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Category Archives: Transhuman

DC This Week Roundup – Superheroes Across Space and Time – GeekDad

Posted: November 28, 2023 at 12:39 pm

Steelworks #6 cover, via DC Comics. Steelworks #6 Michael Dorn, Writer; Sami Basri/Vicente Cifuentes, Artists; Andrew Dalhouse, Colorist Ray 8.5/10

Ray: The final issue of this miniseries has the biggest threat yet for our heroesa giant robot Steel armor, remotely controlled by deranged weapons manufacturer Charles Walker II. Hes a rather cartoony villain, but secondary villain Silver Mist has a slightly more sympathetic backstoryone that plays a key role when he decides to switch sides at the last minute and assist the floundering super-family against an enemy that seems to have their number in every way. Theres a clever reveal about why some members of the heroes feel so much more affected by the Kryptonian energy than others, and the issue ends on an ambiguous but hopeful note as Steel reviews his plans to transform Metropolis and rededicates Steelworks to his larger goals. This issue also has a surprisingly big focus on Lana Lang, who has her powers yet and is set to marry John, so itll be interesting to see where thats followed up on.

Ray: This continues to be the most bizarre Harley run weve had yetwhere else can you see Bud and Lou possessed by cosmic entities? As Harley kicks the hijackers out of her beloved hyenas, they return to Lady Quark, who creates another new attempt to bring Harley under controla powerful Harley AI that travels the multiverse targeting her counterparts. Harley is forced to align with another bizarre allyrobot detective Lux Kirby, who takes her on a trip through the multiverse to find other Harleys who have been targeted. Despite the truly bizarre plot in this issue, I did enjoy a lot of the quieter moments, including the reunion between Harley and Ivy even if the crisis is far from over.

The backup was bizarre in a very different way, as Grace Ellis and Steve Lieber take Harley into the comicsliterally. She explores a comic about herself, going from ad pages to script pages before finally bursting out of the page itself to confront the source of her problems. It might just be the most meta comic around.

Ray: After two issues setting up the threat of Blue Earth, Amalak, and a mysterious Kryptonian plague, this issue nicely dials things back for a fairly emotional issue as Paige holes up in the Fortress of Solitude seeking answers. While Omen deals with Blue Earth rioters back in Metropolis, Paige bonds with an elderly Kryptonian lion named Hamlet who is nearing the natural end of his lifeand the inevitable extinction of his species. As the animal isolates itself before the end comes, Paige tries to offer it comfort and find some herself. But this is the DCU, and its never long before the outside world comes calling. The dark moments in this issue are nicely balanced by some positive concepts about the way we all play a role in the world, but I do think the creative team is still struggling to figure out where Paige fits in the DCU and in the Super-familywhich is, of course, the meta point of the series.

Ray: As Terry and Kyle reach the core of the Garden and are confronted by a trio of DCs most iconic plant-based superheroes and villains, it becomes clear that this situation is far more than it first appeared to be. Its not a simple case of missing children but rather a cosmic-level threat led by a surprising face. As the truth of John Constantines involvement in the world under Gotham is revealed, Kyle comes into his own as a hero. The cat-human boy hybrid has been the most interesting part of the story, as he might become Terrys first real partner in the fieldassuming that both of them survive a cosmic battle for Gotham. On the surface, Donovan Lumos, the corrupt metahuman corporate titan, puts his plan into actionand accidentally potentially unleashes an apocalypse just in time for the final issue. This series may be a bit too chaotic at times, but its definitely an interesting ride.

Ray: The last of the three Asian-American heroes introduced as part of a new initiative for DC, City Boy has flown a little under-the-radar but has a fascinating set of powers and a compelling backstory. While the main villainwhose name calls back to his true origins or identitywas a hateable figure, Cameron is both the hero of the story and its biggest threat, as his grief over his abusive mother passing away without giving him closure spirals out of control and threatens to envelop the world. As all the cast of the cities he visitedBatman, Superman, Nightwing, and Swamp Thingunite to save their cities and guide Cameron out of the void, the Intergang plot almost feels forgotten, with the villains beating a hasty retreat. However, the final moments of the issue pack a real emotional punch as Cameron is finally able to find some peace with the help of his new allies.

Ray: This series has been doing some very interesting things with the concepts of transhumanism and AI, as Cyborg finds himself up against a villain who comes from the brain patterns of his fathers rival Markusall the while Markus is still alive and being hunted by himself. While the new entity Solace makes a powerful villain, its also hard to disagree with himthe concept of a being being created as a mental double, but confined to a robot body and forced to serve the real person is rather horrifying and just asking for a robot rebellion. And thats exactly what Markus getscausing Cyborg to call in backup from the Titans. The Fearsome Five, now with some reinforcements, provide the main threat this issue, but the larger plot involving Markus and Solace are in full swing by the end of the issueleading to whats sure to be a tense finale.

Ray: Nikolas Draper-Ivey brings down the curtain on his second Static miniseries with an issue that reveals the mastermind behind the Bang Baby hunters who have been torturing Rubber-Band Man and killed Statics young friend Quincyand its a surprising twist that casts a dark pall on the earlier issues of the series. As Static and Ebon confront the villains behind the entire plot, the two former enemies find an uneasy understandingone that continues even after the immediate threat is vanquished. These two characters, on opposite sites of the law but driven by the same central goal to protect the innocent, have been the heart of this series and Im hoping to see more of their dynamic in the future. The final scene, set at Quincys funeral, feels like its commenting on some very real and hard-to-talk-about things. Im not sure whats next for Static, but Im hoping that Draper-Ivey is involved.

To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.

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Transcending Time. The Transhumanist Challenge To | by … – Medium

Posted: October 31, 2023 at 1:37 pm

AI Generated Image 7 min read

Do you really want to live forever, forever, and ever? These lyrics from the song Forever Young, (1984) by the German synth-pop band, Alphaville, touch on whats perhaps one of the oldest and deepest philosophical quandaries: mortality. Since man first became conscious of himself, since he first began to gaze inward, he has been faced with the horror of his own mortality. Everyone dies. Entire religions and philosophical movements exist to provide comfort and hope in the face of this grim, singular reality; the common thread between them being the ability to accept and reconcile this universally shared fate.

One more modern, and perhaps more obscure philosophical movement, known as transhumanism, screams a resounding No! in the face of this shared fate, and answers Alphaville with a resounding Yes!. Transhumanism is a philosophical and scientific movement that seeks to enhance and continuously improve the human condition through ever-evolving technologies. The term has been around since the late 1950s, but began to take on increased significance in the 1980s and beyond with the growth of computer technology. A bit of an umbrella term, transhumanism encompasses all things futurist: AI, space exploration, life extension, bioengineering- all are endorsed and celebrated within the realm of transhumanist thought. At its heart, transhumanism embraces the sobering realm of science to shepherd the human race into a prosperous and technologically advanced future.

The prefix trans is culturally and politically charged in 2023. As soon as anyone utters trans, theyre likely to be met with partisan political moralizing. Its worth noting that the term transhumanism predates contemporary discussions around transgender rights, and the two concepts are distinct, despite sharing the same prefix. The prefix trans originates from Latin and means through, across, and beyond. Its been used in the English language to form various words that convey the idea of moving or changing e.g. transport, translate, translucentthe list goes on.

Transhumanist thinking indeed encourages man to think through, across, and beyond. Transhumanist ideals have already taken root in modern scientific thought and are inextricably intertwined with progressive science. Calico, a research and development company funded by Google (through the holding company Alphabet Inc.) seeks to unravel the fabric of aging, with the goal of developing new technologies to combat age-related diseases and potentially extend human longevity.

With essentially unlimited money from Google, and assistance from AI, theres no stopping Calico. There are a number of other companies with the same, or similar goals: Human Longevity Inc., Unity Biotechnology, SENS Research Foundation, BioViva, Insilico Medicine, and Gero.

The most prevalent counterargument to life extension is the fear of overpopulation. Elon Musk is well known for boldly asserting that population decline is the single greatest threat to humanity. While nuclear armageddon and climate change may be solid rivals to this claim, Musks observations are grounded in data. Human beings are reproducing at much slower rates than in previous generations. For many developed nations, theyre reproducing at a rate below the replacement level, or not enough to maintain stable population numbers. Globally, humanity is still maintaining its numbers by reproducing slightly above the replacement level. However, global fertility rates have been steadily declining for decades. According to the Pew Research Center, the worlds population is projected to nearly stop growing by the end of the century.

As humanity takes its first steps into uncharted territory, the question remains: Do you really want to live forever? It would seem the answer is yes, given the extraordinary sums of money being spent to find out if humanity can indeed extend its collective lifespan. With the tools and technologies at its disposal, settling for the status quo is a regressive slap in the face to the aspiring human condition.

The average lifespan for humans in 2023 is somewhere between 70 and 75 years. Given the incomprehensibly vast expanse of the cosmos, and the 13.7 billion years that the known universe has existed, 75 years isnt that long. Confronted with their transitory existence, humans have developed numerous systems to pacify their existential dread in the face of their own cosmic insignificance. In his Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Denial of Death (1973), Ernest Becker writes, Man cannot endure his own littleness unless he can translate it into meaningfulness on the largest possible level.

For some, 75 years is indeed long enough. Their religious framework incorporates death effectively, infusing it with meaning. Theyve made peace with an eventual transition to the other side. Theyre confident a divine reward awaits them, an eternity in a celestial realm free from strife and turmoil.

Others believe this life isnt the only one, but one of many. Theyve lived before and will live again, reincarnating on an endless cosmic wheel, until theyve transcended their egotistical shortcomings and can then transition to the celestial garden promised initially to the first group.

There are still others unconvinced of any certainty beyond the corporeal. For them, the terror of death is ever-present. It isnt so much the fear of leaving this life, but the horror of non-being that petrifies them. They arent convinced theyll reincarnate, or gain entry into a celestial utopia. The lack of tangible evidence for either creates a bleak picture, horrifying them. The prospect of non-being leaves them bitter, grim and sober. Non-being is existential cosmic horror of the first order.

Objectively, horror at non-being seems absurd. To quote the late German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, After your death, you will be what you were before your birth. The logic is sound. Its totally irrational to fear death. Yet, this logical appeal makes absolutely no difference in how people feel. They dont know why they fear it, they just do.

Each human being has an ego, a sense of conscious identity that separates them from their fellows. It is a byproduct of sentience, a consequence of the evolutionary predilection for intelligence. Everybody is somebody, separate and unique. This separation is what many eastern spiritual traditions assert is the root cause of all conscious suffering. Having an ego presupposes a fear of losing it, losing ones false sense of self. And still, knowing they have egos doesnt change how people feel. Humans need to feel, on a visceral level, that they are going to be taken care of after death. It cannot be the end. It just cant.

One of the knee-jerk reactions that can be heard when people first hear of transhumanist ideas about life extension is that they cant imagine continuing in an existence where theyre old and feeble, indefinitely. Though the term age regression is, in itself, rather self-explanatory, its worth addressing this common concern. The concepts of life extension and age-regression go hand in hand, presupposing a speculative future where one could hypothetically achieve a chronological age of 150, 200, or 300 years at the physiological equivalent of roughly a 25 year old, or the prime of adult youth. The goal isnt to maintain an elderly status indefinitely, but to rejuvenate and restore youthfulness.

This idea is uncanny, often provoking confusion and resistance in those confronted with it. It challenges the scientific and philosophical paradigms that conditioned their psyches. What would one do with all this time? It truly is an unfathomable, otherworldly concept.

Humans construct their lives around an itinerary that presupposes a finite term of 7090 years. Theyre born. They go to school. They get married. They reproduce. They work. They retire and die. They choose one career, one area to specialize in, because thats all there is time for. Some dont even get to choose. The socioeconomic hand that fate deals them chooses for them. The concept of free time is paradoxical by definition. Legions of humans spend the majority of their waking hours working unfulfilling jobs simply to provide themselves with basic living necessities. Time spent on leisure and self-interest is bought and paid for, dearly.

People do not stop to ask themselves if 75 years is enough time, because heretofore the question was irrelevant. From the perspective of a transhumanist thinker, it is a painfully short amount of time. For those free spirits demanding more from their cosmic allotment, transhumanisms resounding No! in the face of fixed mortality rings louder and louder. Its a war cry, an assault upon the chains of time.

Imagining a world where the average lifespan is 300 seems far-fetched. But if one were to suspend his disbelief, and entertain this futurist notion, he may come to the conclusion that 300 years is a far roomier timeline for human development and self-actualization. The old adage youth is wasted on the young, might lose its gravitas in a world where age-regression technologies could keep humans in their prime for extended periods. The wisdom of age could coexist with the vitality of youth. In the face of the vast expanse of the universe, accepting a mere 75 years as the entirety of human experience is not just limiting its a grave injustice to human potential.

Religious or secular, there is one common fear that unites humanity, the fear of death. How humans reconcile that fear varies. For the most ambitious, progressive, industrious, and forward-thinking of humanity, it means tackling the erosion of time head-on. Transhumanism battles the horror of non-being boldly, directly, without attempting to deny it or push its significance aside in favor of the next lifes unproven promises. It answers Alphaville with a resounding Yes!

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From Trans Healthcare to Transhumanism: Reality vs. Conspiracy at … – Colorado Times Recorder

Posted: at 1:37 pm

Supporters and opponents of gender-affirming health care for transgender youth held consecutive rallies at the state Capitol over last weekend. Both included state legislators, advocacy groups and some counter-protestors, but that was where the similarities ended. After Gays Against Groomers (GAG), a national group founded just last year by a pro-Trump conservative media specialist, announced it was holding a rally at the Capitol on Saturday morning, pro-LGBTQ group One Colorado invited supporters, legislators and allies for a celebration of Colorados gender-affirming care laws on Friday afternoon.

The Friday, Oct. 20 event saw about 100 people gather at the Capitols West Steps to listen to speakers share personal stories, praise Colorado Democratic majorities for protecting trans and non-binary health care, and warn of the increased volume and severity of misinformation and political attacksagainst LGBTQ peopleoccurring across the county. Speakers (all of whom can be seen here) included members of the trans community, advocates from LGBTQ and reproductive rights organizations, and state Rep. Brianna Titone (D-Arvada), Colorados first transgender legislator, who thanked the crowd for coming out to support the trans community and promised to have the back of everyone there.

If youd told me five years ago that I would be standing here I wouldnt have believed you, said Noah, a 19 year-old trans college student. I didnt know what my future held, but I knew I wouldnt have a future at all if I kept hiding who I was. I wouldnt be here without the gender-affirming care I received. My transition saved my life.

One Colorado spokesperson Alex noted that the purpose of GAGs Protect The Children rally was, simply put, fear.

Indeed, on Saturday morning, Rich Guggenheim, spokesman for Gays Against Groomers Colorado chapter, made clear that GAG views gender-affirming healthcare as grooming or child abuse.

Our focus is on protecting children from transitioning, from indoctrination, the harmful textbooks and books that are going up in libraries that are pornographic in nature, said Guggenheim. And from what science tells us is harmful physiologically and emotionally to children who undergo what they call gender-affirming care, hormone therapy and surgery They should not be subjected to pornography. They should not be subjected to ideology that encourages them to transition.

Contrary to Guggenheims claims about science, academic research shows that gender-affirming care has enormous benefits for trans kids.

Echoing statements made by GAG online, Guggenheim says, Its become a fashion statement now for so many parents to say they have a transgender kid. And its erasing who their children really are. He claims school mental health professionals and librarians want to sexualize children, which is how he characterized counseling about sexual orientation or gender identity at school, or making books that mention sex or sexuality available in school libraries, and questioned their motives for doing so.

Asked if GAGs position on removing books that reference sex or sexuality from libraries extends to public libraries, such as the main branch of the Denver Public Library across the street, as well as school libraries, Guggenheim confirmed that it does. It applies to any library. He later argued that libraries should keep books with sexual content in an age-restricted area and check IDs of patrons who wish to access it.

Guggenheim was joined by Log Cabin Republicans of Colorado President Valdamar Archuleta, state Reps. Ryan Armogost (R-Berthoud) and Brandi Bradley (R-Littleton), and about a dozen other people for what was more of a sign-waving session than rally.

In response to a person in a passing care yelling bigot at the group, Bradley shouted back, Hetero-phobic! Youre hetero-phobic! Given that almost all of their signs read Gays Against Groomers, its unclear why Bradley believed the heckler would presume she was straight.

Across the street from the fifteen or so GAG supporters stood about thirty members of the Parasol Patrol, an group of LGBT supporters who typically use their rainbow umbrellas as a barrier to block anti-LGBT protestors from disrupting events like Pride parades or drag queen story hours. In this case, they simply remained visible as counterprotestors themselves, playing Disney tunes and showing support for trans kids.

Also among the small group of GAG supporters was anti-trans activist Christina Goeke, a self described trans exclusionary radical feminist or TERF, who repeatedly pointed across the street at members of the Parasol Patrol while shouting pedophile and pedo at them. In May, Goeke was asked to leave Colorado Springs Territory Days festival after posting anti-trans messages with stickers and chalk on the grounds of the street fair.

Goeke also interviewed Reps. Bradley and Armagost. Bradley told her, were here to support Gays Against Groomersand all the people of Colorado who think that this is wrong and this is a form of child abuse.Armagost pointed the blame at teachers.

We have faculty and teachers unions pushing to guide those kids into gender dysphoria, said Armagost. Its making them more confused, digging deeper into depression and everything else rather than letting them find their own identity.

Goeke then introduced Armagost to transhumanism, a philosophical and intellectual movement which advocates for the enhancement of the human condition by developing technologies that can enhance longevity and cognition. Historically, transhumanism has been concerned with things like age reversal and cryogenic preservation, counting among its adherents wealthy tech elites like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, and anti-aging enthusiast Bryan Johnson. The popularity of transhumanism among the rich and powerful has led to conspiracy theories which claim that globalist elites will merge people with machines to control them, and that gender-affirming care for trans kids is the first step of this process. After explaining it to Rep. Armagost, he said it makes sense to him and promised to look into it further.

Christina Goeke: The political agenda currently seems to be uh the pathway to transhumanism. Are you aware of transhumanism?

Rep. Ryan Armagost: Im not, no.

CG: So its this idea that humans will eventually like basically meld with machines. Theyre going to completely control every aspect of humanity. A lot of the rich elites talk about this. Martine Rothblatt on a TED Talk talks about downloading your mind into a mind file on a computer and living forever. um so I feel like and Jennifer Bilek does a lot- she talks about following the money. If you follow the money and you look at it, this is what theyre trying to get us to.

RA: Oh absolutely.

CG: Its transhumanism you should definitely look into that.

RA: I will absolutely.

CG: It helps put the pieces together why theres such a huge push to medicalize our children.

RA: Yeah.

CG:If they can like separate you from your sex body, then youre just parts, right? Thats what transhumanism is all about.

RA: Yeah, that makes sense.

CG: Yeah, for sure. Well, thank you, Ryan, for being here.

Speaking to the Colorado Times Recorder, Armagost repeated his belief that public school teachers are encouraging students to transition.

I think our educators are trying to get into the business of mental health and pushing kids toward picking the gender rather than letting parents do that, said Armagost. Thats not the business public school need to be into. They need to stick to academia.

A GAG national board member, Joe (he didnt give his last name), repeated Armagosts accusations of teachers, but he narrowed the focus, pointing the finger specifically at LGBT teachers.

CTR: Why would teachers want to encourage students to transition? Whats their motivation?

GAG: I wish I knew the full reasons. I can suspect reasons. Some of it is to create a space for them [the teachers] to feel accepted of their own path. To confuse them [students], to be predatory towards them.

CTR: So is it trans teachers who are doing this?

GAG: Not always. Its LGB teachers. Its LGBT teachers.

The rally was one of 75 simultaneous Stop the War on Children rallies around the country, according to Joe. GAG partnered with several other conservative largely Christian groups including Moms For Liberty and the Gavel Project. Asked where GAG, which is a 501c4 dark money group, gets its funding, Joe said most of it comes from online donations and some from merchandise sales. GAG isnt required to disclose its donors and the group is too new to appear in any IRS tax filings, but the Southern Poverty Law Center identified several large religious right funders as donors to the rally partner groups.

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Opinion | The Reactionary Futurism of Marc Andreessen – The New York Times

Posted: at 1:37 pm

We are used to thinking of our ideological divide as cleaving conservatives from liberals. I think the Republican Partys collapse into incoherence reflects the fact that much of the modern right is reactionary, not conservative. This is what connects figures as disparate as Jordan Peterson and J.D. Vance and Peter Thiel and Donald Trump. These are the ideas that unite both the mainstream and the weirder figures of the so-called postliberal right, from Patrick Deneen to the writer Bronze Age Pervert. This is not a coalition that cares about tax cuts. Its a coalition obsessed with where we went wrong: the weakness, the political correctness, the liberalism, the trigger warnings, the smug elites. Its a coalition that believes we were once hard and have become soft; worse, we have come to lionize softness and punish hardness.

The story of the reactionary follows a template across time and place. It begins with a happy, well-ordered state where people who know their place live in harmony and submit to tradition and their God, Mark Lilla writes in his 2016 book, The Shipwrecked Mind: On Political Reaction. He continues:

Then alien ideas promoted by intellectuals writers, journalists, professors challenge this harmony, and the will to maintain order weakens at the top. (The betrayal of elites is the linchpin of every reactionary story.) A false consciousness soon descends on the society as a whole as it willingly, even joyfully, heads for destruction. Only those who have preserved memories of the old ways see what is happening. Whether the society reverses direction or rushes to its doom depends entirely on their resistance.

The Silicon Valley cohort Andreessen belongs to has added a bit to this formula. In their story, the old way that is being lost is the appetite for risk and inequality and dominance that drives technology forward and betters human life. What the muscled ancients knew and what todays flabby whingers have forgotten is that man must cultivate the strength and will to master nature, and other men, for the technological frontier to give way. But until now, you had to squint to see it, reading small-press books or following your way down into the meme holes that have become the preferred form of communication among this crew.

Now Andreessen has distilled the whole ideology to a procession of stark bullet points in his latest missive, the buzzy, bizarre Techno-Optimist Manifesto. I think it ill named. What makes it distinctive is not its views on technology, which are crude for a technologist of Andreessens stature. Rather, its the pairing of the reactionarys sodden take on modern society with the futurists starry imagining of the bright tomorrow. So call it what it is: reactionary futurism.

Andreessens argument is simple: Technology is good. Very good. Those who stand in its way are bad. He is clear on who they are, in a section titled simply The Enemy. The list is long, ranging from anti-greatness to statism to corruption to the ivory tower to cartels to bureaucracy to socialism to abstract theories to anyone disconnected from the real world playing God with everyone elses lives (which arguably describes the kinds of technologists Andreessen is calling forth, but I digress). It ends I kid you not on a quotation from Nietzsche: The earth has become small, and on it hops the Last Man, who makes everything small.

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Pursuing the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare – Cedars-Sinai

Posted: at 1:37 pm

Artificial intelligence (AI) already is making a difference in healthcare by helping medical professionals interpret tests, clarify diagnoses and identify the most effective treatment approaches to a range of diseases.

As Cedars-Sinai explores new uses of AI, it is balancing the rapid development of this emerging technology with responsible and ethical implementation.

AI systems have the power to transform healthcare, said Mike Thompson, vice president of Enterprise Data Intelligence at Cedars-Sinai. If implemented properly and responsibly, AI can be deployed to enhance patient experience, improve population health, reduce costs and improve the work life of healthcare providers.

Thompson sat down with the Cedars-Sinai Newsroom to examine the uses of AI to improve healthcare and to detail how the academic medical center is pursuing this fast-evolving technology in an ethical manner.

The integration of AI into medical technology and healthcare systems is only going to increase in the coming years. As technology continues to develop, the push toward safety, soundness and fairness occurs at all levels. This effort will require checks and balances from innovators, healthcare institutions and regulatory entities.

As technology advances, the medical community will need to develop standards for these innovative technologies, as well as revisit current regulatory systems on which physicians and patients rely to ensure that healthcare AI is responsible, evidence-based, bias-free, and designed and deployed to promote equity.

If AI systems are not examined for ethics and soundness, they may be biased, exacerbating existing imbalances in socioeconomic class, color, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability and sexual orientation.

Bias disproportionately affects disadvantaged individuals, who are more likely to be subjected to algorithmic output that are less accurate or underestimate the need for care. Thus, solutions for identifying and eliminating bias are critical for developing generalizable and fair AI technology.

While many general principles of AI ethics apply across industries, the healthcare sector has its own set of unique ethical considerations. This is due to the high stakes involved in patient care, the sensitive nature of health data, and the critical impact on individuals and public health.

It is critical that AI in healthcare benefit all sectors of the population, as AI could worsen existing inequalities if not carefully designed and implemented. Its also critical that we ensure AI systems in healthcare are both accurate and reliable. Ethical concerns arise when AI is used for diagnosis or treatment without robust validation, as errors can lead to incorrect medical decisions.

As an example, consider an AI system that is used to assist in a patients risk for diagnosis. One question to ask is whether the AI algorithm performs equally for patients, regardless of race or gender.

In the same vein, an algorithm trained on hospital data from the European Union may not perform as well in the U.S., as the patient population is different, as are treatment strategies and medications.

To combat these challenges, bias mitigation strategies may require us to implement mathematical approaches that help an AI model learn and produce balanced predictions.

At Cedars-Sinai, we also believe that critical AI algorithms should augment the expert, not replace that individual. Keeping the human in the loop to review a recommendation is another important strategy we use to mitigate bias.

To support our AI strategy, we created a framework for the ethical development and use of AI. The framework and policies are designed to ensure that the evolution of AI in medicine benefits patients, physicians and the healthcare community. It advocates for appropriate professional oversight for safe, effective and equitable use.

The framework starts by identifying who might be impacted and how, and then takes steps to mitigate any potential adverse impact.

The most powerfuland usefulAI systems are adaptive. These systems should be able to learn and evolve over time outside of human observation and independent of human control. This, however, presents a unique challenge in AI ethics, as it requires ongoing monitoring, review and auditability to ensure systems remain fair and sound.

Recent booms in AI technologies have been decades in the making. The most relevant and recent advances have accelerated the growth of AI algorithms and conceptsan evolution that will continue.

Now more than ever before, we must ensure that AI algorithms are trustworthy and deserving of trust. In healthcare, this entails systematically accumulating evidence, monitoring systems and data that are based on ethics and equity.

Read more from the Cedars-Sinai Blog: The Human Factor of Artificial Intelligence

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Curse God and Die, They Said. It Will Be Fun, They Said – The Stream

Posted: at 1:37 pm

This column is adapted from Jason Jones upcoming bookThe Great Campaign: Against the Great Reset, which will appear in early 2024.

Last time I ran through the top five fashionable delusions of our elites the people who must know more than we do, since theyre giving TED talks to hedge fund billionaires in Davos. I explained how:

We must fight each of these ideologies on its merits, locating what grains of truth they might contain, then showing how sloppy thinking, hunger for power, the herd instinct, and other ancient temptations have built up a pyramid of lies. And I do that, in detail, in the relevant chapters that follow.

But we must do more than run around putting out fires. Theres a reason that such grotesque caricatures were able to come to dominate among highly educated Westerners: they rushed in to fill a vacuum, which nature abhors. Since the self-styled Enlightenment, the Christian West has been living off its savings, going ever further out on a limb of the Tree of Knowledge, and sawing it off at the trunk.

It might have seemed safe to 19th century Brits like Charles Darwin and Austrians like Freud to hack away at the supports for human dignity, family life, morality and reason. Surrounded by the built-up riches of Christendom, they couldnt imagine what bankruptcy their gambling habit would lead to.

We can. We grew up in the poorhouse, the howling void of meaning, value, and beauty that was left when the last implications of an integral Christian worldview were finally swept away. And in that empty space the principalities and powers have offered us golden calves, primitive fetishes, elaborate phantasms shiny objects that make loud noises to distract us from the fact of our desperation, and the need to turn back to Christ.

We now have a pope in Rome who scoffs at reverent liturgy, biblical sexual ethics, unborn life, and the organ harvesting of the Communist regime in China in order to focus on: exploiting shell-shocked and bewildered refugees, battling climate change, and boosting Pfizers stock price. Countless lesser Christian leaders in various churches pursue the same inverted priorities, auditioning to serve as tame live-in chaplains to Caesar, Mammon, and Sodom.

We can do better. We must. In the face of these old errors and new delusions, we turn to what is timeless: the law God wrote on the human heart, which He first made clear to man in the Covenant of Noah. The Natural Law, enriched by the truths of divine Revelation, is our guide. Think of it as the instructions manual to the human race, which its Maker helpfully left us but most of us are too proud to read.

In my last book, written ten eventful years ago, I distilled that Natural Law down to five core principles. The Race to Save Our Century doesnt argue for these principles from some set of abstract definitions, of the kind philosophers argue about in journals few people read. No, it looked at the cavalcade of atrocities and horrors that began in 1914, which turned a century of progress into the great age of genocide, tyranny, and destruction. Then it asked which moral maxims could have prevented these massive abuses of human life and dignity. As it turned out, the five core Whole Life principles that would have saved the 20th century were also the pillars of Catholic social teaching.

Having watched the decade that followed, I can only say that the book was sadly prophetic. Our culture went even further in its rejection of Natural Law than even Id thought possible, and these five principles are more urgently important than ever. In this book Ill lay them out again, more briefly, and in each chapter shows how they need to be applied today, as emergency medicine:

These arent specifically Christian teachings, which people need the grace of Faith to comprehend and accept although, since our reason is fallen, grace certainly helps. Fighting for these principles isnt religious, much less intolerant or somehow (as the left likes to say) promoting a theocracy. In fact, as we can see by the degraded state of our culture in the absence of these principles, fighting for the Natural Law is the only truly human thing to do. And if we value the human race, we will order our lives to serve this struggle.

We might, like the hobbits in The Lord of the Rings, be fighting to save the Shire, but not for us. Its possible that our efforts will win us persecution and poverty, and only leave rewards to our children or grand-children. For centuries, men planted olive trees that only their descendants would live to eat from. At a time when too many people are gleefully eat the seed corn, we ought to act like hobbits, instead of orcs.

Jason Jones is a senior contributor to The Stream. He is a film producer, author, activist and human rights worker.

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Cardinal Hollerich: The openness of the Synod on Synodality ‘will … – Catholic World Report

Posted: at 1:37 pm

Delegates vote to approve a synthesis report at the conclusion of the Synod on Synodality on Oct. 28, 2023. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Oct 28, 2023 / 19:17 pm (CNA).

At the conclusion of the Synod on Synodality, Pope Francis monthlong Vatican assembly, one of the meetings leaders said the freedom and openness experienced during the gathering will help the Church change in the future.

While sometimes people had their knives out over an issue during small group discussions at the Oct. 4-29 assembly, eventually, an alternative solution would be discovered, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the synods relator general, said at a press briefing Oct. 28.

To have this freedom and openness will change the Church, he said, and Im sure the Church will find answers, but perhaps not the exact answer this group or that group wants to have, but answers [with which] most people could feel well and listened to.

The Vatican gathering this month was the first of two sessions of the 16th Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. The synod delegates, which included laypeople for the first time, voted on and released a synthesis report to conclude the gathering. A more definitive document is expected to be released at the end of the second session of the synod in October 2024.

The process starts, really starts, at the end of the [whole] synod, Hollerich told journalists Saturday evening. So even next year, I hope there will be a document that is a real document, where also some theological questions of synodality get considered and so on.

But even the final document, he stressed, will just be a step of a Church on the move.

And I think thats the important thing: we move, the cardinal added.

The archbishop of Luxembourg repeated that the synod is about synodality even if people have not believed us.

He said there are topics that are important to some people and should continue to be important to them, even if they were not mentioned in the Oct. 28 synthesis report. And I think a synodal Church will more easily try to speak about these topics than the Church as it was structured in the past, he said.

Thats not to say that a synodal church will just embrace everything, he added.

About the fact that some people voted against some of the hot-button issues included in the assemblys report, Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, said there are points in which we agree and points in which there is still a way to go.

Hollerich said: It was clear to me that some topics would have resistance. I am full of wonder that so many people have voted in favor. That means that the resistance [was] not so great as people have thought before. So yes, I am happy with that result.

Similar results, in a parliamentary vote, would be considered very positive, he said.

The inclusion in the report of a paragraph about studying the possibility of women deacons had 69 votes against and 277 votes in favor.

Grech said one bishop told him he saw ice melt in people during the gathering.

This is the approach of Jesus, to create spaces for everyone so that no one feels excluded, he added. Today there was a tremendous joy that you could see with your own eyes.

I think, Hollerich said, people will leave tomorrow or the day after tomorrow going home with a heart full of hope, with a lot of ideas, and Im looking forward to seeing them back next year.

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Virtual insanity Winnipeg Free Press – Winnipeg Free Press

Posted: at 1:37 pm

There are probably many moments when our minds would rather drift off into fantasy rather than deal with the reality of global calamities. Who could blame us?

But author Jonathan Taplin, who is director emeritus of the Annenberg Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California, argues that a fantasy world is deliberately built around and for us while democracy and the commons are stolen from under our feet.

In The End of Reality: How 4 Billionaires are Selling a Fantasy Future of the Metaverse, Mars, and Crypto, Taplin outlines how the Technocrats Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Elon Musk (SpaceX, Tesla and Twitter/X), Peter Thiel (Paypal, Facebook) and Marc Andreesen (Netscape, Bitcoin) are intent on dismantling democracy for their own profits by creating a fantasy world for us based on virtual reality, avatars, Marvel Movies, trips to Mars, transhumanism and/or living to age 200.

John Locher / The Associated Press files

Cutline TK

As Taplin suggests,The Technocrats have risen to levels of previously unimagined wealth while providing tools to autocrats around the world. At the same time, they are centrally focused on using public money to fund space exploration and other strange projects, while some, like Musk and Thiel, seem eager to fan the flames of fascism.

And for Taplin, Andressen, Musk, Thiel and Zuckerbergs disruptions of our notions of both capitalism and democracy are only going to increase in the coming years. This will usher in more autocratic states, an expansion of the social class he refers to as the Precariat, and a fantasy world that has all of us spouting hateful things online, betting on sports online and creating more perfect forms of ourselves.

Leaning on George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, Taplin builds the case that our society is at a tipping point where we are eating each other alive while these four, and others, are becoming immeasurably richer at our expense. Taplin calls for a greater collective criticality where we ask ourselves if investing trillions in virtual reality or going to Mars will add to the collective wealth of society, through real, productive growth.

Through contemporary bread and circuses, billionaires are attempting to create a utopian society for themselves, while dangling this utopia in front of our eyes through Captain America, TikTok stars and the Metaverse. Taplin takes the reader through a deep dive of each of the Technocrats, outlining how each grew up focused on science fiction and in contexts where social interaction and healthy relationships were devoid from their experience.

In 2023, our digital social networks will have been created by those who have not developed significant and non-digital social relationships and by four men who would rather live in a utopian world where their awkwardness is shielded. Meta and the Metaverse to Taplin are stark examples of how the Technocrats are engineering a more perfect social network and society while providing insidious forces a platform and space to dull our criticality.

For Taplin, Meta and similar social networks are at best an opioid for Gen Z and at worst a stomping ground for neo-fascism. As he argues, Meta proposes complete elimination of the boundaries between truth and fiction, between real and unreal. This is what Trumpism and fascism produce and need. For Taplin, Zuckerbergs company has almost destroyed civil society and our democracy.

So where is the hope? Taplin suggests we have two choices: succumb or wake up. Waking up involves not letting our children use VR, not buying into cryptocurrency, standing up to the misuse of public dollars for childish space fantasies. And, above all, getting back to humanism, the humanities and the arts. It is within these where revolution and healthy social networks and societies are created.

The End of Reality

For educators, the examination of the Technocrats is an opportunity for learners to fully reflect on the forces that are fully engineered to dissuade them from reality. From Instagram, YouTube and Marvel movies (Taplins rant on Marvel is worth the price of the book alone) to TikTok, are young people able to understand the negative impact the fantasy world has on individuals and our relationships with others?

Educators (and thats all adults): begin with Orwell and Huxley with our teens, and then have them fully investigate the Technocrats. Have them challenge the inevitability of a bleak and engineered modernity. Have them imagine the possibilities that reside in the exciting notion that The brilliance of democracy is that it allows for improvisation, the greatest power of the creative spirit.

Matt Henderson is superintendent of Winnipeg School Division.

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Interview In praise of failure – Morning Star Online

Posted: October 3, 2023 at 8:04 pm

THE late ELDoctorow lamented the narrowness of contemporary fiction, suggesting it has given up the realm of public discourse and the social and political novel.

The work of Lars Iyer belies Doctorows pessimism. Iyers stories are unflinching examinations of the commodification and plunder of our economy, society and culture. Whats more, hes one of very few writers to make me laugh out loud on the bus to work.

Laughter is important its necessary to breathe, says Iyer, citing the Romanian philosopher EMCiorans view of writing as an escape from the suffocation of oppression.

For me, that getting-free involves laughter: laughing at the Man. Laughing at the madness. Laughing at the po-faced and humourless absurdity that is all around us.

The attraction of comedy [is that] it allows some freedomand perhaps might grant freedom in turn. A way of diagnosing whats happening to us, but not being crushed by it. Perhaps it might be the beginning of a critique, which is only possible if we can find others to laugh with.

Collaboration and connection are central to Iyers novels. In his latest, My Weil, a group of Manchester-based PhD students grapple with urban decay and the advance of corporate imperialism.

Crammed with erudite discussions that veer into sparkling invective, it highlights the need for robust friendships in terrible times.

Its an idea captured in a well-known line from David Bowie: While troubles are rising, wed rather be scared together than alone.

Yes, thats the thing, says Iyer. Despairing together. Sharing such moods, being humorous about them, comically exaggerating them, ringing changes upon them, which means theyre no longer solely negative.

We might think that we that we cant do much about the disasters ahead of us about neuroweaponry or weather warfare, about education capture and health capture, about destabilisation agendas, about transhumanism but we can discuss and diagnose them. Laughing together at their folly, shaking our heads together at their evil, we neednt be merely passive victims.

My Weil savagely satirises the corporatisation, managerial jargon and reductive systems of academia. For me, the character Professor Bollocks micd up like some boybander and spouting drivel about economically manageable skillsets triggered a flashback to the Thatcher era, and my time in a research team subject to the scrutiny of an industrial uncle (sic).

Nothing of the novel is exaggerated. The language of management theory has colonised the university. Expressions like best practice and seedcorn funding,used without irony No-one laughs or rolls their eyes Everything, taken straight.

Iyer despairs at the dominance of management processes emphasising productivity, efficiency and resourcing, and recasting students and academics as self-initiating entrepreneurs.

To make it worse, this process of stripping away meaning, comradeship, a sense of the absurd is accompanied by the grotesque parodying of the same notions that the process hollows out: the university as your family, your fellow students as potential buddies.

My characters, in response, cultivate counter-techniques of failure and ineffectiveness, of wandering and vagueness and of displacing ends from means.

They aim at a deliberate incompetence, in which not finishing your PhD dissertation is more of a sign of honour than completing it on time; in which failure is a better sign of scholarly integrity than system-rewarded success. And they laugh, they have fun, which is pretty much forbidden in these overserious times.

Theres a strong sense of communality in My Weil, but the postgraduate characters seem mired in chaos and inertia. Is Iyer sceptical about the possibility of collective action?

The characters consider various possibilities for collective action. Theres becoming lumpenproletariat: living like the raggle-taggle of criminal-types, the unmanageable declasses that Marx wrote about, who keep to the shadows.

Theres becoming apocalyptic: gathering like the early Christians awaiting the second coming, only this time, theyre waiting for an incoming, shattering transcendence that would explode the present order of the world.

Theres secession: going under the state, on the model of villages in Alpine valleys that that have their own currency, that keep low-tech using mechanics, not electronics like those parts of Mexico that just do their own thing, regardless of central government decree.

My characters have little faith in present institutions. My question would be whether and how we might make them more accountable, transparent and democratic.

My characters are tired of all that. Perhaps we can see a viable form of collective action or rather, collective inaction in their common drifting, their vagueness, their abandonment of proper ends.

Theres a touch of the New Weird to My Weil. As the characters become increasingly deranged by their fears, one experiences a prophetic vision of unbearable repression and seeks a solution in myth. And then theres a strange zone known as The Ees.

Iyer explains: The Ees, a scrap of woodland in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester meant to resemble the Zone from Tarkovskys film Stalker permits the wandering and vagueness, the displacement of ends from means. Its about disactivation, which is why its full of all kinds of junk.

As such, the Ees is an embodiment of the students relationship to their PhD dissertations and, more broadly, to study. It allows them to be stupid, ignorant, disoriented but in a positive sense. In an antidote to Professor Bollocks kind of sense.

The novels satire, characters and apocalyptic mood are firmly grounded in its setting, postindustrial Manchester, a city still haunted by the echoes of Joy Division and the throbbing dancefloor of the Hacienda. I ask Iyer what fascinates him about the music and culture of 1980s Manchester.

The Manchester I discovered when I moved there in 1989 still had areas that were like the Ees of my novel: unproductive areas, temporary autonomous zones such as the Hulme Crescents, an edgy zone of low-rise, system-built flats.

It was from such places that so much great Mancunian culture came. Manchester was regenerated in the 90s. Investors and financiers, gentrifiers and speculators transformed the cityscape with statement architecture, with steel-balconied warehouse conversions: monuments to cheap credit.

My characters dream of battering back the Mancunian regenerators, of reopening the figurative cracks and the crevices where you used to be able to live unnoticed and unbothered on government benefits.

Only the Ees is left to them of that world now. The Ees, and the great Mancunian music to which they still listen.

Finally, I ask Iyer if he believes humanity is doomed.

Not if we awaken to whats happening. What will save us? Human unmanageability, perhaps. Its just such unmanageability that is shown in my characters laughter, in their friendship. Internal struggles between various factions of the powers-that-shouldnt-be, perhaps. Something contingent, miraculous, perhaps.

My Weil by Lars Iyer is published by Melville House, 14.99.

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I used Grimes’ AI vocals to make a hit here’s how I did it – NME

Posted: May 22, 2023 at 12:28 pm

AI aka Artificial Intelligence is rapidly shaping the future of music, but electronic outlier Grimes predicted that this was on the cards years ago. Having recently given a keynote on the power of AI at IMS Ibiza, and encouraged fans to use her voice on songs created by AI, shes since launched her own AI vocal generator platform called Elf.Tech.

Now Grimes has released her first official AI song, Cold Touch, a collaboration with Australia-born, LA-based DJ and producer Kito. The icy electronic banger has quickly gone viral after Kito teased the creation on her Instagram, and It even caught the attention of Grimes who describes as transhumanist industrial Taylor Swift with a smattering of happy hardcore we couldnt have put it better. Kito tells NME how it all came together:

A couple of weeks ago I had a studio session in London with two writers that I love Nina Nesbit and Fred Ball and I had just seen Grimes post her invitation for people to use her AI-generated voice. It just seemed like a really interesting thing to try, so I suggested the idea when I got to the studio. Nina and Fred were both into it so no convincing was needed.

Elf.Tech is such a simple concept: you upload a voice, and transform it to sound like Grimes. Shes trained her AI to know her voice. It definitely has a few limitations which theyre constantly improving. I think theres a lot of confusion with how AI is being used in songs right now, and AI will continue to be messy for a while. Its new territory for everyone. So much is attached to a voice an identity, a story so this idea of mimicking an existing artist without their permission is morally kind of questionable in my opinion; who knows what theyre planning in terms of releases or what stage their project is at creatively?

Its not AI [making this song] either its humans. Its just a tool that humans are using to mimic another human, so maybe we need to think about how AI can expand our creativity instead of just using it to replicate stuff? But obviously its wild and fun to hear and see that, too. Cold Touch was written, produced and put together by humans, its just the voice that is generated through AI. Though in order for that to work, you still need a real human voice as a guide, so the AI can map it.

I had never used AI before, but I love all sorts of voice manipulation in production. In some weird way it felt like an extension of that, with the added challenge of writing a song as if it was a collaboration with Grimes. We wrote it from the perspective of an AI trying to understand love. I think love is the most human thing, and maybe you could say thats what defines consciousness? Its a terrifying and fun thing to think and write about.

The song opened up a new creative process for me; just sharing something raw and unfinished and having a response which prompted a very fast release thats the opposite of how I usually work. I didnt feel nervous about it, because I just wanted to be part of the experiment. I was hopeful that Grimes might see it, but didnt have any big expectations. Just like hey this is cool! Do you think its cool too? I did make jokes about going viral with [producer and DJ] Leon Vynehall though.

Leon and his wife Moxie are very good friends of mine and I was staying with them while I was in London; I did the production for the song while sitting at their kitchen table on headphones. I popped into Leons studio so I could listen to it on his speakers. He added some bits and helped me quickly finish structuring it before telling me to sit there while he filmed me listening to it. Which is what I posted online that night.

It exceeded all expectations for me by connecting me with Grimes and chatting ideas with her. The artwork conversation was fun, too. We were into the idea of doing everything different compared to a normal release and involving people with decisions. Especially because we were both very indecisive. At first, the obvious thing seemed to be to use an AI-generated piece of art for the cover, and then straight away that felt gimmicky to me in the context of my releases.

Ive used artist and photographer Alec Marchants art on other covers Recap with VanJess and Channel Tres, and Alone With You with Aluna. Ive seen the deer image before and always loved it and in a weird way it just made total sense to me for this song. Its kind of like a metaphor for our slightly weird and awkward relationship with using AI for creative expression.

I remember seeing Grimes perform in London at a festival and being really blown away by her energy on stage and how totally in the moment she seemed. It feels amazing to have her react so positively to the song. Its a surreal way to collaborate with an artist. I actually joked that this song would lead to that, without expecting it to actually happen. Were chatting about a Grimes version, and trying stuff, but nothing is finished yet.

I love the idea of collaborating with her IRL, because her creative energy to me seems pretty captivating and I love her ability to do things in her own way with a lot of confidence. Fearless energy!

Cold Touch is out now via Mad Decent. Interview by Ben Jolley

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