ideal

First International In Vitro Meat Symposium

2008-03-07T08:02:00Z

The In Vitro Meat Consortium will be having an In Vitro Meat Symposium in Aas, Norway April 9-11. Topics will include separation and creation of stem cell cultures, large scale muscle tissue engineering, a feasibility study, and ongoing R&D on the subject. I, of course, will not be going seeing as how my budget doesn't allow me to go any further than Denver for things like this, but if anyone finds themselves taking the trip I know I'd greatly appreciate a rundown of the events. For more information on the subject you can look to New Harvest's website.

I don't know how many are as interested in this as myself but I hope it interests many more people than I expect. Successful production on artificial meat would be a great step toward efficiency and safety in our food supply.

Plus it might keep some people from thinking so horribly of me just because I like cheeseburgers.

Chaining Prometheus

2006-06-20T02:47:00Z

I've noticed an unfortunate trend lately of people trying to incorporate revised political and spiritual views into Transhumanism. I believe this is a mistake of epic scale. The only function these groups serve is to relegate a valuable societal movement to cult status. I, of course, am guilty of this myself, but unlike those I take issue with, I keep my views mostly internal(the exception being when my views and their relationship to H+ comes up in conversation). As self identified transhumanists and futurists(and even Prometheans and Transtopians) we should be making it clear that scientific progress doesn't care what your religious and political views are. The only real issue is that we all want to see the tech happen.

An accompanying issue to this(which I believe to be a substitute for religion in many cases) is that of immortality. Bring the concepts up, sure, but don't tell people who haven't recieved thorough evidence that you're not a fruitcake that you plan on living billions of years as a computer drifting around encased in an artificial moon. It doesn't help the cause. Once people who aren't already transhumanists hear this they immediately lump transhumanists with self identified Jedi(which in many cases is also an unfortunate false assumption about people's grasp on reality) and geeks who spend all their time in their mother's basement playing Dungeons and Dragons and dreaming that they will one day be transmuted into elves.

Please, when discussing Transhumanism with those who have not been 'initiated'(I use this term because it's likely to be interpreted and used by those mistaken about the nature of H+ under it's traditional meaning) keep it simple and don't imply that for it to happen everyone will have to follow your cultural views. It will help the progress of Transhumanism and, as a result, help the progress of the tech as more people support it.

HPV vaccine headed for FDA approval.

2006-05-19T11:50:00Z

Vaccine being considered for approval for the most common causes of cervical and penile cancer.

A Food and Drug advisory committee voted 13-0 on five separate times to endorse Merck and Co.'s Gardasil. The anticipated cost of the vaccine, administered in three shots over six months, is $300 to $500 — a possible impediment to widespread vaccination campaigns.

The drug protects against the two types of human papillomavirus (HPV) believed responsible for about 70 percent of cervical cancer cases. The vaccine also protects against two other virus types that cause 90 percent of genital wart cases. All four virus types are sexually transmitted.

The FDA is not required to follow the recommendations of its outside panels of experts, but usually does. An agency decision is expected by June 8.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,196089,00.html

Partisanship

2005-09-26T01:51:05Z

    I'm a bioliberal. That's the only category I neatly fit into. Many people here would consider me a libertarian, some would consider me a moderate socialist. I have views that fit both of these classifications. With my broad range of political views, I am incredibly stressed by the hatred this board has for a large portion of the American public. Just because somebody voted for Bush doesn't mean they want to oppress all free thinkers. Hell, I voted for Bush the first time around.

    Many of the people with this abject hatred for them have shown themselves not to be free thinkers anyway. People here seem to hate anyone who agrees with the president on any subject. People have shown a hatred for religious people. They've shown a hatred of those who support the war. They've shown a hatred of people who don't blame the president for a damn weather pattern in New Orleans. They've shown a hatred for all these people simply because they don't tow the preferred party line. Surely these are not the enlightened people who will help to usher in a new era of health, knowledge, and prosperity.

    I beg everyone who reads this to try and look at the situation from different angles. You're an atheist, that's cool. Don't use your irreligion to fuel a holy war against christians though. You support abortion, great, just don't rail against those who disagree with you. Most of all, put down your copy of 'Stupid White Men' and go out and learn what's going on yourself. If you can't look at things calmly and rationally, we'll never make it to that prosperous future we're all hoping for.

Immortality for the Decrepit

2005-08-19T00:31:01Z

I'm sitting in my sister's house in Waukegan Illinois right now. A mere fourty five miles from where they're currently holding the International Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine and I, of course, don't have the money to attend. Sitting here thinking of it however, I realize that I have a bit of a problem with it. By the age of twelve, I had done enough irreversable damage to my body that doctors have been known to pity me for the pain they expect me to be experiencing for the rest of my life.

I don't want this body forever. If it were possible, I'd pick up a new one tomorrow. It would make life much easier. I certainly don't want to die, I would prefer not to until the universe dies with me, but I don't think I can handle more than a century in the battered vehicle my consciousness currently inhabits, which brings us to consciousness uploading.

Who's to say that once we accomplish this, it'll still be the same person rather than a facsimile of the original. I don't think I'd be comfortable with any guarantee on that unless someone devised some sort of interface which kept the conciousness active while the brain died off maintaining one continuous unit throughout. All of the uploading ideas you hear involve creating that copy which may not be me.

So what comes of this? How can you know that the person being created is still you? Even if it is, could you still consider yourself human? Perhaps these questions will be answered when theory becomes reality.