I totally concur. I was planning on getting a P85 Tesla with some of my Bitcoin profits, but the price hikes and additional required option add-ons (red brake calipers, CF spoiler) really turned me off. Nicely equipped build is $100k after tax breaks, and $110,000 after sales tax in CA. Also the Tesla LED running lights and tail lights look dated.
Decided the BITCAR would be put in production as a Porsche Macan S. Just as sporty, more comfortable seats, better sound, adaptive cruise control, anti-collision auto-braking, roof rails and cooler running lights. $67k (75 after sales tax). Worse nav and crappy gas milage tho 17/23. Saved $35,000, got a nice, though less revolutionary car.
Nope. They don't have enough computing power for a 51% attack anymore. Until they build their own bitcoin mining ASICs at least. The network is running at nearly 1 petaHash / second, with each hash performing ~1,300 32bit adds. So, in very apples to oranges terms, the network is secured by 1,300 petaFLOPS (and rising at ~2.5% PER DAY). The sum total FLOPS of the top500 supercomputer list from June 2013 is 223.6 petaFLOPS.
What is the mechanism that makes subjectivity exist?
Oh boy... This question is the exact reason I went into the field. I have no idea, but I hope we get the answer before I die.
At this point we are still just poking around in a vast mess of goo hoping to find some neural correlates of perception or motor planning or consciousness. Giving a mechanistic explanation for how these activity patterns produce subjective experience is going to take massive efforts, and maybe a leap of 'faith'. Probably the most progress will be made in areas of sensory perception or motor control, where we can be precisely quantitative about either the sensory input or motor output. Then we can record activity within various areas of the circuits responsible for a given modality, do high resolution reconstruction of the structure and connections between cells in that circuit, and then perturb the circuit, buy selectively silencing or activating functional groups of neurons on a trial by trial basis to probe how changing the circuit modifies the perception. Add to this the challenge of having to 'read-out' these effects via the behavior of an animal, rather than what a human can describe (who wants to volunteer to have channelrhodopsin virus injected into their head and a fiberoptic laser guide installed through their skull??). I don't think I'll work myself out of a job any time soon.:)
Quantum theory has nothing relevant to say about the many questions of conciousness outlined in the Koch and Crick review. How do we bind components of a visual scene into a single object? etc,
The only place where quantum theory might have some impact is on the illusion of free will. Why do you have the feeling that you could make one of many possible decisions? Why is human action not entirely predictable?
It really boils down to the question, does 1 electron make a difference? Maybe, but probably not.
Quantum mechanics tends to break down on the scale of single proteins, and I'm not sure that it is fair to call the thermal noise of opening and closing ion channels a true 'quantum' effect... But lets say that a 'quantum' thermal noise event or some electron wiggle drives a single voltage-gated ion channel to open or close at a given time. And the neuron that the channel resides is in, this single channel out of 10s or 100s of thousands in the neuron, is so close to firing threshold that the channel contributes enough current to drive the single neuron to add an action potential. What impact does that extra action potential have on the network and on the brain? Is it washed out in a sea of billions of spikes per second? Or does that perturbation magnify and drive the brain into a different state (thought). Is this where the unpredictability of human action, and our apparent free will comes from? Maybe... But more likely is that the precise variation of massive and specific sensory inputs into the brain overwhelm any of this quantum/thermal noise.
Quantum theory isn't needed to explain chaos, and I think brain dynamics most closely resemble a semi-chaotic system, with many possible attractor states (correlates of conscious and unconscious thoughts) that one can switch between. We don't yet really know how we can seem to volitionally switch between them, but neither I nor most professional neuroscientists I've met (including many many physicists) think the answer lies with quantum mechanics. Rather, its is something that will hopefully be uncovered with a combination of dense electrical and optical recordings of brain activity during awake behavior that are used to constrain mathematical models of network dynamics.
Professional Neuroscientist here... In fact, I'm recording from a sensory neuron that is partially responsible for the conciousness of an awake behaving mouse right now while browsing slashdot.
There is no reason to think that quantum physics has anything to do with the nature of conciousness. It is not useful to explain free will, or the illusion of free will, of the qualia of objects, or the steadyness of perception on a background of constantly varying spike rates in the brain.
Perhaps the best, short, free, relatively recent summary of the field was written by Christof Koch and Francis Crick, A Framework for Conciousness, and is available here :
http://papers.klab.caltech.edu/29/1/438.pdf
I'm still a bit confused as to how he is so confident that this is how the neocortex works given that this is still one of the 23 unsolved problems in system neuroscience. But hey, he made a lot of money off Palm, that gives him way more street cred than people who have been working on this problem for their whole lives.
Or it could become something like Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which was set up as a tax shelter for Howard's aviation income and now is by far the largest private funding organization for high-risk, high-impact biomedical research.
I'm guessing they can afford the lawyers it would take to write the foundation's mandatory goals into it's charter.
Red Bull was first (1984!) and has by far the greatest sales and global reach, being a weakened clone of Krating Daeng from Thailand and starting in Austria. I wish I could try some of the read Thai drink...
Nothing beats a iced red bull on a chairlift after a few runs. Nothing. Small can size is good to carry around and the right dose. In America, bigger usually means better, but when you are talking caf. and sugar injections, a moderate dose is better. Sugarfree Red Bull is astoundingly similar to sugared Red Bull, as the bitter aftertaste masks the artificial sweeteners.
For an example of EM that DNA does abosrb you need only look at UV radiation. DNA absorbs a roughly gaussian peak at around 260nm, falling to near 0 around 320nm. That's why short wavelength UV causes skin cancer while longer wavelength is OK (though it can cause opacity of the cornea). In fact, the method we use to determine the concentration and purity of DNA in a fluid is based on the absorbtion profile around 260nm.
DNA does not absorb energy in that frequency band. Hence, from a mechanistic standpoint, the probability of a genetic mutation occuring from this type of radiation exposure is negligible. Introduction of flourescent lighting also corresponded to the introduction of atmospheric nuclear testing. That type of radiation, derived from the generated isotopes is absorbable and is a much more likely culprit of the many increasing woes of society (as well as improved diagnostics.)
From my inbox this morning... Note the last line...
X-Sender: -------@hesiod
Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2005 13:49:25 -0500
To: ---@mit.edu
From: ------@mit.edu
Subject: personal request
Hey. So I'm going to California this Wednesday. I have several papers due on monday. It would be quite nice to work on them on the airplane. Having a laptop for this venture would be quite helpful. For all these reasons, I'm asking if anyone happens to have a laptop they would be willing to lend me for the weekend. Obviously, if you do so, you will have the use of my computer for the weekend.
It has half life 2 and a killer graphics card... (geforce 6800)
GRYNKIEWICZ G, POENIE M, TSIEN RY
JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY
260 (6): 3440-3450 1985
Times Cited : 14512
Roger Tsien must be up soon, he invented the field of fluroescent biosensors. Both with the small molecule dyes and the development of GFP into a useful molecular tag and genetically encoded FRET sensor element.
Slashdot Mirror
I totally concur. I was planning on getting a P85 Tesla with some of my Bitcoin profits, but the price hikes and additional required option add-ons (red brake calipers, CF spoiler) really turned me off. Nicely equipped build is $100k after tax breaks, and $110,000 after sales tax in CA. Also the Tesla LED running lights and tail lights look dated. Decided the BITCAR would be put in production as a Porsche Macan S. Just as sporty, more comfortable seats, better sound, adaptive cruise control, anti-collision auto-braking, roof rails and cooler running lights. $67k (75 after sales tax). Worse nav and crappy gas milage tho 17/23. Saved $35,000, got a nice, though less revolutionary car.
Nope. They don't have enough computing power for a 51% attack anymore. Until they build their own bitcoin mining ASICs at least. The network is running at nearly 1 petaHash / second, with each hash performing ~1,300 32bit adds. So, in very apples to oranges terms, the network is secured by 1,300 petaFLOPS (and rising at ~2.5% PER DAY). The sum total FLOPS of the top500 supercomputer list from June 2013 is 223.6 petaFLOPS.
And it was a very very good cell.
Thank you for going into this level of detail!
AH0099
What is the mechanism that makes subjectivity exist?
Oh boy... This question is the exact reason I went into the field. I have no idea, but I hope we get the answer before I die.
:)
At this point we are still just poking around in a vast mess of goo hoping to find some neural correlates of perception or motor planning or consciousness. Giving a mechanistic explanation for how these activity patterns produce subjective experience is going to take massive efforts, and maybe a leap of 'faith'. Probably the most progress will be made in areas of sensory perception or motor control, where we can be precisely quantitative about either the sensory input or motor output. Then we can record activity within various areas of the circuits responsible for a given modality, do high resolution reconstruction of the structure and connections between cells in that circuit, and then perturb the circuit, buy selectively silencing or activating functional groups of neurons on a trial by trial basis to probe how changing the circuit modifies the perception. Add to this the challenge of having to 'read-out' these effects via the behavior of an animal, rather than what a human can describe (who wants to volunteer to have channelrhodopsin virus injected into their head and a fiberoptic laser guide installed through their skull??). I don't think I'll work myself out of a job any time soon.
Quantum theory has nothing relevant to say about the many questions of conciousness outlined in the Koch and Crick review. How do we bind components of a visual scene into a single object? etc, The only place where quantum theory might have some impact is on the illusion of free will. Why do you have the feeling that you could make one of many possible decisions? Why is human action not entirely predictable?
It really boils down to the question, does 1 electron make a difference? Maybe, but probably not.
Quantum mechanics tends to break down on the scale of single proteins, and I'm not sure that it is fair to call the thermal noise of opening and closing ion channels a true 'quantum' effect... But lets say that a 'quantum' thermal noise event or some electron wiggle drives a single voltage-gated ion channel to open or close at a given time. And the neuron that the channel resides is in, this single channel out of 10s or 100s of thousands in the neuron, is so close to firing threshold that the channel contributes enough current to drive the single neuron to add an action potential. What impact does that extra action potential have on the network and on the brain? Is it washed out in a sea of billions of spikes per second? Or does that perturbation magnify and drive the brain into a different state (thought). Is this where the unpredictability of human action, and our apparent free will comes from? Maybe... But more likely is that the precise variation of massive and specific sensory inputs into the brain overwhelm any of this quantum/thermal noise.
Quantum theory isn't needed to explain chaos, and I think brain dynamics most closely resemble a semi-chaotic system, with many possible attractor states (correlates of conscious and unconscious thoughts) that one can switch between. We don't yet really know how we can seem to volitionally switch between them, but neither I nor most professional neuroscientists I've met (including many many physicists) think the answer lies with quantum mechanics. Rather, its is something that will hopefully be uncovered with a combination of dense electrical and optical recordings of brain activity during awake behavior that are used to constrain mathematical models of network dynamics.
Here is an example of a cool paper on what a single spike can do... BUT, its just a small step towards understanding that issue http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20596024
Professional Neuroscientist here... In fact, I'm recording from a sensory neuron that is partially responsible for the conciousness of an awake behaving mouse right now while browsing slashdot.
There is no reason to think that quantum physics has anything to do with the nature of conciousness. It is not useful to explain free will, or the illusion of free will, of the qualia of objects, or the steadyness of perception on a background of constantly varying spike rates in the brain.
Perhaps the best, short, free, relatively recent summary of the field was written by Christof Koch and Francis Crick, A Framework for Conciousness, and is available here : http://papers.klab.caltech.edu/29/1/438.pdf
I also have a little essay on the nature of free will on my blog here, if interested. http://brainwindows.wordpress.com/philosophy/philosophy-the-science-of-free-will/
I'm still a bit confused as to how he is so confident that this is how the neocortex works given that this is still one of the 23 unsolved problems in system neuroscience. But hey, he made a lot of money off Palm, that gives him way more street cred than people who have been working on this problem for their whole lives.
You know, I missed that strategy when I was reading 'My System'.
Actually, go is pretty difficult to learn. It's difficult to 'get' when regions are alive or dead, or even when the game is over.
Or it could become something like Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which was set up as a tax shelter for Howard's aviation income and now is by far the largest private funding organization for high-risk, high-impact biomedical research.
I'm guessing they can afford the lawyers it would take to write the foundation's mandatory goals into it's charter.
This one is way more bitchin... http://www.sandia.gov/media/images/jpg/f4_image2.j pg
Massive Energy Review database is here:
http://www.bandddesigns.com/energy/
Red Bull was first (1984!) and has by far the greatest sales and global reach, being a weakened clone of Krating Daeng from Thailand and starting in Austria. I wish I could try some of the read Thai drink...
Nothing beats a iced red bull on a chairlift after a few runs. Nothing. Small can size is good to carry around and the right dose. In America, bigger usually means better, but when you are talking caf. and sugar injections, a moderate dose is better. Sugarfree Red Bull is astoundingly similar to sugared Red Bull, as the bitter aftertaste masks the artificial sweeteners.
This is exactly correct. I use a similar technique at $50/hr. But you seem to have it more systemized. BartPE is a must.
For an example of EM that DNA does abosrb you need only look at UV radiation. DNA absorbs a roughly gaussian peak at around 260nm, falling to near 0 around 320nm. That's why short wavelength UV causes skin cancer while longer wavelength is OK (though it can cause opacity of the cornea). In fact, the method we use to determine the concentration and purity of DNA in a fluid is based on the absorbtion profile around 260nm.
DNA does not absorb energy in that frequency band. Hence, from a mechanistic standpoint, the probability of a genetic mutation occuring from this type of radiation exposure is negligible. Introduction of flourescent lighting also corresponded to the introduction of atmospheric nuclear testing. That type of radiation, derived from the generated isotopes is absorbable and is a much more likely culprit of the many increasing woes of society (as well as improved diagnostics.)
I am a biologist.
X-Sender: -------@hesiod
Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2005 13:49:25 -0500
To: ---@mit.edu
From: ------@mit.edu
Subject: personal request
Hey. So I'm going to California this Wednesday. I have several papers due on monday. It would be quite nice to work on them on the airplane. Having a laptop for this venture would be quite helpful. For all these reasons, I'm asking if anyone happens to have a laptop they would be willing to lend me for the weekend. Obviously, if you do so, you will have the use of my computer for the weekend.
It has half life 2 and a killer graphics card... (geforce 6800)
Wait a sec, what's this sticker on my 12" Al Powerbook? And its battery, and the power adapter, and -gasp- the VGA dongle!?
"Designed in Cupertino. Made in China"
YES! By far the worst... lop lop lop lop lop lop lop
Lop lop lop lop lop lop lop . . .
Yes, but does it compare to this one?
A NEW GENERATION OF CA-2+ INDICATORS WITH GREATLY IMPROVED FLUORESCENCE PROPERTIES
GRYNKIEWICZ G, POENIE M, TSIEN RY
JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY 260 (6): 3440-3450 1985
Times Cited : 14512
Roger Tsien must be up soon, he invented the field of fluroescent biosensors. Both with the small molecule dyes and the development of GFP into a useful molecular tag and genetically encoded FRET sensor element.