Science - strawberry float YEAH

[iup=3523953]Pontius Pilate[/iup] wrote:I had a crazy dream last night. I invented a receiver which could pick up radio waves from the past. All you had to do was scan the skies for traces of old radio waves, and you could listen to them as if they were broadcasting live. This led me to discovering that radio waves had been transmitted from Earth long before we invented the "first" radios.

Anyway, is such a device completely impossible?

This probably doesn't belong in this thread. And I probably shouldn't sleep without the aircon on. The heat is clearly making me hallucinate whacky gooseberry fool.

Congratulations you dreamed up a spec script for The Twilight Zone!

(horrible 80s revival twilight zone only I'm afraid)

PostRe: Science - strawberry float YEAH by **Meep** » Sat Aug 30, 2014 11:18 pm

Magnetic brain stimulation treatment shown to boost memory
Non-invasive transcranial technique leads to 24-hour-long improvement in memory function and could lead to new treatments for Alzheimer's and other conditions.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014 ... y-function

Yeah, that's great for people with memory loss but why couldn't everyone use this? It would make life so much easier.

It's like a degauss button for the mind. I strawberry floating loved that button.

PostRe: Science - strawberry float YEAH by **That** » Sun Aug 31, 2014 3:03 am

I knew of students back at Oxford who allegedly took ADHD medicine to boost their concentration. And at least one who developed an honest to goodness medical dependence on caffeine. It does happen.

And I'm not convinced it shouldn't, either, given such things can be made affordable. High-stress job where your memory is strained? No reason not to give people drugs to help at the going prescription rate of £7/month or whatever.

Corazon de Leon

I'm not 100% sure if it's ADHD medication, but Ritalin use is apparently quite widespread amongst the student populations of the world. I knew of a group of guys who went to Glasgow University and would use slow release Ritalin tablets to help their concentration. It worked as well - to the best of my knowledge they all ended up with degrees.

PostRe: Science - strawberry float YEAH by **That** » Sun Aug 31, 2014 3:58 am

A different solution to any long-term health implications would be to make better drugs. (Is there evidence for any negative long-term effects of ADHD medication? Do people with ADHD die earlier on aggregate? Genuine question!)

It's not discount transhumanism, it's just transhumanism!

Smart drugs are a perfectly respectable and ultimately complimentary form of augmentation to (say) cybernetics.

PostRe: Science - strawberry float YEAH by **Meep** » Sun Aug 31, 2014 10:23 am

It's not actually altering your physiology, just stimulating it, so think of it like one of those electric toning things for your abs but only for your brain instead.

So temporary stimulus to grant heightened ability is not transhuman? What about a course of constant temporary stimulus, in effect granting permanent improvment?

[iup=3551196]Karl[/iup] wrote:A different solution to any long-term health implications would be to make better drugs. (Is there evidence for any negative long-term effects of ADHD medication? Do people with ADHD die earlier on aggregate? Genuine question!)

It's not discount transhumanism, it's just transhumanism! Smart drugs are a perfectly respectable and ultimately complimentary form of augmentation to (say) cybernetics.

A fan of Kurzweil, I presume?

PostRe: Science - strawberry float YEAH by **Meep** » Sun Aug 31, 2014 12:17 pm

Saying drugs make you transhuman would like saying I just augmented myself by drinking a cup of coffee this morning.

Well, you did grind up your real coffee beans and replaced them with super-human cyborg coffee beans....

PostRe: Science - strawberry float YEAH by **That** » Sun Aug 31, 2014 2:40 pm

Meep wrote:Saying drugs make you transhuman would like saying I just augmented myself by drinking a cup of coffee this morning.

Transhumanism is obviously a spectrum. If you regularly have coffee to wake yourself up faster than you would wake up usually, I would argue that is a minor example of augmentation. Taking "smart drugs" to make you faster, stronger, smarter, etc. are larger augmentations. The abilities of a human who used such medicine could vastly outstrip that of a standard human. I think that more "physical" augmentation is great too, though. I'd like to have both. Might happen in our lifetimes, if we're willing to be early adopters.

[iup=3551261]TimeGhost[/iup] wrote:A fan of Kurzweil, I presume?

In principle. I haven't read his books yet, though.

Last edited by Igor on Sun Aug 31, 2014 3:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Modafinil is quite popular amongst medics at my university. You can sometimes tell who uses it because it apparently makes you need to piss every hour.

Final year this year, and with a 20 hour a week job as well, I'd take some tasty transhumanism if need be. I might call one of the numbers written on the library toilet wall.

[iup=3551441]Karl[/iup] wrote:I'd like to have both. Might happen in our lifetimes, if we're willing to be early adopters.

I'd be well up for that. As long as they can promise me a quick, painless death if it all goes Algernon.

PostRe: Science - strawberry float YEAH by **Meep** » Sun Aug 31, 2014 6:43 pm

[iup=3551450]Igor[/iup] wrote:Modafinil is quite popular amongst medics at my university. You can sometimes tell who uses it because it apparently makes you need to piss every hour.

Final year this year, and with a 20 hour a week job as well, I'd take some tasty transhumanism if need be. I might call one of the numbers written on the library toilet wall.

You have highlighted one of the potential hazards of human enhancement. IMO, we should be using such technology to improve our lives but what if we just end up using it so that we can work more and more without the need for downtime? In that instance it would have a really negative impact. I'm sure no one wants people turning into tireless machines slaving away for their wages and spending every spare hour attempting to gain more qualifications and means of advancement. Market forces might conspire to put such pressure on people that the only way they can hold down a job without burnout is by drugging up. Unfortunately I can see that as a real possibility if our current liberal attitudes towards the economy and work do not change.

I don't think drug use can really be considered transhumanism: You're not going beyond human, so much as exploiting the design which is already in place.

PostRe: Science - strawberry float YEAH by **False** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 3:45 pm

http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/09/ ... f-quasars/

The last paragraphs are particularly interesting. Quasars seem to appear in hives of fairly clustered galaxies which themselves obviously appear in fairly busy intersections of the universe. Big implications for large scale matter/energy interaction!

[iup=3551489]TimeGhost[/iup] wrote:
[iup=3551441]Karl[/iup] wrote:I'd like to have both. Might happen in our lifetimes, if we're willing to be early adopters.

I'd be well up for that. As long as they can promise me a quick, painless death if it all goes Algernon.

I'd definitely be up for cybernetic augmentation if it would help overcome my disability, even if it was a 10% improvement to my muscle strength my quality of life would be dramatically improved.

A full robotic exoskeleton would be ideal though.

[iup=3574827]Ironhide[/iup] wrote:
[iup=3551489]TimeGhost[/iup] wrote:
[iup=3551441]Karl[/iup] wrote:I'd like to have both. Might happen in our lifetimes, if we're willing to be early adopters.

I'd be well up for that. As long as they can promise me a quick, painless death if it all goes Algernon.

I'd definitely be up for cybernetic augmentation if it would help overcome my disability, even if it was a 10% improvement to my muscle strength my quality of life would be dramatically improved.

A full robotic exoskeleton would be ideal though.

PostRe: Science - strawberry float YEAH by **False** » Fri Sep 26, 2014 1:00 pm

Adam Jensen doesnt have an exoskeleton. Robotic limbs with enhanced endoskeleton.

Science - strawberry float YEAH

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