Lifeboat Foundation

After almost two years mired in extensive peer review, a landmark new study just published in the prestigious journal Nature is strongly associating excessive neural activity with shorter lifespans. The study suggests a protein known to suppress neural excitation affects a number of longevity pathways, effectively slowing the aging process.

The impressive research started several years ago with a gene expression study of post-mortem human brain tissue from hundreds of subjects. All the subjects were cognitively normal at the time of death. Bruce Yankner, senior author on the new study, says one thing quickly stood out to his team – the longer a person lived, the lower their expression of genes connected to neural excitement.

More specifically, the researchers identified upregulation of a protein called REST in the brains of those longest-lived subjects. REST first came to the attention of the research team back in 2014. The protein’s role in the brain was generally thought to only play a part in prenatal neurodevelopment, regulating the expression of genes in a developing brain.

Marine geophysicist discovered a depression, likely a volcanic caldera twice the size of Yellowstone, hidden in the Philippine Sea.

Researchers have found that giving your brain an electrical stimulation while you sleep can lead to quicker learning and improved memory. Future You’s episode 6 explores what this will mean in 2050.

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Continue reading “The Military Discovered A Way To Boost Soldiers’ Memories, And We Tried It | Future You | NPR” »

The biggest problem caused by panpsychism is known as the “combination problem”: Precisely how do small particles of consciousness collectively form more complex consciousness? Consciousness may exist in all particles, but that doesn’t answer the question of how these tiny fragments of physical consciousness come together to create the more complex experience of human consciousness.

Any theory that attempts to answer that question, would effectively determine which complex systems—from inanimate objects to plants to ants—count as conscious.

An alternative panpsychist perspective holds that, rather than individual particles holding consciousness and coming together, the universe as a whole is conscious. This, says Goff, isn’t the same as believing the universe is a unified divine being; it’s more like seeing it as a “cosmic mess.” Nevertheless, it does reflect a perspective that the world is a top-down creation, where every individual thing is derived from the universe, rather than a bottom-up version where objects are built from the smallest particles. Goff believes quantum entanglement—the finding that certain particles behave as a single unified system even when they’re separated by such immense distances there can’t be a causal signal between them—suggests the universe functions as a fundamental whole rather than a collection of discrete parts.

Debate needed over research with ‘potential for something to suffer’, neuroscientists say.

Assumptions: The Case Against Reality

When it comes to scientific theory, (or your personal life) be sure to question everything.

Continue reading “Why should you always assume you’re wrong? Science” »

Here is another amazing piece!

Does psilocybin have the potential to increase consciousness in people who are unresponsive?

Could a rare neurological disorder and a radical surgical operation pave the way towards a future of viable mind uploading?