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Removing the "middlemen" is a form of improving efficiency, which is the universal instrumental goal. Although this would affect negatively to those middlemen, since they would lose income, or even their jobs. This has happened to extinct jobs like telephone switchboard operators. Many other jobs are about to follow suit.
Naval (@naval) tweeted at 0:23 PM on Thu, Dec 30, 2021:Evolution only has to use genes to get to a universal computer species, and then the whole system switches to memetic evolution.The product of memetic evolution, aka knowledge, allows that species to modify genes and its environment directly after that.(https://twitter.com/naval/status/1476423727529152512?t=6AXZpa9ng0ol9tBDUzCFYg&s=03)
"I think, therefore I am" is perhaps the most famous phrase in the history of Western philosophy. Most people have heard it, many know what it means, but fewer still are aware of the myriad debates surrounding its meaning, translation, and success. I certainly wasn't before encountering it at university, where I chose to specialise in early modern philosophy.This video is an introduction to "the cogito", as it is often called, and a brief exploration of some of the debates that surround it.(A note: I refer to a horse and a horn as a Humean "simple idea" - this is not quite right: a simple idea is one which cannot be broken down into further simple ideas (such as colours, smells, etc.). To explain this nuance would have been an irrelevant detour, and the point ought still carry. A unicorn is, to correctly invoke Hume, a complex idea made up of further complex ideas, made up of simple ideas, which originate in simple impressions.)(Note 2: Some empiricists will claim that knowledge comes *primarily* from our sense data, allowing for some limited a priori knowledge, and still call themselves empiricists.)0:00 Introduction1:05 1: Rationalism3:58 2: The Evil Demon6:36 3: The Cogito10:16 4: Deduction or Intuition?15:30 5: A Mistranslation of Descartes?18:35 6: Certainty vs Truth20:43 Closing
Jan 12, 2022Study challenges evolutionary theory that DNA mutations are randomby UC DavisStudy challenges evolutionary theory that DNA mutations are randomStudying the genome of thale cress, a small flowering weed, led to a new understanding about DNA mutations. Credit: Pádraic FloodA simple roadside weed may hold the key to understanding and predicting DNA mutation, according to new research from University of California, Davis, and the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Germany. The findings, published January 12 in the journal Nature, radically change our understanding of evolution and could one day help researchers breed better crops or even help humans fight cancer.Mutations occur when DNA is damaged and left unrepaired, creating a new variation. The scientists wanted to know if mutation was purely random or something deeper. What they found was unexpected."We always thought of mutation as basically random across the genome," said Grey Monroe, an assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences who is lead author on the paper. "It turns out that mutation is very non-random and it's non-random in a way that benefits the plant. It's a totally new way of thinking about mutation."Instead of randomness they found patches of the genome with low mutation rates. In those patches, they were surprised to discover an over-representation of essential genes, such as those involved in cell growth and gene expression."These are the really important regions of the genome," Monroe said. "The areas that are the most biologically important are the ones being protected from mutation."The areas are also sensitive to the harmful effects of new mutations. "DNA damage repair seems therefore to be particularly effective in these regions," Weigel added.
The next speaker, CSAIL principal investigator and professor of electrical engineering and computer science Manolis Kellis, started off by suggesting what sounded like an unattainable goal — using AI to “put an end to evolution as we know it.” Looking at it from a computer science perspective, he said, what we call evolution is basically a brute force search. “You’re just exploring all of the search space, creating billions of copies of every one of your programs, and just letting them fight against each other. This is just brutal. And it’s also completely slow. It took us billions of years to get here.” Might it be possible, he asked, to speed up evolution and make it less messy?The answer, Kellis said, is that we can do better, and that we’re already doing better: “We’re not killing people like Sparta used to, throwing the weaklings off the mountain. We are truly saving diversity.”Knowledge, moreover, is now being widely shared, passed on “horizontally” through accessible information sources, he noted, rather than “vertically,” from parent to offspring. “I would like to argue that competition in the human species has been replaced by collaboration. Despite having a fixed cognitive hardware, we have software upgrades that are enabled by culture, by the 20 years that our children spend in school to fill their brains with everything that humanity has learned, regardless of which family came up with it. This is the secret of our great acceleration” — the fact that human advancement in recent centuries has vastly out-clipped evolution’s sluggish pace.The next step, Kellis said, is to harness insights about evolution in order to combat an individual’s genetic susceptibility to disease. “Our current approach is simply insufficient,” he added. “We’re treating manifestations of disease, not the causes of disease.” A key element in his lab’s ambitious strategy to transform medicine is to identify “the causal pathways through which genetic predisposition manifests. It’s only by understanding these pathways that we can truly manipulate disease causation and reverse the disease circuitry.”
Why are billion dollar corporate bailouts the American status quo, but bailing out struggling people is a socialist nightmare? It's almost like the priorities of this country are a little skewed...
'Higher consciousness' sounds mystical and possibly irritating. It shouldn't. It just captures how we see things when we go beyond our own egos. FURTHER READING“The term ‘higher consciousness’ is often used by spiritually-minded people to describe important but hard-to-reach mental states.Hindu sages, Christian monks and Buddhist ascetics all speak of reaching moments of ‘higher consciousness’ – through meditation or chanting, fasting or pilgrimages...”
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXZoO-FjJyQThe Hypocrisy of Bailouts | The Problem With The Economy | The Problem With Jon Stewart | Apple TV+QuoteWhy are billion dollar corporate bailouts the American status quo, but bailing out struggling people is a socialist nightmare? It's almost like the priorities of this country are a little skewed...The clip in the last minute is a gem.
Here are the perspective from extreme ends of both sides. Extreme capitalism sees least productive people consume more resources than what they can produce. Getting rid of them will make the overall society better off. On the other hand, extreme socialism contends that everyone has the same share of available resources. Each side see the other with horror.
https://blog.mindvalley.com/wisdom-vs-intelligence/What Is Wisdom Vs Intelligence?Intelligence can be defined as the ability to acquire and apply the information you collect. Wisdom, on the other hand, is directly associated with experience as opposed to cold, hard facts. It’s more complex and personal. When we draw on wisdom, we’re using a rich history of experience to help us make decisions. Intelligence can be improved, but wisdom must be built.
Wisdom :the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the quality of being wise.the soundness of an action or decision with regard to the application of experience, knowledge, and good judgment.Intelligence :the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.Intellect :the faculty of reasoning and understanding objectively, especially with regard to abstract or academic matters.the understanding or mental powers of a particular person.
Extreme capitalism sees least productive people consume more resources than what they can produce. Getting rid of them will make the overall society better off.