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Author Topic: Science Thread (and !!SCIENCE!! Thread!)  (Read 79571 times)

Trekkin

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Re: Science Thread (and !!SCIENCE!! Thread!)
« Reply #405 on: February 20, 2019, 09:06:29 am »

I believe the magic here is this statement from the abstract you cited Trekkin.

"The extent to which such ephaptic coupling alters the functioning of neurons under physiological conditions remains unclear."


The recently published paper is not mentioning that such coupling happens (as something new), but that there is a testable communication process that matches the mechanics of this phenomenon. (eg, they found out more about the functioning of neurons under those conditions.

That's just the identify-the-gap-in-the-field boilerplate you get when recycling grant applications into papers, though; you can tell by how the next sentence begins with "to address this question, we [experimental method]."

I think this has more to do with the Journal of Physiology having an impact factor of around 5 than anything else.
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wierd

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Re: Science Thread (and !!SCIENCE!! Thread!)
« Reply #406 on: February 20, 2019, 09:09:48 am »

Hey, researchers gotta eat too you know.
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Bumber

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Re: Science Thread (and !!SCIENCE!! Thread!)
« Reply #407 on: February 20, 2019, 10:02:05 am »

"The extent to which such ephaptic coupling alters the functioning of neurons under physiological conditions remains unclear."
I'm choosing to interpret this as neuroscientists/robots discussing what sex might feel like.
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Reading his name would trigger it. Thinking of him would trigger it. No other circumstances would trigger it- it was strictly related to the concept of Bill Clinton entering the conscious mind.

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Reelya

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Re: Science Thread (and !!SCIENCE!! Thread!)
« Reply #409 on: February 23, 2019, 06:05:16 am »

Expect to see some downside to that. If removing a single gene-sequence from the genome is an automatic win:win then you'd expect it to have mutated before, and have propagated through the population.

Having said that, many possible mutations could have evolutionary downsides that we basically don't care about. i.e. things that make you objective better, but less inclined to have children.

wierd

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Re: Science Thread (and !!SCIENCE!! Thread!)
« Reply #410 on: February 23, 2019, 06:14:00 am »

Expect to see some downside to that. If removing a single gene-sequence from the genome is an automatic win:win then you'd expect it to have mutated before, and have propagated through the population.

Having said that, many possible mutations could have evolutionary downsides that we basically don't care about. i.e. things that make you objective better, but less inclined to have children.

CCR5 delta 32 already DID spread through a human population.  The European population. Through selective pressure of small pox.
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TD1

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Re: Science Thread (and !!SCIENCE!! Thread!)
« Reply #411 on: February 23, 2019, 08:21:56 am »

Yay, we're genetically betterededing!-?
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Starver

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Re: Science Thread (and !!SCIENCE!! Thread!)
« Reply #412 on: February 23, 2019, 11:19:36 am »

Noting that this is sounding pretty much the plot of various "scientist inadvertently create the post-human race that will attempt to usurp humanity's place" stories.

KHAAAAN!
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Starver

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Re: Science Thread (and !!SCIENCE!! Thread!)
« Reply #413 on: February 23, 2019, 12:54:51 pm »

Despite best efforts, the authorities' attempts to detect the two rogue Eves (inadvertantly lost in the system due to circumstances too complicated to explain, but leading to the uber-twins now at large somewhere in some unpolicable asian megacity with the superhuman ability to outthink everyone and the inate biological imperative to create the next generation) is thereby foiled due to the initially click nceved blood-tests and skin scrapings being virtually indistinguishable from any other suspects rounded up along the way. Meanwhile, their hyper-intelligent brains and other gene-X influenced organs suffice to carry their similarly, or at least partly, seeded ovaries around with more than enough carrier-eggs at birth to bootstrap the next generation deep in the slums, within the next decade and a half, away from any official response short of actual indiscriminate genocidal overkill against the many innocents in the vain hope of destroying these two among them. A plan that is only considered once it is too late anyway and trans-human supporters or stooges have already smuggled enough fully Homo Neosapiens offspring out of the area (possibly into SPAAAAAACE!!!") and outside any hope of containment.

Just sayin'!
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scourge728

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Re: Science Thread (and !!SCIENCE!! Thread!)
« Reply #414 on: February 23, 2019, 01:24:34 pm »

Why is everyone in that article of the opinion that enhancing the human brain is a bad thing? It seems like an amazing idea to me

Hanslanda

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Re: Science Thread (and !!SCIENCE!! Thread!)
« Reply #415 on: February 23, 2019, 01:26:08 pm »

Why is everyone in that article of the opinion that enhancing the human brain is a bad thing? It seems like an amazing idea to me

This. Obviously we shouldn't do it randomly and without care, but making the species better would be a good thing...
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Il Palazzo

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Re: Science Thread (and !!SCIENCE!! Thread!)
« Reply #416 on: February 23, 2019, 01:32:26 pm »

I hear they're hiring at Gattaca again.
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Hanslanda

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Re: Science Thread (and !!SCIENCE!! Thread!)
« Reply #417 on: February 23, 2019, 01:35:46 pm »

The bad guys in that movie were his parents.
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Well, we could put two and two together and write a book: "The Shit that Hans and Max Did: You Won't Believe This Shit."
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Telgin

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Re: Science Thread (and !!SCIENCE!! Thread!)
« Reply #418 on: February 23, 2019, 07:30:31 pm »

Why is everyone in that article of the opinion that enhancing the human brain is a bad thing? It seems like an amazing idea to me

This. Obviously we shouldn't do it randomly and without care, but making the species better would be a good thing...

Yeah, I think we should try to improve our species but we've got a long way to go before we can do it ethically.  We've got to make sure edits we make work as intended and actually improve things, and also that it doesn't become a thing that the have-nots never get because they can't afford it.  Things like that.
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Kagus

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Re: Science Thread (and !!SCIENCE!! Thread!)
« Reply #419 on: February 23, 2019, 07:38:21 pm »

Why is everyone in that article of the opinion that enhancing the human brain is a bad thing? It seems like an amazing idea to me

This. Obviously we shouldn't do it randomly and without care, but making the species better would be a good thing...

Yeah, I think we should try to improve our species but we've got a long way to go before we can do it ethically.  We've got to make sure edits we make work as intended and actually improve things, and also that it doesn't become a thing that the have-nots never get because they can't afford it.  Things like that.

Pretty much. Socialism babies rather than designer babies.


...actually, I just remembered an audiobook I listened to a long time ago that had similar themes; someone had engineered a "superior" form of human and then set them loose after basically nuking the world to make way for the new strain.

One of the improvements he made was to pare down on the ambiguity of modern human sexuality and courtship. Instead, his new humans would simply sing loudly while their genitals swelled and turned bright blue (something very obvious, as his enhancements also made clothes unnecessary for these inheritors of the earth).


Very interesting book. Can't remember the title. Author included some passages about a video game, while clearly having no idea how video games function.
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