Monthly Archives: April 2014

According to the World War II-era nautical lore, the Navy wanted sailors that could see IR signals. To this end volunteers were fed a diet that was missing the form of vitamin A normally used to make photopigments for our visual system. They were instead given supplements of an alternate form of the vitamin that gave sensitivity into the IR spectrum. While invention of the sniperscope brought these dubious experiments to a premature close, a group of biohackers has been inspired to pick up right where the early transhumanist pioneers left off.

Eyes are remarkably adaptable machines. Animals have morphed them into exotic polarization sensors, magnetic field orienteering aids, and even single photon detectors. An interesting anecdote from the astronautical lore is that flashes of light generally attributed to cosmic rays have been perceived by astronauts even with their eyes were closed. While it is possible that these figments are triggered in the brain, it seems more likely that the retina, perhaps even the photopigments themselves, are directly sensing energy deposited by the rays and realizing it as light. With the right photopigment, seamless detection of IR should be a piece of cake.

The only problem is that lack of vitamin A claims the lives of around a million children worldwide each year, and it is responsible for blindness in half that again. Anintrepid group of four biohackers hope that the replacement form of vitamin A, known as vitamin A2, will compensate completely. A2 is found in freshwater fish, and can be extracted (with some effort) from their livers. The group has created a project based on a Microryza crowdfunding model, and is now funded to the tune of $4,000. (Read: Seeing ultraviolet, exploring color.)

This is what our intrepid senior editor, Sebastian Anthony, looks like with thermal IR.

Much of the capital raised will be used to procure the vitamin itself. Additionally there will be funds for sensitive equipment to measure the electrical responses of the eye as its spectral sensitivity changes. Their results will be published in an open, peer-reviewed research journal. The diet the biohackers will use has been developed by computer engineer Rob Rhinehart, creator of a successful life-optimizing drink known as Soylent. Crowdfunded itself, Soylent also enjoys high-profile backing from venture capitalists like Andreessen Horowitz.

Vitamin A, and its precursors like beta-carotene, are metabolized into different forms that are used in various ways all throughout the body. Its ability to melt wrinkles or pimples when applied to the skin hints at its powers once inside a cells nucleus, where it has its main effects. The kicker in prescription drug Accutane is a vitamin A derivative called retinoic acid. This acid is actually the go molecule used in a developing embryo when it begins to push out the upper limb buds. Retinoic acid is a master regulator molecule that turns on other genes to get the bits and pieces of the arm just right.

The Milky Way, as seen by NASAs infrared Spitzer telescope. I doubt it would look like this with biohacked eyes, but its nice to dream

If you arent scared yet, consider one more thing: vitamin A deprived rats developed hypogonadism (reduced gonad functionality). This happened even when they were fed the retinoic acid that is needed by the testes because they are actually a bit pickier than that they need locally-synthesized retinoic acid to actually do the trick. The good news is that inhibiting retinoic acid makes a wonderful birth control in humans, and that has even been promoted as a male contraceptive. One further word of caution is in order. While the body can in fact metabolize the fishy A2 vitamin form, the proteins that transport it through cell membranes are only one-quarter as efficient at binding and taking up the A2 form.

Researchers sometimes seem to be motivated by fame and glory as much as by science. There may be a hint of that here, but transhumanists see themselves more as individual medical explorers than as medical trials guinea pigs with no control over their fate. (Read: What is transhumanism, or, what does it mean to be human?)That being said, one indication that times are tough in the academic research arena is the recent report of the guy who published a study of the absolute worst places to be stung, in descending order with himself as the subject. While there may be some value in research like that, it reminds one of the guy who ate a bicycle just to get into the Guinness book of World records. Fortunately for him, Guinness published it, but only with a note saying this will be the last time for things like that.

Read this article:
Intrepid biohacker gives himself infrared night vision, but at what price?

Shortly before he began shooting his new artificial-intelligence thriller "Transcendence" last year, filmmaker Wally Pfister flew Jose Carmena and Michel Maharbiz, a pair of UC Berkeley scientists, to his office in Los Angeles. Professional consultants are common on Hollywood movies, but they're not usually this advanced Carmena studies neuroscience and Maharbiz is a nanotechnology specialist and even fewer go deep into the weeds with directors.

For 10 hours, the men pored over the script with the intensity of lab researchers on the verge of a major discovery. They discussed the density of brain signals, the limits of nanotechnology and the vexing problem of defining consciousness scientifically.

"We went through line by line, hitting on a technical topic and just going through it with Wally and his team," said Maharbiz, whose journal articles come with titles such as "Can We Build Synthetic, Multicellular Systems By Controlling Developmental Signaling in Space and Time?" "I've almost never seen people want to understand it at that level," he added.

Science-fiction movies have looked at the possibility and peril of artificial intelligence since HAL sought to destroy Dave Bowman in "2001: A Space Odyssey" back in 1968. Sarah Connor would of course later try to beat back the malicious plans of Skynet in the Terminator" franchise, and Hugo Weaving's coolly robotic Agent Smith proved a slippery foe for Neo and friends in "The Matrix."

PHOTOS: Screenwriters stranger than fiction

But few in this subgenre have examined the theme with the level of scientific rigor or, for that matter, the emotionally inflected story line of "Transcendence." Thanks to the emerging intelligence of digital creations, Pfister and screenwriter Jack Paglen are able to indulge in a science fiction that, while fantastical, is both plausible and plausibly human.

Written by first-timer Paglen and marking the directorial debut of Pfister, the Oscar-winning cinematographer and longtime Christopher Nolan collaborator, "Transcendence" concerns an artificial-intelligence researcher named Evelyn Caster (Rebecca Hall) who uploads the consciousness of her husband and professional partner Will (Johnny Depp) just before he dies from a gunshot wound inflicted by an anti-technology radical. She is hardly engaging in disinterested science: Will is the love of her life, and the possibility that a digital replica can keep him with her is too powerful to resist, no matter the consequences.

In the ensuing weeks, the entity voiced and embodied by Will not only gains consciousness but evolves past the point of mere human abilities, engaging in superhuman activity in the interest of bettering society (he says). In the process, the digital Will provoke fear maybe justified, maybe not on the part of the couple's close friend, the fellow researcher Max (Paul Bettany), as well as a swelling cadre of government authorities fearful of a force they can't control.

With its action set pieces and propulsive plot, the $100-million-budget "Transcendence" is an unmistakably Hollywood confection. Yet with its slowed-down moments hashing out questions of digital consciousness and human evolution, it also puts complex philosophical issues at the fore. The film essentially offers the man-vs.-machine tension of "The Matrix" only this time there's a decent chance we should be rooting for the machine.

This is not 'point the laser and zap the guy to death.' These are real human beings faced with something large," Depp said. "It's something the audience is really meant to ponder.

See original here:
'Transcendence' ponders as it propels