More Berserker Theories

My post from several years ago on the Efficient Berserker is very popular and I wanted to extend a few ideas.

Suppose there are many intelligent alien species in the Milky Way and most of them believe in the Berserker Hypothesis. Maybe they believe because of evidence, or maybe it's just speculation.

If I believed in this I would hunker down and make sure that my species were as invisible as possible. So this can explain a portion of the Great Silence. Species want to be invisible because bad things can happen when they are found.

This is like being in the French Resistance during World War II. How do you go find other patriots without exposing yourself to the Nazis?

The world in 2030

The National Intelligence Council writes global forecasts. Here is the forecast for 2030 written in late 2012. The next forecast (for 2035) will be published in late 2016.

The discussion of black swans was interesting. I disagree with the narrow focus of financial disasters, they focus on only on the Euro zone. I think there is a very high chance of a nightmare financial collapse in the United States. The reason is that the US Government cannot and will not effectively police the financial markets. Financial derivatives have skyrockted recently, including the frightening bespoke tranche opportunity. In addition the US is almost certain to default on its debt by the year 2030. Medicare will bankrupt our country and there is no political leadership to avoid it.

The discussion of the pandemic was good but there was no mention of a more likely pandemic, not for humans, but for our food chain. Rust is a powerful fungus which is devastating the world's wheat crops, and it is moving from the Middle East towards the breadbasket of India.

Humor

I think the greatest creation of humanity, the greatest achievement, the highest we can aspire, is comedy, humor, and laughter.

Study after study shows that success, good health, and satisfaction result from happiness. Happiness is the cause of all the good things we want in our lives.

Transcranial Stimulation for Asperger's

Here are a few more articles discussing the use of transcranial stimulation to treat Asperger's. We are on the cusp of a revolution in neurotherapy. In a few years patients will go to brain therapy clinics as frequently as they go to physical therapy today.

Another exciting idea is to combine nutritional and/or drug dosages with transcranial stimulation. Just as physical therapy can repair a frozen shoulder, neurostimulation will be able to repair cognitive impairment and degradation.

Nutritional Supplements

I wish that Ray and Terry were more forthcoming about optimal nutritional supplements instead of just offering a few hundred different options. My guess is there are legal issues with recommending specific compounds and dosages.

If I were going to take one and only one supplement what should I take? Or what if I only wanted to take 2 supplements?

I think the answer is Vitamin D first, then magnesium second (preferably as the citrate form to enhance absorption).  So what is third?  Omega-3 oils or Vitamin C or CoQ-10 (as ubiquinol)? I'm willing to take about 10 pills per day, but not 40.  So which 10 would you recommend?

I understand that some of this depends on deficiencies, and everyone is different. But it would be easy to make a recommendation in the case of no deficiency.  So what would be the top 10 supplements to take for a person with no deficiencies?

The Singularity may be far off

Last summer Tim Dettmers published "The Brain vs Deep Learning Part I: Computational Complexity" an in-depth analysis of the computational power of the human mind, and also of the future trends in high performance computing (HPC). He makes a strong argument that not only have we underestimated the computing power of a human brain, we have also overestimated the growth potential of HPC.

I found this to be one of the most serious and extensive blog posts I have ever seen. I also thought his topics were interesting and relevant for the Singularity.

In the end he presented no obvious reason that the Singularity is impossible, or so far in the future we don't need to discuss it. His analysis predicts the Singularity may be decades or even a century further in the future than Ray Kurzweil has predicted. So we may not live to see it, especially if all we have are CMOS transistors to get there.

But if Optalysys or D-Wave or other new platforms are successful we should have the opportunity to see it, especially if we use Ray Kurzweil's methods for life-extension.