared to many other aspects of www.goertzel.org/blog/2008/05/open-source-
advanced technology -- even compared to Making a demo of a robot playing robots-robot-simulators.html
AI software technology, which isn’t exactly
zooming along -- humanoid robotics seems
the drums is no big trick, given Strong AI
to be advancing at a snail’s pace. As in many modern engineering technology. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_AI
other areas, the cause of the relatively slow
progress is a combination of technical and However, I’m guardedly optimistic that the while I’m an AI guy rather than a robot- Ray Kurzweil
economic/cultural factors. One possible iCub may meet a better fate. Early results ics researcher, reading about iCub has in- www.kurzweilai.net
work-around to the latter, being explored look promising – for instance, a nifty vid- spired me to think a bit about how it might
by an increasing number of roboticists eo of iCub drumming (see resource link). be integrated with various open source AI The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
worldwide, is the open source development (OK, it’s no Max Roach yet, but what we software platforms, robot simulators. and www.singinst.org
methodology. Perhaps the most exciting do have here is coordination of hands, feet, virtual worlds.
example of this trend is the iCub, recently and hearing – sensorimotor integration – Will open source do for humanoid ro-
developed by a European Union–funded which is a powerful first step toward real botics what it’s done for Web browsers and
consortium of researchers. embodied intelligence.) bioinformatics? It’s too soon to say for sure,
The power of the open source meth- Of course, demos are demos, not ro- but there’s reason to hope.
odology to get complex, important things bust technologies, and making a demo of
done has been well established by now in a robot playing the drums is no big trick, Ben Goertzel is the CEO of AI companies
the software domain. The Linux operating given modern engineering technology. But Novamente and Biomind, a math Ph.D.,
system and the Firefox browser are prob- if you dig a little deeper, you find that the writer, philosopher, musician, and all-around
ably the best-known examples, but there technical ideas underlying the iCub seem futurist maniac.
are countless others, ranging from everyday extremely solid, and it’s clear that the ar-
consumer software (such as, say, BitTor- chitecture is capable of a lot more than
rent clients) to technical software helping just the handful of tricks demonstrated to
scientists do their research (nearly all seri- date. Its fingers and arms have an impres-
ous bioinformatics work these days is done sive number of degrees of freedom: a choice
using open source software). Open source made because the designers favor cognitive
hardware, on the other hand, has been theories, implying that advanced human
slower to take off. Consumer hardware cognition largely arises out of the interac-
benefits so much from economies of scale tion between perception and action in the
in manufacturing that it’s proved hard for manipulation of objects.
upstart open source hardware alternatives iCub itself is just a platform and it
to really take off. But humanoid robotics is doesn’t solve all the problems of robotics,
one area where the open source hardware by any means. The iCub team has so far fo-
approach has tremendous potential. This cused on low-level perception, action, and
R&D domain is of tremendous importance coordination, without plunging much into
to the future of humanity – and beyond – the depths of communication, learning, ab-
yet it’s something neither industry, govern- stract reasoning, and so forth. But they are
ment nor academia is doing an adequate job collaborating with others that have exper-
#1 #1
10 Fall 2008 Fall 2008 11
Bio
Inter MINI view
Manipulating
“frozen potentials” within a reasonable time questionable. It’s appropriate to quote the
frame. No frozen potential went unnoticed. name of this BIO panel, the brain child of
But that’s not the story. Dr. Mike Fisher, the life sciences adviser for
Despite the absolute tracking of each
and every embryo, the UK permits stem cell
UK Trade and Investment in the United
States: “It’s life, Jim, But Not As We Know
Evolution
research on any viable line. This is where Dr. It …”
Armstrong and the latest revision of the act
enter the picture. And wouldn’t you know Moira A. Gunn, Ph.D., hosts “BioTech Nation” with David Ewing Duncan, co-host of BioTech
it? So do the cows. on NPR Talk and NPR Live. She’s the author Nation and author of The Geneticist Who
It turns out that the UK researchers of Welcome to BioTech Nation… My Played Hoops with my DNA: and Other
can get only a few human eggs each week, Unexpected Odyssey into the Land of Masterminds from the Frontiers of
while he – or rather his lab – can get per- Small Molecules, Lean Genes, and Big Biotech.
haps 200 per day from local cows. To quote: Ideas cited by the Library Journal as being
“We have a lot of cows.” And here… it gets among the “Best Science Books of 2007.”
by RU Sirius
interesting.
Under the new approvals, researchers ©2008 Moira A. Gunn
may now take an animal cell, remove its H+: I might spend the whole day
nucleus, and inject it with a nucleus ex- thinking about politics, economics
tracted from a human cell. This suits Dr. — thinking about solutions to knotty
Armstrong just fine. He and his fellow sci- human problems — and then I start
entists can then proceed to study how early
thinking that a lot of this is hardwired.
cells develop. The law determines that these
cells may not be permitted to live beyond Maybe nothing really good is going
fourteen days, although Dr. Armstrong to happen unless we change our
tells us that they seldom live half that long wiring. Unless we actually technically
#1 #1
12 Fall 2008 Fall 2008 13
Inter MINI view Enhanced
Post-Darwinian
Hedonic
Engineering
with David Pearce, founder of BLTC (Better
Living Through Chemistry) Research
and original cofounder of the World
Transhumanist Association.
RU Sirius
#1 #1
14 FALL 2008 Fall 2008 15
Engineering an Death rates were random, uncorrelated
with age. This means they weren’t display-
ing senescence (aging), and died from other
End to Aging causes. In almost all other known species,
death rates increase with age. Not in hydra.
Michael Anissimov They die from getting eaten, or infected
by a virus, or squished, but not from ag-
Age-defying creams and lotions, esoteric herbs ing. There could be a thousand-year-old
and elixirs, Botox and plastic surgery -- what hydra out there, maybe in a small lake right
do they all have in common? in your neighborhood. We don’t know, be-
cause there is no way of telling their age by
None of them will actually increase your looking at them!
life span. Usually, they’re snake oil. At best, Planarians -- those odd animals that
they improve external appearance without look like a slug squished in a microscope
actually extending life. We deserve better, slide -- are another organism that scientists
and we’ll need it if we want to live longer suspect may be immortal. No detailed stud-
than the typical three score and ten years. ies have been conducted yet. In many cases,
The first thing to realize is that nature if you cut a planarian in half, it becomes two
doesn’t specifically want us to die. There planarians. These live as long as one born
is no “death gene.” For any species in any by conventional means. If you kept cutting
environmental context, there is an ideal a planarian in half, it might never die, be-
life span from an adaptive point of view cause each piece would go on living.
-- an evolutionary optima. One evolution- What about more-complex ani-
ary strategy includes species that reproduce mals? There are our friends in the order
quickly and die off fast. Another includes Testudines: turtles, tortoises, and terrapins.
species that reproduce slowly and live for Scientists have examined the internal or-
a long time. Call it quality versus quantity. gans of young and old turtles and found that
Thankfully for humans, we’re squarely in they look exactly the same. Something in
the quality column, but many would agree a turtle’s physiology prevents these organs
that 80 to 90 years is not enough. from breaking down. An article in Discover
We perish not because of some internal magazine asked, “Can Turtles Live Forever,”
clock that says, “Time to die now!,” but be- and came to the conclusion that it’s entirely
cause of a lack of attention and self-healing possible. Like hydra, turtles experience no
-- mere neglect. Once we’ve reproduced a increase in mortality rates and no decrease
few times, in the eyes of nature, our useful- in reproductive rates as they grow older.
ness has run its course. We are cast aside, There are turtles 150 years old that exhibit
onto a pile of skeletons 600 million years no signs of aging. Harriet the Turtle, a pet
deep. This is unacceptable, and we need to of Charles Darwin’s, was born in 1830 and
find a new way, but since nature isn’t ac- died only in 2006. It seems turtles can die
tively working against us -- just neglecting from disease, injury, or predation, but not
us -- the challenge is surmountable. aging. This quality is called “negligible se-
nescence.” Sign me up.
LONGEVITY IN NATURE From these animal examples, we see it
First, let’s look to nature for inspiration. Are would be premature to state that negligible
there any animals with extraordinarily long senescence is biologically impossible, as is
life or regenerative capacities? Absolutely. frequently assumed. Nature seems to be
There is one animal that scientists be- uninterested in our quaint notion that all
lieve is immortal -- the lowly hydra, a sim- organisms must age. The question is -- how
ple, microscopic freshwater animal, shaped can we make this work for humans? The
something like a tiny squid. Apparently, the oldest person who ever lived, Jeanne Louise
challenges of indefinite tissue regeneration Calment, kicked the bucket at the age of
are simple enough for such a small organ- 122 1/2. Can we push that boundary?
ism that nature has solved them. American
biologist Daniel M. Marinez did a study of
mortality in three colonies of hydra for four
I ma ge by Kø be n h av n s U n i ve r s i te t years straight, and barely any of them died. (continued next page)
#1 #1
16 Fall 2008 Fall 2008 17
ENGINEERING NEGLIGIBLE time, that organic molecules could not be cells. Over time, the processes of cell re- than anything currently available or in de- Luckily, although mitochondria are tures different than the healthy tissue of
SENESCENCE synthesized by inorganic precursors. Un- plenishment begin to break down. This is velopment.” It is based on a vulnerability made of thousands of proteins, only 13 of the body, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find
Enter Dr. Aubrey de Grey, a biogerontologist fortunately for Bergeson and other vitalists, what causes muscle atrophy among the old, shared among all cancer cells: their need them are synthesized using the genes of the an enzyme that breaks them down while
from the UK, and his “strategies for Friedrich Wöhler, the father of biochem- and the phenomenon especially afflicts the to renew their telomeres, junk DNA that mitochondria itself. The rest are synthesized leaving the rest alone. In fact, just one type
engineered negligible senescence” (SENS) istry, had already synthesized urea from heart and brain, our two most important serves as the ends of chromosomes. Telo- in the nucleus and imported in. The solu- of crosslinks, called glucosepane crosslinks,
plan. Instead of exclusively studying the inorganic precursors as early as 1828, and organs. To fix this problem, two strategies meres of a certain length are necessary tion to this problem is to move the thirteen may count for up to 98% of all long-lived
complex biochemical processes of aging in scientists were becoming more and more have been proposed: stimulating the divi- for a cell to self-replicate. If the telomeres critical genes from the mitochondria to the extracellular crosslinks in the human body,
detail, as in gerontology, or ameliorating convinced that the same laws of biochemis- sion of existing cells, or introducing new are too short, the cell self-destructs. nucleus of the cell. Evolution has already meaning if we figure out a way to get rid of
the worst symptoms of age-related decline, try that govern inorganic molecules govern cells, possibly including stem cells. Both are When cancer hijacks the body’s cells, the been doing this without our help for mil- these, we’ll have almost solved this cause of
as in geriatrics, de Grey and his supporters organic molecules as well. under investigation. cancer cells replicate so rapidly that their lions of years, and we need to finish the job. age-related damage.
advocate an “engineering approach” to aging Because the laws of chemistry apply to The second cause of aging is death- telomeres shorten quickly. The cancer This will require using gene therapy to add The seventh and last known cause of
that asks, what are the main categories of both life and non-life, aging is an entirely resistant cells, cells that overstay their cells avoid destruction by using the cell’s supplementary genes. Gene therapy is in its aging is general extracellular junk, the type
age-related biochemical damage, and how chemical, non-mystical process of degra- welcome. There are three main types of cells protein synthesis machinery to build early stages, but has been used effectively that just floats around instead of linking
can we fix them? The idea is not to eliminate dation with specific physical causes. Al- guilty of this offense. The first are visceral enzymes -- telomerase and ALT -- that to replace defective genes with functional together proteins. Most of these junk mol-
the sources of age-related damage, but to though it is a matter of preference whether fat cells, fat cells that build up around our extend telomeres, and allow endless self- ones, helping cure genetic diseases. Re- ecules are called amyloids, and they build
fix the damage fast enough so it doesn’t you consider aging a “disease” or not, from internal organs. These cause a progressive replication. Previous attempts at cancer search is under way to improve the process up in everyone, but are especially found
accumulate and cause health problems. the perspective of the body, aging is like loss in our body’s ability to respond to cures target these enzymes, but WILT and test it with mice. in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. The
This is far easier than deciphering all the a disease -- a life-destroying biochemical nutrients from the stomach. Eventually, it proposes removing the very genes that The fifth cause of aging is intracellular main approach to dealing with this, already
intricacies of the biochemistry of aging. phenomenon occurring in the body. And leads to Type 2 Diabetes. The second type contain the information necessary to junk. Cells synthesize, reconstruct, and de- being pursued by at least one company, is to
Although some tentative engineering like diseases, aging is treatable. It is due to of cells is called senescent cells, cells that synthesize them. construct many thousands of different mol- stimulate the body’s immune cells to clear
approaches to aging had been proposed be- have lost the ability to reproduce. These Removing the genes underlying the out these molecules. There is a strong over-
We perish not because of ...aging – besides
fore, it was de Grey who really fleshed it stick around, releasing proteins that are synthesis of telomerase will mean that all lap between treatments for Alzheimer’s and
out, popularized it, and made it respectable. some internal clock that dangerous to their neighbors. Thankfully, cancers will self-destruct before becom- killing more than atherosclerosis and anti-aging treatments
It’s no wonder that he has already raised says, “Time to die now!,” they primarily aggregate in just one type ing a serious problem to their host, effec- 100,000 people per that address this cause, so there seems to
$10 million in funding for his organization, but because of a lack of of tissue, the cartilage between our joints. tively curing cancer. This is one of the most day; it makes us be significant momentum in the right di-
the Methuselah Foundation. attention and self-healing A third type is a category of immune cells ambitious strands of the SENS plan. The suffer for years or rection.
As de Grey points out, gerontologists called “memory cytotoxic T cells.” These challenge of this approach is that removing There may be other causes of aging
have discovered seven biochemical causes
mere neglect. build up faster than other immune cells these genes in all the tissues of the body
decades before it that emerge after we have solved most of
of aging. The last cause was discovered in the complexity and the aura of inevitability and refuse to go away, crowding out the will mean that the body’s natural cells will kills us. these seven. We’ll just have to wait and see.
1981, and considering how immensely far around aging that people have only recently other immune cells and eventually causing have a limited life span, as they will not ecules during the course of their operation. But if all these seven causes of aging were
our knowledge of biology has come since begun to look at it this way. Some say that disease. There are two approaches to solving be capable of lengthening their telomeres. Every once in a while a cell ends up with eliminated, people could live a lot longer --
that time, it seems quite likely that these aging is something mandated by God, and these problems: inject something that To counteract this will require introducing a molecule so large or unusual that it has maybe even hundreds of years. That would
seven causes are all of them. De Grey calls we have no right to mess with it, but these makes the unwanted cells commit suicide stem cells with renewed telomeres into the trouble breaking it up. If a molecule cannot buy us more time to develop new therapies
these causes of aging the “Seven Deadly very same people have used this same argu- but doesn’t touch other cells, or stimulate body every decade or so. This has already be broken down by the “incinerator” of the to address the remaining sources of aging.
Things.” They are: (1) cell loss, (2) death- ment throughout history to protest against the immune system to kill the target cells. been demonstrated in mice with cells of the cell, the lysosome, it stays there forever. In It’s hard to imagine why we wouldn’t
resistant cells, (3) nuclear DNA mutations, vaccinations, the dissection of cadavers, The third cause of aging is mutations in blood and gut. Skin and lungs will be next. cells that don’t divide, this can build up to want to fight the scourge of aging -- be-
(4) mitochondrial DNA mutations, (5) in- organ transplants, and numerous other the DNA of the nucleus, the center of every When this therapy is used to cure cancer in critical levels. This includes some cells in the sides killing more than 100,000 people per
tracellular junk, (6) extracellular junk, and therapies or techniques of extreme medi- cell. Most of these mutations are entirely mice, tremendous resources will be pumped heart, the back of the eye, some nerve cells, day; it makes us suffer for years or decades
(7) extracellular crosslinks. That’s it. If we cal value. Is it so radical to say that being harmless, as they only affect a few cells at into efforts to develop a therapy that works and white blood cells trapped in the walls before it kills us. Everyone is susceptible.
find medicines or therapies that can clean healthy is a good thing, and that we should a time. These cells eventually die and are for humans. of arteries. This can cause diseases, such as Instead of seeing aging as inevitable, why
up this damage, we could extend our lifes use whatever ethical strategies are available replaced with unmutated cells. Mutations The fourth cause of aging is mutations Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, macular degener- don’t we view it as a disease and search for
pans to great lengths and achieve negligible to pursue that end? get dangerous when they lead to malignant in the mitochondria, the “power stations” ation (the leading cause of acquired blind- a cure?
senescence in humans. Aubrey de Grey’s SENS plan is com- cells that self-replicate -- otherwise known of the cell. Mitochondria have their own ness), and atherosclerosis. To clean up in-
A word on a philosophical point of plex and quite thorough. To examine it in as cancer. So, finding a cure for a cancer is a DNA, much less than that in the nucleus of tracellular junk, the SENS project proposes
Michael Anissimov is a science writer.
view: many world philosophies and re- full, I suggest looking at the website of the subtask of finding a cure for aging. Accord- the cell, but some of it is essential to synthe- equipping the lysosome with new enzymes, He blogs at accelerating future.
ligions teach, or strongly imply, that the Methuselah Foundation, or getting his re- ing to de Grey, this is the most difficult part sizing the proteins that make it up. When thereby expanding the range of molecules it
body depends on some immaterial animat- cent book, Ending Aging. But I will sum- of the strategy, because cancer is constantly the DNA is damaged, the mitochondria can break down, allowing it to digest even
ing force, a soul or chi, to give it life. Scien- marize the basics here. evolving to exploit us. break down. Mitochondrial DNA is espe- very large or unusual molecules. Resources
tists disagree: the functioning of the body The first cause of aging is cell loss, or There are several proposed approaches cially susceptible to damage because of two The sixth cause of aging is extracellular Can Turtles Live Forever
seems entirely rooted in atoms, molecules, cell atrophy. For most of our lives, our bod- to finding a cure for cancer, but de Grey’s reasons. The first is that mitochondria, be- crosslinks, molecular garbage that accumu- discovermagazine.com/2002/jun/featturtle
and forces between them. As recently as ies are programmed to replace cells when favored strategy is one called “Whole-body ing the site of cellular respiration, are heav- lates outside cells, linking together proteins
1907, French philosopher Henri Bergeson they die. Our individual cells live much Interdiction of Lengthening of Telomeres” ily exposed to its by-products -- dangerous that otherwise slide smoothly over each Methusalah Foundation
wrote about an élan vital, or vital force, that shorter life spans than the body itself: some (WILT). The Methuselah Foundation’s free radicals. These react with the DNA, other. These can lead to some of the most www.methusalahfoundation.com
animated all living things and drove their cells last a few years, others, like skin cells, website calls WILT “a very ambitious but causing it to mutate. The second is that mi- outwardly visible effects of aging: wrinkles Anissimov Blog
evolution and development. This was close- a few weeks. All of them are constantly re- potentially far more comprehensive and tochondria lack the complex DNA-repair in tissue and the like. Fortunately, these www.acceleratingfuture.com/michael/blog
ly connected to the idea, common at the generated using the body’s supply of stem long-term approach to combating cancer machinery found in the nucleus. crosslink molecules have chemical struc-
#1 #1
18 Fall 2008 Fall 2008 19
Probing de Grey corporation, hoping – among other things
– to someday market cures for aging. And,
in 1999, Cynthia Kenyon formed Elixer
#,)#+å(%2% Matters Pharmaceuticals, a company that was even
#RYONICS IS AN
A conversation with Ending Aging author more explicitly dedicated to finding a phar-
maceutical solution to the aging problem.
and Methuselah Foundation Chairman
Aubrey de Grey ATTEMPT TO During that same decade, a very lively com-
&OR A munity of transhumanists and extropians
were exploring and extrapolating about the
RU Sirius
PRESERVE AND possibilities of resolving this aging thing –
and what the world would look like if we
&REEå
Throughout history, human beings have
PROTECT THE GIFT
quested after rejuvenation – in myth and did.
in fact. Here in the US, legend has it that Sometime around the turn of the mil-
LIFE EXTENSION )NFORMATION
some magic waters, alchemical elixirs, or
(categories of
Taoist methodologies, but through the use
Since then de Grey has appeared on 60 idea that aging is “programmed” in most or means that there would be no selection to
0ACKAGEsoon
of science and technology. In 1964, Rob-
damage) fixed as
ert C. W. Ettinger published The Prospect of
as possible,
Immortality, which encouraged the notion
Minutes, The Colbert Report, and a Barbara
Walters special report: “Live to be 150.”
all species, yes. (Everyone accepts that it’s
programmed in a minority of species, those
maintain such machinery, so it would have
mutated into oblivion even if it had ever
ONå#RYONICSå
of cryogenic preservation in the expecta-
because any one
tion that our understanding of biology and
He is chairman and chief science officer of
the Methuselah Foundation, a nonprofit
that age extremely fast after reproduction,
such as salmon.) The widespread rejection
existed. There’s really no chance that new
evidence could overturn this. The only rea-
organization that has raised $10,000,000. of programmed aging is actually over fifty son there’s still any controversy is that there
other advances in science and technology of them could kill Among its activities, Methuselah of- years old, dating back to a paper by Peter are a few rather artificial circumstances that
would allow us to defeat death.
us on its own. fers prizes for major experimental break- Medawar from 1952. Basically the main- at first sight seem to look like programmed
7HY NOT EXPLORE
By 1993, Mike West had formed Geron
throughs in aging using mice. stream view is that slow aging (of the sort aging – but closer inspection shows that
De Grey’s recent book, Ending Aging: we see in most species) can’t be controlled they aren’t really.
ALL THE OPTIONS The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could by genes because the presence of those H+: Does the fact that there are --
Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime, is your account -- seven different causes of
coauthored by Michael Rae, and published Initially… aging ever worry you, in the sense that
by St. Martin’s Press. there might be some frustration when one
Michael Anissimov covered many of
journalists “knew” or two of those causes won’t budge?
the basics about de Grey’s theories in the I must be crazy. ADG: There are actually many more
previous article (“Engineering an End to than seven – my seven strands are just cat-
Aging” – it really functions as an introduc-
More recently most egories of damage, within each of which
tory piece to this interview, so please take journalists have there are many examples. But still, sure, I
!LCORåISåTHEåWORLDå the time to read it). So rather than asking think it’s vital to get all of them fixed as
de Grey to regurgitate the basics of his the-
begun to realize soon as possible, because any one of them
LEADERåINåCRYONICSå ory one more time, I decided to probe his that what I’m saying could kill us on its own. That’s why my own
CRYONICSåRESEARCHåANDå thinking on a few peripheral issues. is actually quite work has historically focused on the hard-
H+: Are there still people who study est strands.
CRYONICSåTECHNOLOGY aging that cling to the notion of a bio- plausible… H+: What are these foci and what is
logical clock, and do you think there’s any happening with them?
possibility that new evidence might turn genes would give the species just the same ADG: The three hardest aspects of
up for a more centralized mechanism life span and health span as it would have SENS (at present – this could of course
WWWALCORORG WWWALCORORG leading to aging?
AUBREY DE GREY: A small minor-
if it lacked those genes and had slightly less
powerful inbuilt anti-aging machinery. This
change!) are: the relocation of the mito-
chondrial DNA to the nucleus to make
ity of gerontologists do still propound the lack of a function of pro-aging machinery mutations in the original mitochondrial
#1 #1
20 Fall 2008 Fall 2008 21
Inter MINI view
DNA harmless; the introduction of mi- the taking of risks, yes, but not the type of around their attempts to demonstrate it. from about 9 billion to about 11 billion — a
The Distribution
else can manufacture it without Pfizer’s
crobial (or other foreign) enzymes into our risks that will be inhibited by the defeat of More recently most journalists have begun big change, but not as radical as the more consent. But in 2012, the patent expires. At
cells to destroy molecules that accumulate aging; that will cause aversion to risks of to realize that what I’m saying is actually than doubling that happened between that point, any generic manufacturer can
in them; and the elimination of our cells’
ability to prevent the ends of their chromo-
death, but risks to one’s career (for example)
will be more acceptable, because there’ll be
quite plausible and that the more derisory
comments made about SENS by some of of Post-Humanity 1950 and 2000. make the drug. The more suppliers you
somes from shortening with each cell divi- so much more opportunity to make amends my colleagues should not be taken at face In any case, aging isn’t going to be have, the more price competition sets in.
sion, combined with stem cell therapies to for misjudgment. As for being controlled, value. with Ramez Naam, author of More Than cured tomorrow. I walk through some cal- The more consumers you have, the more
address the side effects that this will cause. heh, my reaction is that only someone from H+: One hundred years of life can Human, Embracing the Promise of culations that if you could raise global life incentive there is for suppliers to enter the
Research is proceeding healthily in all these a country that still cherishes the right to wear you down physically, but it can also Biological Enhancement expectancy to 120 years by 2050 — almost market. The net effect is that, the more de-
areas, largely funded by the Methuselah bear arms could ask such a question... the wear you down emotionally... perhaps twice what it is today — you would raise sired any information good is, the cheaper
Foundation. rest of the civilized world has amply dem- even existentially. For you, is a desire to
RU Sirius the 2050 population from the current pro- it will be to acquire.
H+: In your book, you write that to be onstrated that there is no such danger. live long accompanied by a desire to live
truly immortal or nonaging we will need H+: Really? So no one will ever have long in a much-improved human civiliza- jection of 8.9 billion people to 9.4 billion You can see this when you look at drugs
to lose the meat. Some people don’t think to risk their lives again to stop oppres- tion, or is this one satisfactory? H+: Can you give our readers a brief people. That’s a good-sized increase, but that are commonly used today. Penicillin
that’s too far away. What do you think? sion? ADG: I’m actually not mainly driven synopsis of your view of why post- as a percentage of population, it’s actually was absolutely priceless when first intro-
ADG: I’m not sure. Actually I think ADG: Since you press me... my closing by a desire to live a long time. I accept humanity will be more distributed and smaller than the change that occurred be- duced to the market. But now it costs less
it’s risky to think in terms of “truly immor- words “no such danger” were perhaps a mis- that when I’m even a hundred years old, less likely to create population problems tween 1970 and 1973. than one cent per dose to manufacture,
tal” even in a non-meat scenario – after all, statement, but not a material one. I should let alone older, I may have less enthusiasm
than many people suspect? and twenty cents a dose to buy online. The
nearby supernovae can fry most things. But have said “insufficient such danger to affect for life than I have today. Therefore, what
NAAM: Sure. There are really two specific …even if we cured same inverted supply and demand even
as to the time frame of technologies such as our choices today” -- but that’s the same drives me is to put myself (with luck) and
uploading, I’m not equipped to speculate. thing in practice, because your question was others (lots and lots of others) in a position questions that come up frequently: aging… tomorrow, applies to non-drug techniques. LASIK cost
H+: Longevity advocates have finely about risks, and therefore about quantify- to make that choice, rather than having the “Who will be able to afford these and… delivered the $5,000 per eye when it first came out —
thought-out, statistically oriented argu- choice progressively ripped away from me technologies?” and “Won’t the population cure to the entire now you can get it for $299. As more and
ments as to why longevity will not strain I’m… not mainly or them by declining health. Whether the explode if we lengthen human life?” more people wanted LASIK, more doctors
resources or the environment. But does choice to live longer is actually made is not world, the largest
the longevity movement, nevertheless, driven by a desire the point for me.
On the population question, it turns out
possible impact
started offering it. And the more doctors
that the major driver of population growth there are offering it, the more they have to
have a responsibility to do everything it to live a long time. is really fertility rather than the death rate. would be about
can to prevent or end scarcity and ensure compete with each other on price.
a survivable environment for however I accept that when If you look around the world, the countries 2 billion lives over The absolute worst thing you can do
many long-living people?
ADG: I have a number of arguments as
I’m… 100 years with the longest life expectancies — Japan, 50 years. -- if you want these technologies equally
Sweden — are actually shrinking in popu- available to poor and rich -- is to ban them.
to why the defeat of aging may not strain old… I may have lation. As these countries have gotten rich, The takeaway, for me, is that life exten-
the environment, but I never say that those Prohibition would create a black market
arguments are certain. I don’t think pro-
less enthusiasm people — particularly women — have de- sion isn’t going to have any radical effect with worse safety, higher prices, and no
longevists have a duty to solve that problem for life… cided that they want fewer children. On on population for some time. scientific tracking of what’s going on. Via-
themselves, but I do think we have a duty to the other hand, the countries where popu- The question of economic access is a gra and cocaine cost roughly the same per
bring the parameters of the problem to the ing risks rather than about what will or will lation is rapidly growing — Indonesia, Ni- little more complex. People do worry that gram at the moment. In a decade, Viagra
attention of society, so that society neither not “ever” happen. It’s hard to dispute that geria, Pakistan — have relatively low life when these enhancement technologies will be much cheaper but cocaine will be
overestimates nor underestimates it and the need to risk one’s life to stop oppres-
expectancies. People die early there, but come out, only the rich will have access to around the same price it is now. I think
so that those best placed to shape public sion is generally lower in democracies than
policy act accordingly. The same goes for all elsewhere and is lower in longer-standing those who survive have big families. On them. And they’re right — at the very be- we’d rather have our enhancements follow
aspects of the sociological consequences of democracies than in younger ones, and fur- the other hand, over the next 50 years, the ginning, only the rich will be able to afford prescription drug economics rather than il-
the defeat of aging. ther that long-lived democracies very rarely UN projects that 3.7 billion people are go- some of these techniques. It helps to realize, legal drug economics.
H+: In talking about the culture of cease to be democracies whereas non de- ing to die on this planet, while another 6.6 though, that most of these enhancement And even if governments could imple-
long-lived people, you say that people mocracies embrace democracy at a steady billion will be born. That’ll take global pop- techniques are really information goods. ment perfect bans, that wouldn’t stop peo-
will be less inclined to take risks. I can see rate. Those claims are all that are needed to
ulation to about 9 billion people. Of the They cost a huge amount to develop, but ple from using these technologies. Asia is
this being a big problem, in a lot of differ- justify my previous answer.
ent ways. Don’t we gain benefit and nov- H+: You’ve been in the media a fair 3.7 billion who are projected to die in the almost nothing to manufacture. The same much more receptive to biotech than the
elty from people who are inclined to take bit introducing this very unfamiliar con- Resources next 50 years, less than 2 billion of them thing is generally true of pharmaceuticals US and Europe. If a rich couple can’t get
risks? (I see you as a big risk taker, repu- cept of a radically expanded life span. On will die of age-related causes. So even if today. Viagra costs about $15 per pill, but the genetic treatments they want here,
tation being the currency of the current the whole, how would you review the re- Methuselah Foundation
we cured aging completely tomorrow, and only a few cents of that is production cost. they can absolutely fly to Singapore or
age.) And aren’t people who will preserve sponse that you’ve received? www.mfoundation.org
magically delivered the cure to the entire Mostly it’s Pfizer bringing in profit or paying Thailand and have it done there. The poor
their lives at any cost easily controlled by ADG: Very positive, especially recently.
The Longevity Meme world, the largest possible impact would off the $1 billion price tag of developing a or middle class couple doesn’t have the
an authoritarian state or some other type Initially a lot of the coverage was quizzi-
of oppressive imposition? cal – journalists “knew” I must be crazy but www.longevitymeme.org be about 2 billion lives over 50 years. That new drug. Pfizer can charge that much be- same options.ths
ADG: Benefit and novelty come from were impressed by my ability to run rings would increase global population in 2050 cause the drug is patented. By law, no one If you pause
#1 #1
22 Fall 2008 FALL 2008 23
device, whether external or implanted, We already know we don’t have to de- in human intelligence through purely bio-
that allows one to retrieve information stroy or dismantle the brain to get enor- logical manipulations because of the con-
by thinking about it. It sounds like a first mous quantities of information out of it; straints of neurons and neuron-based stor-
step to the sort of mind uploading envi- I think we simply need to push forward age and “computation.” However, when we
sioned by people like Hans Moravec and technologies that allow for maximum in- consider that both abiotic and biotic stor-
much copied in various science fiction formation flow to and from the brain in age and computational devices have their
scenarios. I’m trying to envision what a a non-destructive manner. Therefore, pro- own strengths and weaknesses, it is easy to
prize-winning project would do. Would cedures like those suggested by Moravec envision hybrids that tap the advantages of
this be a first baby step toward these vi- that require the brain to be destroyed or each and have characteristics superior to
sionary ideas or a “great leap forward?” dismantled and reconstructed don’t appeal either alone. As one simple example of the
to me. The IF is committed to technologies comparative advantage of abiotic storage,
PWE: The InnerSpace Foundation is that will move essential information to and my (inexpensive and old) 1 gigabyte key-
concerned primarily with challenges that from the brain, and allow it to be stored chain flash drive can store about a thousand
lie within the visible technology horizon, and backed up, but I don’t want to speculate 400-page books. And in less than a decade,
which is getting shorter in some ways. The much on “mind uploading,” which implies a 1 terabyte (TB) keychain storage should
challenges of improving natural mental dynamic reanimation of downloaded and be inexpensive and common. People will
Don’t Leave stored information. Nevertheless, there are
many very serious and respectable people
Your Memory who contemplate and seek the develop-
ment of such technologies. The IF is trying
#1 #1
24 Fall 2008 Fall 2008 25
rather than. say. perceptual intelligence list stage but with time they’ll improve; and around the world. The kind of research we ploying underpowered brains to continue computers. But your question raises some as cultivate them from a preexisting spe-
or happiness, mainly because it’s measur- it is hard to say what the upper limit will would like to accelerate is woefully un- devising superficial solutions to these ex- very vexing downstream questions that will cies, the wolf. But everyone knows a dog is
able. My immediate impulse is that elimi- be. So, we have established “The IF Prize derfunded and is difficult to fund through tremely serious problems. take a long time to sort out. Nevertheless, not equivalent to a wolf. We used a crude
nating psychological misery would create for Memory” to accelerate the development traditional channels. Second, we think that H+: I realize that it’s not part of this we’re already painfully aware of excessive but effective understanding of trait-based
the greatest benefit of all -- both for its and demonstration of a prototype memory the pace of scientific research and technol- project, but do you worry at all about the noise in at least parts of our essential com- selective breeding to enrich our proto-dog
own sake and because troubled people augmentation device. and a particularly ogy development are limited primarily by quality of the information that human munications systems like the Internet, and companions for behavioral tendencies to
cause our biggest problems socially and powerful prototype device might satisfy the the natural limitations of the human mind. brains will be linking to? In other words, we feel the impact from time to time. This is herd, protect, hunt, and probably to show
economically. But are there other reasons criteria for both prizes. It seems self-evident that a more-powerful if my brain is directly hooked up to the a really serious problem, and like any other obvious appreciation and affection for us.
why memory has the greatest advantage, The reason we’re not trying to acceler- intelligence can solve difficult problems -- Internet, or more specifically to Wikipe- really serious problem, faster and more ac- They have intelligences and abilities that
if it does? ate development of other research or tech- including providing lasting cures for any dia, I’m still going to experience the same curate learning and memory, and increased are complementary to ours and we turned
PWE: We’re focused on memory because nologies is multilayered. First, mainstream disease or disability -- much more quickly frustrating quantity of crap — errors, ir- overall cognition and intelligence, should a marginal initial relationship. into an ex-
it is the currency of our very existence. Our research into the brain and behavior is very and efficiently. So we’re putting all our ef- relevancies, and the tendency of Internet contribute to more rapid and satisfactory tremely mutually rewarding relationship
memories give us a sense of continuity well funded. Mental diseases and disor- forts where we think they’ll do the most informational materials to exclude im- solutions. that we valued then and probably value
and connection to our friends, relatives, ders are researched by thousands of people long-term good, rather than wishfully em- portant bits of data. H+: Do you see a relationship between even more now because they have become
and associates and to our own histories. PWE: I am very concerned with the this project and neural performance en- increasingly what we wanted them to be.
We’re also focused on memory because hancement oriented projects like brain I think we should go forward with an
moving memory information from the the human brain exercises, nutrients, and “smart drugs?” extremely optimistic belief that we can es-
brain to a device accomplishes one of PWE: I’d say there’s only a weak rela- tablish even more rewarding and comple-
the two most basic directional transfers is a magnificent… tionship. I’m certainly an advocate of those mentary relationships with other intelli-
of information (into the brain and out
of the brain), which is a first step toward
collection of approaches since they’re all we’ve got right
now; but their potential is very limited rela-
gences — including one another — by all
becoming more like we’d like ourselves and
establishing meaningful and increasingly abilities, but tive to what we would like to accomplish others to be.
complex two-way communication. There — although, right now I’d be happy with
are many types of information that might for fast and anything to remind me to return emails
flow from the brain to a device but when
we consider establishing connectivity at the
accurate storage or phone calls on time! It might sound a
little futuristic at this point but I think for
most basic prototype stage, we probably and retrieval what we’d like to achieve there is a much
think of “sending” requests to a device greater upside to investments in brain im-
for information input, and transferring of important aging, biocompatible materials science, mi-
to a device somewhat more meaningful,
preexisting information about ourselves.
information, even croelectronics, and information technology,
than in inherently weaker approaches for
This first type of “query” information a humble keychain tweaking our existing biology. I support
is important for accessing or learning the continuation of basic research on brain
information and we are addressing this flash drive has function using brain exercises, drugs, and
with our “The IF Prize for Learning.”
This information can be stored and
overtaken us. other approaches but I’d like to see each
person thinking “outside the box” that sits
retrieved as “memory” but this challenge data quality issue but when we consider on his or her shoulders.
is somewhat different from dealing with the downside of what we might get with We have expanded our intelligence and
other types of information, particularly new technologies, we should carefully re- reach in unexpected ways in the past and I’d
complex and preexisting memories of, for flect on the quality of what we already have like people to contemplate possible future
example, friends and events. Capturing this and ask why and how it got that way. The expansions. Richard Dawkins’ seminal book
more-meaningful “memory” information reason our public discussions and databases The Extended Phenotype is an exploration of
on a device is beyond our current under- give us some garbage out is because people the selection for genotypes that result in
standing and technical abilities, but this is put garbage in. Wikipedia has gotten much organisms creating various extensions of
information you’d like to recall accurately better over time and in many cases is sur- themselves, including physical extensions Resources
over time, and even back up in the same prisingly good, which shows that mature of their biological selves (a more succinct
way you back up important documents technologies eventually establish an ac- treatment can also be found in the second InnerSpace Foundation
stored on your computer hard drive. But ceptable signal-to-noise ratio. One of the and later editions of The Selfish Gene, in the www.InnerSpacefoundation.org
the complexity of this type of information problems of the naturally evolved mind try- chapter “The Long Reach of the Gene”).
exists on a continuum that can be as trivial ing to sift through large amounts of data in This process can be very abstract; it can ex- Brain Stimulant
as a grocery list or as meaningful as the de- a complex modern world is that we don’t tend to the establishment of various novel brainstimulant.blogspot.com
tails of your wedding day or your first date. have efficient filters. We do have filters, relationships and can be extremely reward-
I ma g e by D C S p e n s l e y
We won’t be able to store and subsequently lots of them, but they are not very good at ing. Consider our relationship with dogs. Brain Waves
access all the complexities of an important rapidly sorting through complex data. This Dogs are not just a human’s best friend, brainwaves.corante.com
memory with initial prototype devices; we’ll is another area that should benefit greatly they are one of our greatest creations ...
probably begin much closer to the grocery from increasingly direct interfaces with well, we didn’t exactly create dogs as much
#1 #1
26 Fall 2008 Fall 2008 27
Inter MINI view
I mage by DC Spensley
Stross is one SF writer who pays close at- for a moment, Gibson’s Neuromancer (the 2.0: economics is the study of the alloca- sess, then their ability to model consumer/
Singularity, 2012: God springs out tention to the entire plethora of post-hu- whole trilogy, really) popularized a trendy tion of resources between human beings supplier interactions will be much deeper
of a computer to rapture the human manizing changes that are coming on fast. subculture that impacted on both enter- under conditions of scarcity (that is, where and more efficient than anything humans
race. An enchanted locket transforms As a satirist, he might be characterized as tainment and actual technology. Do you resources are not sufficient to meet maxi- can do. And so, humans will be at a pro-
a struggling business journalist into a our Vonnegut, lampooning memetic sub- think that Accelerando could have that ef- mal demand by all people simultaneously). found disadvantage in trying to engage in
The Artificial medieval princess. The math-magicians
of British Intelligence calculate demons
cultures that most people don’t even know
exist.
fect? Do you see yourself as a popularizer
of memes that are just taking root?
Resource allocation relies on information
distribution -- for example, price signals
economic interactions with such entities.
They’ll be participating in economic ex-
#1 #1
28 FALL 2008 Fall 2008 29
Inter MINI view
Botox Parties,
and 19th centuries, and it didn’t work very access to mind-numbingly vast amounts of world that’s haunted by imaginary beings.
well. In the case of the AI-rapture folks, I energy and inhabitable space. mainstream culture show signs of un-
I think of Arthur C. Clarke’s notion that
suspect there’s a big dose of Christian mil- The extropians took the idea one step a sufficiently advanced technology is in- derstanding itself as evolving into a
lennialism (of the sort that struck around
990–1010 A.D., and again in the past de-
further, with the idea of computronium
— the densest conceivable form of mat-
distinguishable from magic. Do you think
the areas and powers that we’re opening
Michael Jackson, mutant breed and do those who need
to be different or avant garde have any
cade) that, because they’re predisposed to
a less superstitious, more technophillic
ter structured to maximize computation.
What amount of thinking can you get done
up will change us?
CS: What makes you think it’s about and the new avenues opening up to keep them
ahead of the hoi polloi?
world-view, they displace onto a quasisci- by building a Dyson sphere, optimized to
Disillusioned
us?
entific rationale. support computation rather than biological DEWDNEY: The corollary to the Botox
We’re human 1.0. We’re not going
Mind uploading would be a fine thing, life? Bradbury suggested building multiple there. Or we may go down that road, but craze is the predicament of disillusion-
but I’m not convinced what you’d get at the
end of it would be even remotely human.
concentric spheres of free-flying compute
nodes, each shell feeding off the waste heat
the things that arrive at the other end won’t
be us. (They might remember having start-
Transhumanist ment, nay, misanthropism, that I have
found myself immersed in the last couple
(Me, I’d rather deal with the defects of the of the next layer in. Some estimates of the ed out as us, but I’m not betting on it.) of years. Perhaps the real ground of my
meat machine by fixing them -- I’d be very computing power of such a Matrioshka H+: There’s a nasty little idea bur- with Christopher Dewdney, culture theorist
disillusionment is my hard-lost benevo-
happy with cures for senescence, cardiovas- Brain (named after the nested Russian ied in Halting State, I think. Like: if you and author of Last Flesh: Life in the
cular disease, cancer, and the other nasty dolls) suggest that it would be roughly as far lence. I’m an optimist; I like people. Yet
think things are bad when people get their Transhuman Era
failure modes to which we are prone, with beyond us -- the entire human species -- as ideas about reality from TV, wait until our when I asked a lot of “average” people
limb regeneration and tissue engineering we are beyond a single nematode worm. imaginations are completely colonized, — people who weren’t part of my circle
RU Sirius
The Sheep
and unlimited life prolongation.) But then, If the idea of procedural artificial in- surveilled and programmed. Our hero — what they would do with the kind of
I’m growing old and cynical. Back in the telligence holds water, it’s possible that a bleakly opines, that this is the reason for self-transformative power that may per-
eighties I wanted to be the first guy on my H+: Michael Jackson seems to
the Fermi Paradox. There are no signs of
block to get a direct-interface jack in his
skull. These days, I’d rather have a firewall.
Back in the eighties
I wanted to be the
alien life because you get so far and then
vanish up your own artificial reality. Have
Shit Grass reflect
themes.
various trans-mutant haps be ours to wield, I was increasingly
appalled. The jocks I talked to wanted to
#1 #1
30 Fall 2008 FALL 2008 31
Miscellany Miscellany
Founder’s Fund.
Science Fiction “I’m trying to construct a science fic-
tion fund,” Thiel says, “but I’m nervous to
Name Net worth Edgy projects Amounts Web
#1 #1
32 Fall 2008 Fall 2008 33
Neuro Neuro
#1 #1
34 Fall 2008 Fall 2008 35
Neuro / H+ Lab H+ Lab
Im ag e by Nat as ha Vit a- M o re
be applied to neurogenesis and plasticity of nanotechnology, biotechnology,
along the intelligence and motor-skills cir- Book: Mind Performance Hacks: Tips & Tools for information technology, and cognitive
science and technology.) Digital Water Pavillion is an example of My video, “Bone Density,” will be ex-
cuits of animals in vitro in order to create Overclocking Your Brain
Passing through this nano-bio-info- an artistic experience design that is exhib- hibiting. Returning to my paper, I stumble
super-functioning organisms. Over a peri- www.amazon.com/Mind-Performance-Hacks-Tools-
cogno intersection might require some fi- ited for audience viewing and participation. across a famous 1954 quote from Nor-
od of decades these methods will of course Overclocking/dp/0596101538
nessing -- much like the smooth moves of It premieres at the World Expo in Spain, bert Weiner, the founder of cybernetics:
be secretly tested in humans, resulting in a “Seven Mile Boots” is a clever artistic “The human species is strong only insofar
jump in IQ on the order of two - threefold VideoGame: Nintendo Brain Age synthetic nanometer-scale material passing and offers a sensorial experience — archi-
through cell membranes without ruptures. tecture as experience. design — a stunning contemporary piece of as it takes advantage of the innate, adap-
in a single generation, no doubt spawning a www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/11/26/brain.training/
But MIT scientists has done this. red footwear that enables the person wear- tive, learning faculties that its physiologi-
race of Kahn-like supermen who will beat ing the boots to be a flaneur in the real and cal structure makes possible.” In H+ Lab, I
us at chess all the time, grow to loathe us, Ways to overclock your brain Digital Water Pavilion
Stelacci Nano Research www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/mit_
virtual worlds simultaneously. will be encouraging all of us to do just that
and ultimately plot to destroy us all. But ririanproject.com/2006/11/03/22-ways-to-overclok-
www.medindia.net/news/Synthetic-Nanoparticles- digital_water_pavilion_makes_a_splash_in_ through media and art.
that’s still a few years out, so go play some your-brain/
can-Penetrate-Cells-Without-Adverse-Effects-on- spain_10171.asp Seven Mile Boots
Halo 3 to get those hair-trigger reflexes up
ririanproject.com/2007/05/22/33-new-ways-to- Membrane-37853-1.htm randomseed.org/sevenmileboots
to snuff. When the black-market neural
steroid hormones hit the milk supply we’ll overclock-your-brain Another architectural experience – one
have to hope we don’t all go insane, but at So why is it so difficult to locate enough that spins – is planned for Dubai.
Wired on Neurostim implants cognitive surplus to engage in meaningful
least SAT scores will be through the roof,
www.wired.com/medtech/health/ conversations about radical life extension? Alternative Reality Gaming
for once. Spinning Architecture This genre is both industrially and artistically
news/2001/08/46278 Maybe it’s because many people simply www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/
want to be in the now and experience as based and might be appropriate for engaging
James Kent is the former publisher of la-fg-buildingmotion26-2008jun26,0,312971. Additional Resources
much comfort and joy as possible, and then with other people in a narrative, real-world
Psychedelic Illuminations and Trip Neurotrophins story?track=rss
pass the knowledge on. I suppose it is easier experience. Alternative reality gaming
Magazine. He currently edits DoseNation. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurotrophins Year Zero
to accommodate our physiological wet-ware could provide a potential inducement for
com, a multi-user blog featuring drug news, www.alternaterealitybranding.com/
by experiencing a sense of accomplishment imagining together the actual experience of
humor, and commentary. Learning and Memory Plasticity Genes Wearables living longer. Unfortunately, at the Cannes
cannes2008yearzero/
www.sciencedaily.com/ now, rather than in anticipating an arduous “FrogConcept” is a wearable industrial
reach toward H+ mental plasticity. Lions Award, the winner game was Trent
releases/2007/04/070418104300.htm design that allows for a full-sensory 42 Entertainment
Anyway, since we are, in fact, experienc- Reznor’s devastating narrative of the year
experience by reshaping the world into a www.42entertainment.com/see.html
ing the now — we can look to the field of zero. Instead, it might be worth looking
MindFit Brain Training Software Achieves Highest soothing spa-like escape. While it gives
Experience Media Design as a medium for into the designers at 42 Entertainment,
Score in Wall Street a robot appearance around the eyes, nose, Moscow International Film Festival
building narratives that can perhaps mimic providers of immersive experiences.
Journal Brain Aging Experts Review and mouth, its streamline mask is, in itself, mediaforum.mediaartlab.ru
www.pr.com/press-release/81533 the experience of radical life extension. a pleasant design that can’t help but make
For example, immersive environ- for an aesthetic experience. Evolution Haute Couture: Art and Science in the
ments, wearable technology, alternate-re- www.42entertainment.com/see.html Post-Biological Age
ality games and, adjacently, bioart practices FrogConcept www.artifacial.org/evolution_haute_couture
touch on futuristic scenarios. These works www.frogdesign.com/news/frogconcept-a-digital-
can be found in two distinct fields: the field escape-05162008.html
of industrial design and the field of artis-
#1 #1
36 Fall 2008 Fall 2008 37
Inter MINI view Mixed Media
wisdom, gave Ellis the tie-in book, Hulk vs. his own devising. Freakangels is a weekly
Warren Ellis Iron Man in Ultimate Human. That might
sound like a Mixed Martial Arts pay-per-
six page webcomic - net community that
merges Midnight’s Children with Children of
Takes It Past view special – the flying shiny metal of
death against the biological freak who eats
Men in an Anglified anime style. “23 years
ago, twelve strange children were born at
Intelligence into manipulation of billions to millions just an internal process. Rather, linguis- movies let loose early this summer, with they haven’t quite invented it yet. lethal fingertip technique.
of atoms. Then we could get down to tic components overflow their boundar- Robert Downey Jr. boozing his way through In parallel to this mainstream big event Freakangels unfolds slowly, in episodic
current state-of-the-art microprocessors, ies in the mind and become concretized Iron Man, and Ed Norton brooding it up as book, Ellis has invented a property of his time, and two-by-two windowpane space,
Matter where the surface features are about a
thousand atoms thick. And we can see
as artifacts. Writing is the most obvious
of these boundary overflows, but every
The Incredible Hulk. Marvel Comics, in its own, on a turf of his own, in a medium of with a guarantee of one unexpected idea
a week, completely mad but still as of yet
how the subsequent generations of chips technology represents some sort of mate- available for commercial exploitation. And
with Mark Pesce, senior lecturer in
will have features that are a hundred rial fixation of a linguistic concept. In that unlike the commercial films that provide
Emerging Media and Interactive Design at the impetus for this project, there’s no
atoms across, then ten atoms, and then sense, the materiality of human history is
the Australian Film, Television, and Radio chance at all of a sappy ending with a baby.
– perhaps around 2012 or so – a single a story of how homo sapiens learned to
School and designer of VRML atom across. That’ll end the chart. speak with their hands, translate their lan-
Paul McEnery is a former editor with Mondo
What this chart actually shows is the guage into artifact, and then engage in a
RU Sirius 2000. He is writing a mosaic novel about an
relationship between human activity and conversation with these artifacts. This sets
ill-tempered God trapped in his own creation.
human artifact. Artifacts have consistently up a very interesting feedback loop, be-
He is beginning to sympathize.
PESCE: Ray Kurzweil has this nifty little moved away from the crude – in terms of cause the exteriorized linguistic object –
chart that shows the cost of computing the raw number of atoms being manipu- the technology – produces ramifications
per bit, dropping precipitously – lated – to the refined. Fewer and fewer at- of language, which in turn produce new
exponentially – as time goes by. Like so oms are employed in each manipulation. technologies, etc., until the whole thing
much of his work, he manages to miss The end state of this process is nanotech- spirals completely out of control. And Resources
the big point by focusing on a particularly nology, which, for those of your readers we’re already well past that point.
Freakangels
meaningless one. If I were to draw a chart, who don’t believe atomic scale assembly A succinct way of phrasing this pro- www.freakangels.com
I’d map out the minimum number of will ever be possible, I insist is the natural cess, using two-dollar words, is the “pro-
atoms a human being can manipulate at and inexorable vector of human activity, gressive ingression of intelligence into Warren Ellis Live Journal
warren-ellis.livejournal.com
one time through time. We’d start out with as demonstrated by the chart I have just matter.”
stone and flint and obsidian tools – that’s described.
#1 #1
38 FALL 2008 Fall 2008 39
Music Humor
I mage by D C Spensley
at will. Our command of navigating the corresponding state of mind. It may be one “I’m dead. Nyah-nyah-nyah. Have a nice meaning are not eternal, but technical solv-
mind with sensory and electrochemical of the cheapest ways to engineer conscious- eternal enhanced life, transhumanist suck- able problems. That’s a real faith-shaker.
stimulation has matured to include ness. No drugs, no surgery, no nanobots – in ers.” Ray Kurzweil will be sitting there with I’ve tried to convert to what I call the
everything from reviving early entheogenic his nanotechnologically enhanced penis Wendell Berry style of argumentation,
experiments with drumming and chanting, and Wikipedia brain feeling like a chump. which is to replace clear thinking with lit-
to contemporary techniques of magnetic
temporal lobe stimulation and virtual
The Meaning of Whose life has meaning now, bitches?
That’s right, the dead guy’s.
erary eloquence, but I just don’t get their
core syllogism:
reality immersion. And with impending
advances in biotech and nanotech that Life Lies in Its Won’t it be funny if Bill McKibben
outlives Ray Kurzweil? Can you imagine
I’m alive. Then I’m dead. Where’s the
meaning?
will profoundly deepen the intimate
relationship between brain and machine Suckiness anything pissing off Bill McKibben more
than if he reaches 110? That would be po-
How about this? I’m alive. I keep living
longer. Not sure if that’s more meaningful,
(and erase those primitive distinctions), we etic justice. but it sure sucks less.
can be sure that individual control of the Joe Quirk But no matter how much older he gets
mind will be one of the best markers we than his photos, Bill can always hope he Joe Quirk is a TV talk show darling for his
have for measuring our humanity (and our I’ve been converted. Frances Fukuyama, will die. So what’s his concern? hilarious nonfiction It’s Not You, It’s Biology:
transhumanity). theory, all you need is a pair of headphones Leon Kass, and Bill McKibben have shown McKibben is concerned that the rest The Science of Love, Sex and Relationships.
With this in mind, I spend much of my and a “crystalline array technician” to pre- me the folly of all you silly transhumanists. of us might not suffer and die. If we all
time looking at contemporary art and mu- pare the sounds for you. Life has meaning in direct proportion to live long healthy happy lives, Bill’s favorite
sic as touchstones, clues to our place as a These so-called binaural beats coast how royally it sucks. poetry will become obsolete. Bill is wor-
self-transcending species. Every time I see inaudibly across each other in Akhentek’s I saw Bill McKibben read a speech to ried that an enhanced Ray Kurzweil won’t
intention meet technology in a deliberate music underneath warm and deep master- the Singularity Summit. He was on a gi- appreciate Ecclesiastes. In case you don’t
manipulation of mindstates, I rejoice that ing, giving his compositions an odd quality ant Teleportec screen. His face was three know, Ecclesiastes is the most depressing
we are on the right track. And nowhere is – it feels at once transparent and mysteri- feet wide, towering over the transhuman- poem in the gloomiest book ever written,
this confluence more apparent than in the ous. ist panel, explaining why every nerd in the on the subject of all things sucky, and Bill
careful structuring of electronic musicians It’s little wonder that he has a back- room should suffer and die. The guy never thinks we should appreciate it.
like Akhentek, a self-described “crystalline ground in biology and “Brazilian Genet- smiled. Not once. McKibben is a perfect Here’s another moral imperative you
array technician” from Elphinstone, British ics” (which I assume is a euphemism for spokesman for death, because he looked transhumanist fools haven’t considered: we
Columbia, whose psy-trance productions ayahuasca initiation) – this guy’s eye and like a giant talking skull. owe something to people who don’t exist
are “precision engineered sonic textures in- ear are definitely trained on human evo- Resources If you pause the streaming video at yet. People who don’t exist yet are waiting
tentionally designed to induce higher fre- lution and accelerating its numerous per- 13:18, you see a shot of me, slack-jawed, in line to take our places. They can’t do that
quency mindstates.” mutations. Cascades of twittering clicks Akhentek with an expression on my face that says: unless we die. Don’t nonexistent people
Akhentek’s nuanced tracks, like the and swells of buzzing oscillations sweep www.myspace.com/akhentekmusic “This giant skull wants to kill me to give have rights? Damn right they do. The right Resources
burbling glitch of “Spectrality” or the free- through my head as I listen, seemingly re- my life meaning.” to demand our deaths. Luckily, nonexistent
floating guitar and synthesizers on his formatting my consciousness on some deep en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_beats McKibben’s dedication to the nobility people have Bill McKibben and Frances Joe Quirk
“White Girls in Saris” remix, definitely in- unconscious level. I start feeling the effects of age and death doesn’t prevent him from Fukayama speaking up for their right to kill www.joequirk.com
duce a strange, buzzing feeling – and unlike of his “rare sensitivity to frequencies” as the www.neuroacoustic.com posting a photo on his website that shows you. Which they can’t do, since they don’t
many other buzz-inducing artists, I know physical environment around me begins to him looking twenty years younger than exist. So Kass and Fukayama will kill you Bill McKibben
that he’s doing it on purpose. Binaural ripple with gauzy transparency. Michael Garfield -- Art and Music he actually is. Nor does his stance against for them, by legislating against doctors in-
myspace.com/michaelgarfield www.billmckibben.com
beats coast inaudibly across each other un- It may be a long while before we have technological enhancement prevent him terfering with your long slow death. Which
derneath warm and deep mastering, giving total agency over individual awareness, but from wearing eyeglasses. But pay atten- takes me back to my initial terror of Bill
#1 #1
40 Fall 2008 Fall 2008 41
Dear Readers,
The board of directors of Humanity+ welcomes you to this first edition of H+ Magazine, with its inspiring
stories of how emerging technologies can help elevate humanity in increasingly powerful and positive ways.
We will cover diverse fields such as nanotech, biotech, artificial intelligence and robotics, longevity medicine,
space exploration and colonization, and, of course, their legal and ethical issues.
2008 has been a watershed year for us. We launched our first ever matching grant fund drive, raising over
$75,000; we began rebranding our organization as “Humanity+”; we launched this magazine; we began
redesigning our site under www.humanityplus.org; and we created Convergence08: Bringing Life to Big
Ideas, an Unconference in partnership with other future-focused organizations.
We especially want to thank the generous financial contributions from our members, who helped make
these achievements possible, and give our deepest thanks to Bill Faloon, Brian Cartmell and Dan Stoicescu
for their unprecedented support. Their matching grants accounted for over two-thirds the money we
raised this year. Thanks, guys. We couldn’t have done this without you.
We would also like to thank our Editor RU Sirius and Art Director, DC Spensley for making our dream of
producing a quarterly magazine a reality!
In the coming year, we hope to build on our successes, growing our membership and guiding our ideas out
into the mainstream through as many forms of communication as the future allows.