Human is the awkward liminal phase between animal and machine

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Paņemt no Švāba “The Fourth Industrial Revolution” tos fragmentus, kur ir runa par “fusion of technologies across the physical, digital, and biological worlds”, “designer beings and nanotechnologies” un “more aggressive funding for ambitious research programmes”, izlaist tos, kur tiek aicināts ieviest globālo egalitārismu un panoptikonu, aizvietot pēdējos ar izpēti decentralizācijas, merkantilu DAO-augmentētu pilsētvalstu, uz brīvu asociēšanos bāzētas diverģējošas ekspansijas un “patchwork” ģeopolitikas virzienos un būs noiets diezgan liels ceļa gabals manu pēdējo gadu uzskatu par tehnoloģijām un politiku virzienā.

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Things I want:

• a PDF of this article

Things I don’t want:

• an “enhanced” PDF
• an “interactive” PDF
• some ReadCube bullshit
• a PDF of this and some other articles in this issue

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I think that, from now on, whenever anyone claims that anthropogenic climate change is a myth or a conspiracy, instead of explaining that increase of CO₂ in the atmosphere leads to rise in ambient temperatures, I should say something along these lines:

“The roto-vibrational absorption lines, determined as the eigenvalues of the quantum oscillator model of atmospheric molecules like CO₂, interact with specific wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation emitted from the surface and isotropically from the atmosphere. The envelope of actual emission follows the black-body Planck function but with spectral features corresponding to the lines of the emitting gas and surface, collisionally broadened.

For radiation emitted from the surface, Wien’s displacement law dictates that the bulk of the emitted energy falls within a few μm on either side of about 10 μm. CO₂ absorbs in this wavelength and, following from Kirchoff’s law, also re-emits at that same wavelength, resulting in an increase of downward infrared flux convergence. The resultant radiative heating is a function of the local atmospheric density and the volumetric heat capacity at a constant pressure, assuming a collisionally-equilibrium gas with a Maxwellian velocity distribution, with the energy being radiated isotropically, including the 2π sr solid angle towards the ground.

Some of that radiation makes it to the surface where it may be absorbed but the precise value of heating must be determined by solving the Schwarzchild equation of radiative transfer, given known spectral properties of all present gases and taking into account the Doppler broadening of the quantum emission line.

Which part of this do you disagree with?”

In so many words, science communication is very important but it requires the public to be able to distinguish evidence from deeply held opinions. Again, teaching the basics of rationality and so raising the sanity waterline seems to be more important than ever.

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No pēdējā laika labākā populārā līmeņa raksta par cognitive bias tēmu.

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A reflection of our ultimate understanding of a complex system is our ability to control its behavior.

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My actual life right now. Courtesy of @ResearchMark.

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Gravitācijas viļņi – beidzot oficiāli reģistrēti, iespaidīgs LIGO un Virgo komandu sasniegums.

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Izmantojot plastinācijas un krionikas kombināciju, izstrādāta metode, kas ātri un precīzi saglabā pilnu smadzeņu struktūru līdz atsevišķu sinapšu izšķirtspējai. Izstrādne ieguvusi BPF Small Mammal Prize balvu un projekts tiek ievirzīts nākamajā stadijā.

Focus now shifts to the final Large Mammal phase of the contest which requires an intact pig brain to be preserved with similar fidelity in a manner that could be directly adapted to terminal patients in a hospital setting. [..] This result directly answers a main skeptical and scientific criticism against cryonics – that it does not provably preserve the delicate synaptic circuitry of the brain. As such, this research sets the stage for renewed interest within the scientific community, and offers a potential challenge to medical researchers to develop a human surgical procedure based on these successful animal experiments.

Preses relīze, publikācija “Cryobiology” žurnālā (pilns teksts).

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Kārtējo reizi akūti izjūtu diennakts stundu nepietiekamību (vai iespējas uz laiku pavairot sevi vairākos eksemplāros trūkumu).

BTW, vietējie bio/neiro cilvēki (panacea?) – kā jūs tulkotu “dendritic spines”? “Sariņi”? “Dzelksnīši”? “Izaugumi”? Ja arī eksistē akceptēts latviskais tulkojums, tad līdz šim neesmu tādu atradis. Pats pagaidām sliecos uz “izaugumiem”.

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Pilnībā norobežojos no prof. Kalviņa teiktā (ja pārstāstīts korekti) un kā zinātnieks zinātniekam prasu pierādījumus, kas ņemtu vērā pašreizējos datus.