Replies to post #230087 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[StephanieVanbryce]

Did you already answer this one? ----WHY? Why are we pressing on toward this scenario whereby it is inevitable that we destroy all life as we now know it? .. someone said .. we'll be in the way? (we'll be spam) o.k .. so on the way to what? .. .. I mean with your best imagination where would they be on their way to with no life after they had eaten it all? .. .I mean what would be their purpose anywhere? .. They can't sell, they can't give .. I mean to each other but .. WHAT? there must be something better than that ..

and then there is a guy who says NO.. ;)

I'll post it next. .;)

[fuagf]

well, F6, i see that particular dooms day scenario date, of robots against humans and the end of human influence, all that, has come and past
many times .. just as have the religiously based end times come and gone .. and i feel in 2040 .. lol .. about the latest date in there .. humans
will still be here and in control .. i wish i could still be here to know if i'm right on that, or not, but for me NOW, thinking we humans won't
be still kicking in 2040 i think is just a tad too negative for me .. shrug .. lol ..

[fuagf]

Watch a tapeworm squirm through a living man's brain

F6, this was inside yours somewhere and i'd like to see it in the brains of all those who would take us down to the
dead-end for 'woan' robot road .. at least that was the first thought on seeing it, and the real reason for this post .. :)

00:01 21 November 2014 by Linda Geddes


MRI showing a tapeworm moving across a man's brain (Image: Nagui Antoun)

A tapeworm that usually infects dogs, frogs and cats has made its home inside a man's brain. Sequencing its genome showed that it contains around 10 times more DNA than any other tapeworm sequenced so far, which could explain its ability to invade many different species.

When a 50-year-old Chinese man was admitted to a UK hospital complaining of headaches, seizures, an altered sense of smell and memory flashbacks, his doctors were stumped. Tests for tuberculosis, syphilis, HIV and Lyme disease were negative, and although an MRI scan showed an abnormal region in the right side of his brain, a biopsy found inflammation, but no tumour.

Over the next four years, further MRIs recorded the abnormal region moving across the man's brain (see animation), until finally his doctors decided to operate. To their immense surprise, they pulled out a 1 centimetre-long ribbon-shaped worm.

It looked like a tapeworm, but was unlike any seen before in the UK, so a sample of its tissue was sent to Hayley Bennett .. http://www.infectiousdisease.cam.ac.uk/departments/wellcome-trust-sanger-institute .. and her colleagues at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UK.

Genetic sequencing identified it as Spirometra erinaceieuropaei .. http://eolspecies.lifedesks.org/pages/74877, a rare species of tapeworm found in China, South Korea, Japan and Thailand. Just 300 human infections have been reported since 1953, and not all of them in the brain.

The parasite starts its life in water where it infects crustaceans. These then get eaten by reptiles and amphibians such as frogs and snakes. The worm is then passed on to larger carnivores that prey on these intermediate hosts. "Humans aren't the natural host for the worm – they're usually found in cats, dogs and carnivores – so when it enters a human, it doesn't migrate to the gut as it usually would," says Bennett. "In previous cases, they've been found under the skin, in the lungs or in breast lumps – where people have suspected cancer and found a worm instead."

When they do find their way into the brain, the worms trigger cerebral sparganosis, or inflammation, which is what causes symptoms such as headaches and seizures. "In this case, the patient reported different symptoms as the worm made its way across his brain," Bennett adds.

As for what the worm was surviving on, tapeworms absorb nutrients such as fats directly through their skin, and brain tissue is rich in fatty acids. "It was moving around in there, so it must have been getting energy from somewhere," says Bennett.

Because these worms are so rare, the Sanger team decided to take a closer look at its genome. It was around 10 times larger than any other tapeworm sequenced so far, and around a third of the size of the human genome. Part of this was due to an expansion of certain gene families that help the parasite to invade its host – this might underpin its success in a wide variety of animals.

Genome sequencing also revealed that this type of tapeworm is resistant to a conventional anti-tapeworm drug called enzimidazole, but might be sensitive to another drug, praziquantel – although in this case, surgically removing the worm cured the man of his symptoms.

"We did not expect to see an infection of this kind in the UK, but global travel means that unfamiliar parasites do sometimes appear," says Effrossyni Gkrania-Klotsas, from the Department of Infectious Disease at Addenbrooke's Hospital, who was also involved in the study. "Our work shows that, even with only tiny amounts of DNA from clinical samples, we can find out all we need to identify and characterise the parasite."

Journal reference: Genome Biology, DOI: 10.1186/s13059-014-0510-3

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26597-watch-a-tapeworm-squirm-through-a-living-mans-brain.html#.VHMF5cl1WM8

[fuagf]

Risk of extinction by AI should be global priority, say experts

2014 -- "fuagf -- so we who imagined gods we wished we were, born of this living planet we now make barren, nearing our own last breath
create an entirely new kind of life -- with which some may merge to survive, perchance even to become as gods, as we are left behind
(linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=44715115 and preceding (and any future following)"

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Related: The Predictions of Ray Kurzweil: What will life be like in 2050?

https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=108561868

2014 - A note by our late friend Mark (F6)
Stephanie -- why are we headed that way? -- well, look at the purposes for which they (artificial/synthetic intelligence and increasingly advanced/autonomous robots/robotics including remote sensing/tracking, all as ever-increasingly connected/networked) are being developed -- to replace human labor wholesale, both (unskilled and skilled) manual/physical labor (Google has an essentially humanoid fully physically capable robot that'll be able to watch a human perform a task and then take over, and then on its own learn to do the task better, due on the market within the next couple of years) and intellectual/expert labor (IBM's Jeopardy-winning Watson has pretty much ingested the entire medical research literature, at least all having anything to do with genetics and cancer and everything else needed to put all of that in context, and is now both doing genome analyses of individual cancer patients to recommend their best courses of treatment, and not only guiding researchers to optimal target proteins/molecules for treating/curing cancers to explore in further research but also just for giggles throwing in the odds each identified candidate molecule will prove effective -- and it's also now being marketed to handle various aspects of high-level corporate advising/consulting) -- and to be our weapons/warriors, both physical/kinetic and (of course) in the cyber realm itself
[...] DarkMatter 2525

https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=108526643
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Hundreds of tech leaders call for world to treat AI as danger on par with pandemics and nuclear war

Geneva Abdul @GenevaAbdul
Wed 31 May 2023 03.10 AEST
First published on Wed 31 May 2023 02.34 AEST


‘Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,’ the experts said. Photograph: S Decoret/Shutterstock

A group of leading technology experts from across the world have warned that artificial intelligence technology should be considered a societal risk and prioritised in the same class as pandemics and nuclear wars.

The statement .. .https://www.safe.ai/statement-on-ai-risk , signed by hundreds of executives and academics, was released by the Center for AI Safety on Tuesday amid growing concerns over regulation and risks the technology posed to humanity.

“Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,” the statement said. Signatories included the chief executives of Google’s DeepMind, the ChatGPT .. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/chatgpt .. developer OpenAI, and the AI startup Anthropic.

Global leaders and industry experts – such as the leaders of OpenAI – have made calls for regulation of the technology .. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/may/24/openai-leaders-call-regulation-prevent-ai-destroying-humanity .. owing to existential fears it could significantly affect job markets .. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/may/16/ceo-openai-chatgpt-ai-tech-regulations , harm the health of millions .. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/may/10/ai-poses-existential-threat-and-risk-to-health-of-millions-experts-warn .. and weaponise disinformation, discrimination and impersonation.

This month the man often touted as the godfather of AI – Geoffrey Hinton, also a signatory – quit Google citing its “existential risk” .. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/may/02/geoffrey-hinton-godfather-of-ai-quits-google-warns-dangers-of-machine-learning . The risk was echoed and acknowledged by No 10 last week for the first time .. .https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/may/25/no-10-acknowledges-existential-risk-ai-first-time-rishi-sunak – a swift change of tack within government that came two months after publishing an AI white paper industry figures have warned is already out of date.

While the letter published on Tuesday is not the first, it is potentially the most impactful given its wider range of signatories and its core existential concern, according to Michael Osborne, a professor in machine learning at the University of Oxford and co-founder of Mind Foundry.

“It really is remarkable that so many people signed up to this letter,” he said. “That does show that there is a growing realisation among those of us working in AI that existential risks are a real concern.”

AI’s potential to exacerbate existing existential risks such as engineered pandemics and military arms races are concerns that led Osborne to sign the public letter, along with AI’s novel existential threats.

Calls to curb threats follow the success of ChatGPT .. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jan/13/chatgpt-explainer-what-can-artificial-intelligence-chatbot-do-ai , which launched in November. The language model has been widely adopted by millions of people and rapidly advanced beyond predictions by those best informed in the industry.

Osborne said: “Because we don’t understand AI very well there is a prospect that it might play a role as a kind of new competing organism on the planet, so a sort of invasive species that we’ve designed that might play some devastating role in our survival as a species.”

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/may/30/risk-of-extinction-by-ai-should-be-global-priority-say-tech-experts