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Neurons Can Be Changed From One Type To Another, Communication Paths Rewired (harvard.edu)
schwit1 writes: A newly published study from Harvard biologists [here's a link to the paywalled paper's summary] shows how neurons can be dramatically changed from one type into another from within the brain and how neighboring neurons recognize the reprogrammed cells as different and adapt by changing how they communicate with them. Building on earlier work in which they disproved neurobiology dogma by "reprogramming" neurons — turning one form of neuron into another — in the brains of living animals, Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers have now shown that the networks of communication among reprogrammed neurons and their neighbors can also be changed, or "rewired."
"Well, sure," said a brainwashing industry spokesman.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
Let me be the first to say "uh oh", not because I think it's a bad thing (I don't, I think it's an amazing discovery) but because right now some fuckface ad exec is rubbing his sweaty little hands together wondering how he can implement this to sell more fucking widgets.
And his counterparts in the government are doing the same thing, albeit with different aims in mind.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
This is the beginning of the cure for severe autism, the symptoms of a extensive brain damage and such, and of course a step towards useful machine-brain interfaces.
Roger Penrose conjectures that the human soul, the secret sauce that would prevent any AI from becoming fully human, resides in a quantum connection with the microtubules in neurons. How would the neuronal plasticity envisioned here impact that?
The deniers were undeterred and everybody benefits.
See subject: I've said it before here on /. - & if you "workout" your brain, just like the body, it gets stronger... Academia for myself personally was the BIGGEST PROOF of it for me (once I found something I really loved in computing, seeing it changing the world, MOSTLY for the better & as a 1st string NCAA Lettering Athlete in the sport of Lacrosse for a national champ... I did the MOST changing for the better in that timeframe imo).
* :)
(Conversely, however - IF you abuse it, you destroy it too...)
APK
P.S.=> Unfortunately, in my time, I've run into heroin addicts (most destroy themselves or die) - many the past 2-3 yrs. mostly in the line of business I'm in mainly (consulting or contracting in computing on the side) - 1 is in recovery & doing fine for 5++ yrs. & he told me of how it "reprograms the brain" (This makes sense in the 'bad way' from above & as far as how it changes them mentally - it's ALL THEY LIVE FOR when they're still 'hooked on smack') but not in a good way - they forget about having goals & dreams to shoot for (not needle shooting either) - it's sad (they were once someone's little boy or girl, you know?)
... apk
Sorry dude but nobody alive today in the US experienced slavery. Stop being the victim that you never were. The only way to move on is to move forward. If you keep acting the part of the victim nothing will improve. Protest against the current wrongs of today. Change has happened and will continue to happen. Our world keeps getting better. Would you prefer to have lived 60 years ago or now? Imagine how much better life will be for your great great grandchildren.
For decades and decades the consensus was that neurons don't change. The overwhelming MAJORITY of researchers believed that to be true. If it had mattered, government policies would have been aligned with that overwhelmingly supported belief. Because that's what all the science and scientists said was the truth.
But it wasn't ...
Funny thing about 'dogma', nobody realises it's dogma while it's happening.
We the lay public, see this announcement as science progressing. Three decades ago, well we would not even have been treated to the idea. So what ideas are being suppressed now?
"Consensus" in science is _always_ a political construct.
Actually, some people who come from other countries have indeed experienced slavery. It's pretty much everywhere, even in the western world.
These numbers might seem high, but the UN estimate of 27 to 30 million is still an awful lot of people. White slaves DO exist. And India, with 14 million, easily beats out China with 3.2 million and Russia with 1 million. Strange how the world's largest democracy is also has the world's largest population of slaves. Even on a per capita basis, India is far worse than Russia and China.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
The problem is not race, or slavery, it is money. This is a problem that capitalism creates. Person x has no ideas at all and 1 million dollars and person y has a brilliant idea and has 10 dollars. Person x invests their 1 million dollars in a and makes 100 million dollars. Person y spends the 10 dollars he has so he does not die of starvation, and has zero money to make his brilliant idea a reality. He takes his idea to a patent attorney that wants 10,000 dollars that he does not have. Yet, somehow he manages to scrape up the money. He takes is idea to 100 different angel investors, they shoot him down and steal his idea, changing it just a little bit with canned techniques to make it "better". They give the idea to one of their kids and give them all the funding they need to start a business. The business does very poorly, due to poor management. Then along comes person x who buys the business. Person x becomes a multi-billionaire. Person y dies of starvation due to the massive debt he took on.
That is capitalism for you. What a wonderful system we have created.
What in the world does what you posted have to do with the comment I replied to or my reply? Oh, right, NOTHING.
The original poster wrote: "Sorry dude but nobody alive today in the US experienced slavery."
I replied with a link that showed the US has an estimated 60,000 people living in it as slaves right now (human trafficking, women being promised jobs as "dancers" and being forced int prostitution and drugs, etc.)
This has nothing to do with capitalism - slavery has existed under every type of economic model.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.