Category Archives: Extropy

A 24-year-old man from Yemen, who was suffering from congenital urine incontinence problem, got a new lease of life after undergoing a surgery at a private facility here that helped him to wean off diapers that he was using all his life, hospital authorities claimed on Wednesday.

They also claimed that for the first time in India doctors had performed a robot-assisted artificial urinary sphincter surgery.

The patient had a congenital defect called ''Extropy Epispadias Complex'', and in this condition, the lower abdominal wall is not developed at all, leaving the bladder open and draining urine out from the open abdomen, doctors said.

The surgery took place recently at BLK-Max Super Speciality Hospital in Delhi. Aditya Pradhan, director, urology, andrology and renal transplant, at the facility, who led the case, said, ''The repair needs a series of operations to correct it successfully, starting from early childhood. Over the past several years, the patient has had at least six major surgeries in five countries.

''Though the doctors abroad managed to close the abdomen and the penis area, yet the patient had no control over urination. He was hence wearing a diaper constantly. His predominant wish was to be able to be dry and perform all his routine activities without the fear of any urine leak,'' he said.

With this surgery, doctors said, they were able to successfully treat the patient and helped him in weaning off his diapers that he was using all his life''. PTI VA KND SRY

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Surgery helps Yemenese youth shed diapers after 24 years ...

New Delhi, Mar 16 (PTI) A 24-year-old man from Yemen, who was suffering from congenital urine incontinence problem, got a new lease of life after undergoing a surgery at a private facility here that helped him to wean off diapers that he was using all his life, hospital authorities claimed on Wednesday.

They also claimed that for the first time in India doctors had performed a robot-assisted artificial urinary sphincter surgery.

The patient had a congenital defect called Extropy Epispadias Complex, and in this condition, the lower abdominal wall is not developed at all, leaving the bladder open and draining urine out from the open abdomen, doctors said.

The surgery took place recently at BLK-Max Super Speciality Hospital in Delhi.

Aditya Pradhan, director, urology, andrology and renal transplant, at the facility, who led the case, said, The repair needs a series of operations to correct it successfully, starting from early childhood. Over the past several years, the patient has had at least six major surgeries in five countries.

Though the doctors abroad managed to close the abdomen and the penis area, yet the patient had no control over urination. He was hence wearing a diaper constantly. His predominant wish was to be able to be dry and perform all his routine activities without the fear of any urine leak, he said.

With this surgery, doctors said, they were able to successfully treat the patient and helped him in weaning off his diapers that he was using all his life.

PTI VA KND SRY

This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.

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Surgery helps Yemenese youth shed diapers after 24 years - ThePrint

What does it mean to be human in a technologically enhanced world? Humanity+, also known as World Transhumanist Association, is a 501(c)3 international nonprofit membership organization that advocates the ethical use of technology, such as artificial intelligence, to expand human capacities. In other words, we want people to be better than well. This is the goal of transhumanism.

Technologies that support longevity and mitigate the disease of aging by curing disease and repairing injury have accelerated to a point in which they also can increase human performance outside the realms of what is considered to be normal for humans. These technologies are referred to as emerging and exponential and include artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, nanomedicine, biotechnology, stem cells, and gene therapy, for example. Other technologies that could extend and expand human capabilities outside physiology include AI, robotics, and brain-computer integration, which form the domain of bionics, memory transfer, and could be used for developing whole body prosthetics. Because these technologies, and their respective sciences and strategic models, such as blockchain, would take the human beyond the historical (normal) state of existence, society, including bioethicists and others who advocate the safe use of technology, have shown concern and uncertainties about the downside of these technologies and possible problematic and dangerous outcomes for our species.

We aim to impact change. We have the knowledge to equip you with the tools, resources and mindset to navigate your own transformative journey into the future. This is Humanity+s network of members, advisors, associates and partners. Areas include entrepreneurs and innovators in the fields of science, technology, philosophy, and the arts.

Humanity+ is the combined effort of earliest transhumanist organizations and global groups. Starting with Extropy Institute in the United States, and soon thereafter Aleph in Sweden and Transcedo in Europe, later the World Transhumanist Association, now known as Humanity+, have ignited the core advocacy of the life extension advocacy. For over 30 years, Transhumanism as a worldview and movement has developed a knowledge base and educational programs to learn about the sciences and technologies that are extending life, curing disease, and slowing down and reversing the damages of aging.

The pioneering conferences and publications that brought this advocacy to the mainstream also provided the ideas and foresight about life extension while fostering the increasing media coverage of superlongevity aka extreme life extension and radical life extension. No where in the world is there a stronger, more passionate group of people about life extension and the advances in biomedical research and the future of nanomedicine than within the transhumanist culture.

Humanity+ sees its role as a primary advocate for positivetranshumanistvalues. This includes healthy longevity (Extreme Life Extension) and the sciences and technologies that can create a more human humanity. Humanity+ feels that these values and the goals of thetranshumanistagenda are consequential for humanitys well-being. Humanity+wantsto inform its members and the public about the ethical uses of technologyandevidence-based science to advance human existence. The nature and scope ofhumanexistence includes the growth, aspirations, circumstances and conflictsthathumanity faces today and in the future.

Worldwide Leaders and Organizations that are preparing us for the Future are known for exploring opportunities not only within their fields, but on a broader scope. Their intellectual impact helps the forward movement of education and lifelong learning. The broader impact is the ability to connect unique ideas to projects, from the most immediate needs of society to future impacts of technology that implement a keen foresight to steer us toward a positive future. The Humanity+ Advocacy aims to impact change. We have the knowledge to equip you with the tools, resources and mindset to navigate your own transformative journey.

This is Humanity+s network of members, advisors, associates and partners. Areas include entrepreneurs and innovators in the fields of science, technology, philosophy, humanities and the arts.

Technologies that intervene with human physiology for curing disease and repairing injury have accelerated to a point in which they also can increase human performance outside the realms of what is considered to be normal for humans. These technologies are referred to as emerging and speculative and include nanotechnology, nanomedicine, biotechnology, genetic engineering, stem cell cloning, and transgenesis, for example. Other technologies that could extend and expand human capabilities outside physiology include artificial intelligence, artificial general intelligence, robotics, and brain-computer integration, which form the domain of bionics, uploading, and could be used for developing whole body prosthetics. Because these technologies, and their respective sciences, would take the human beyond the normal state of existence, society, including bioethicists and others who advocate the safe use of technology, have shown concern and uncertainties about the downside of these technologies and possible problematic and dangerous outcomes for our species. Natasha Vita-More

The human is a biological animal, which evolved approximately 200,000 years ago as the subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens (modern humans). The Western worlds consensus on what is normal for a human biology, life span, intelligence and psychology established certain precedents. Outside these precedents would mean that a human is subnormal or beyond normal. A person who is afflicted with a physical affliction, a mental condition, or degenerative disease would be considered to be outside the normal range. Likewise, a person who has increased physiological performance or cognitive abilities, or lives beyond the human maximum lifespan of 122-123 years, would be considered outside the normal range. This determination of normal has not kept up with the advances in technology or science.

Human enhancement, both therapeutic and selective, challenges the normal status and aims to expand human capabilities that further human physiological functions and extend the maximum life span. External devices such as smart phones, smart watches, wearable bio monitors, Google glasses, etc. are all expanding human capabilities. In the field of medical technology, the cochlear implant and bionic eyes have broken through the glass ceiling on biological determinism. Regenerative medicine, stem cell therapies, smart prosthetics, genetic engineering, nanomedicine, cryonics, nootropics, neuropharmacology, have already done this.

Transhumanism and the Humanity+ organization do not support anthropocentric hegemony or dogma. Transhumanism as a worldview and Humanity+ as the worlds larges transhumanist organization advocate for awareness and respect for the synergy of life in the varied characteristics and behaviors that comprise the Earths living forms.

Daily, medicine uncovers another way to make us better than well. Peoples illnesses and injuries are not only being healedthey are also being improved. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with aiming to be better than well. However, there are evident concerns and this is where ethical use of technology plays a part. While extending the human maximum life span does not cross these lines, there are other concerns that could affect humanity. Humanity+s focus is on the course of prompting good to great health. Many of our members practice physical fitness (aerobics and anaerobic exercise, Yoga, Pilates, Dance), participate in wellness diets (Paleo, Atkins, CR, vegetarian, vegan), and mental fitness (meditation, visualization, Zen, spirituality, Buddhism, and other practices). Our members also participate in projects such as Quantified Self (QS), entrepreneurial aims, and self-responsibility, paying it forward, and empathy as a way of life.

Excerpt from:

Mission - Humanity+

One of the most difficult times to make ethical decisions is when there is great uncertainty about what the best decision is, or how to go about achieving that best end. Here I will present six contemporary principles, or risk standards, which are approaches for dealing with uncertainty and risk (discussions of some historical approaches can be found here: Probabilism). I will explain each principle and give examples, then discuss some themes.

A key point of connection between risk standards and ethics is that in riskier situations it often makes sense to use more stringent risk standards, and in the riskiest situations, the most stringent risk standards are more likely to be ethically justifiable. These risk standards might be helpfully connected to the Markkula Centers Framework for Ethical Decision Making when making ethical decisions in uncertain situations.

It is also worth noting that risk tolerance can vary significantly between individuals and between cultures, so it is likely that disagreements will often appear when discussing the ethics of risks. That does not make ethical decision making impossible, it just means that it might be more difficult, and that communication is very important so that all involved groups know and understand what is going on, how, and why.

1) The Prevention Principle takes a highly cautious approach towards ethical decision making because it specifically relates to situations with certainty of negative outcomes. It follows the general rule that prevention is better than cure, and therefore harms ought to be anticipated and pre-empted, rather than experienced and solved later (as in the Polluter Pays Principle).

This principle is generally uncontroversial in cases where cause and effect are clear and certain; it is when it moves towards uncertainty that more controversy appears, and the Precautionary Principle tends to be invoked instead. [1]

Examples: the Prevention Principle would promote placing safety requirements on automobiles (such as seat belts and airbags), since the certainty of accidents across a population is 100%, and it is better to prevent or reduce injuries rather than cope with them afterwards. Similarly, polluting industries might have requirements that require them to reduce or prevent certain types of pollution, as in using flue-gas desulfurization (sulfur dioxide scrubbers) on coal-fired power plants to prevent acid rain.

2) The Precautionary Principle is an approach to risk management and ethical decision making which seeks to prevent possible harms in cases where there is not yet scientific consensus on connections between cause and effect. The approach merely necessitates that there be a plausible scientific connection, not that it be certain. This approach is more likely to avoid damages, since waiting for the damage to occur (and thus establish a connection) is too late.

This is a more stringent risk standard than the prevention principle due to its acceptance of causal uncertainty. Over time, if causation becomes clearer (thereby decreasing uncertainty), this approach could be shifted towards prevention (if the connection is established), dropped (if the connection is not established), or another approach chosen (if the situation remains complicated). [2]

Examples: the Precautionary Principle is standard for the pharmaceutical approval process in most nations, where new medicines are approved slowly, under careful conditions, so as to avoid widespread social harms. Another example includes the responses of some nations towards genetically modified organisms (GMOs), where safety suspicions delayed deployment until more certainty was established.

3) Prudent Vigilance is an approach to risk which seeks to proceed with the potentially risky behavior while remaining vigilant of risks that might be developing or becoming more certain as one proceeds. It seeks to establish processes for assessing likely benefits and risks before, during, and after an undertaking, and continues to evaluate safety and security as technologies develop and diffuse into public and private sectors. [3] Prudent vigilance allows for risk-taking behavior, but with the understanding that ongoing evaluation is necessary. [3, 4]

Examples: Prudent Vigilance was a cornerstone for the United States Obama-era Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, in their 2010 report on the ethics of synthetic biology and other emerging technologies. It has remained a principle for discussion and consideration in this field, and has expanded to a few others, including environmental protection and international relations. [5, 6]

4) The Polluter Pays Principle is a risk standard which permits risk-taking behavior and then, if something goes wrong, assigns clean-up for the harms to those who created the harms. [1] This risk standard is responsive rather than anticipatory, and assumes that risk takers will either self-police (and not make errors), or, if self-policing fails, will be capable of making up for the harms they have produced. Ethically, Polluter Pays values freedom and responsibility, and assumes that, for the most part, people lack the power to significantly affect the future, and that those who can affect the future are meticulously careful, honorable, and benevolent.

Because of growing technological power, this principle is now obsolete in many cases, as damages sometimes can be planetary in scale, long term, and irreversible. In cases where it is difficult to hold entities responsible for their actions, or where damage is too much for them to redress, a more anticipatory strategy makes more sense. Additionally, the complexity of society can make it more likely that unscrupulous entities will not be held accountable.

Examples: the Polluter Pays Principle is at work in any situation where it is assumed that harms can be tolerated, and the agents of that harm held accountable for their actions, typically through legal or legislative recourse. Environmental dumping, even on a small scale, such as littering, sometimes shows this principle in action, as the polluter is typically fined for their misdeed.

5) The Gamblers Principle counsels risk takers to avoid risking damages which, if they occurred, would be ethically unacceptable, ranging up to the largest technological disasters, including global catastrophic and existential risks. Philosophers of technology Hans Jonas and Michael Davis have each advocated this approach, Jonas describing it as forbidding any va banque [go for broke or all in] game in the affairs of humanity, [7] and Davis as dont bet more than you can afford to lose. [8]

Davis describes this principle in more detail: If we (society at its rational best) would reject any plausible benefit in exchange for suffering that harm, we (that part of society making the decision) should, all else equal, rule out any design that risks that harm (however small the probability so long as it is finite). [8] Put another way, if a risk can be voluntarily assumed or declined, then for any unacceptable harm, if the probability is non-zero, then the risk is too high, and is therefore unethical and should not be taken. [9, 10]

This risk standard is focused only on the very largest and worst harms, while ignoring more mundane harms. It is anticipatory in nature towards these larger harms, and responsive in nature towards smaller harms. In this way, it can be viewed as more like the Prevention or Precautionary Principles with respect to larger harms and the Polluter Pays Principle with respect to smaller harms.

Examples: the Gamblers Principle would counsel rejecting the construction of a nuclear power plant, if a meltdown and subsequent radioactive pollution were deemed an unacceptable risk. Another might be the development of self-replicating nanotechnology, which could bring great benefits, but risks consuming the world if weaponized or gone out of control. In other cases, such as car accidents or more average harms, this principle permits the risky behavior and a reactive response if necessary, or it defers to another risk standard.

6) The Proactionary Principle is an approach to risk taking behavior which argues that innovation and technological progress should be pursued with speed. [11] It characterizes the current risk conditions as unacceptably bad (i.e. unethical), and therefore argues that other risks ought to be taken in order to escape the current risky state. It is an approach to risk which emphasizes action now, even in the face of possible negative effects, because if actions are not taken now, then the current unacceptable state will continue, and the future itself may be at stake.

It is optimistic in assuming that the future will be better, despite the risks taken to get there (and any possible ongoing harms from those risks), and is pessimistic about the current state of the world. The Proactionary Principle places faith in the benefits of technological progress. It does not cope well with the most disastrous and irreversible risks of technology, such as existential risks.

Examples: the Proactionary Principle is visible anytime a risk is deemed to be worth the reward, e.g. when taking a new job, buying a house, starting a business, etc. With respect to technological development, it could be used to promote certain technologies such as radical life extension, space settlement, peace-building technologies, and environmental sustainability technologies, arguing that those technologies ought to be developed as quickly as possible, because our current situation is quite dire. Historically, the Manhattan Project followed the Proactionary Principle due to fear of Nazi Germany obtaining the atomic bomb first, and in this effort was pushed forward even as significant scientists worried that it risked igniting the Earths atmosphere and destroying all life. [12, 13]

There are several ethical dimensions at play in these principles. A first is whether they are anticipatory of harms or reactive/responsive to harms. In the past, permitting harms, then reacting to them, was considered to be acceptable in many cases, since harms were often less damaging.

As a second related dimension, there is the question of whether entities can be trusted to make amends for their damages after the fact, or whether they are likely to shirk their responsibilities and go unpunished, thus contributing to social degradation and breakdown of trust. The more likely it is for damages to go unpunished and/or unredressed, the more important it is to prevent them. Given the complex interactions of entities across the globe and over time, and the rise of uncertain causal connections, lack of accountability has increased and is likely to continue to do so.

Relatedly, a third dimension is the magnitude of the harms a stake. As technology has expanded the human capacity for disaster, more need of anticipation and pre-emption has emerged. Irreversible harms such as species extinctions, and harms of massive scale both spatially and temporally, such as climate change, have necessitated new ways of looking at the ethics of risk.

A fourth dimension is the probability or uncertainty of the risk. As technology has expanded human power, it has also increased our scope of action in unpredictable ways, and therefore uncertainty about the effects of our choices has increased. Every new technology deployed is something like a socio-environmental experiment, exploring the world for effects, both anticipated and unanticipated. In this environment of enhanced uncertainty, risk is much harder to calculate, uncertainty much higher, and therefore risk ought to be avoided more carefully.

Combining some of these dimensions is possible through the Risk Equation, often written as Risk = Probability x Harm, or R = p(L), where R is risk, p is probability, and L is loss or harm. The Risk Equation informs several of the above principles and can be a useful interpretative framework for conceptualizing how some aspects of these principles relate to each other.

Lastly, these principles are not presented with the intent of advocating any particular one. Each has its uses, depending on the circumstances. However, it is worth noting that as human impact on the world has increased in past decades (due to technological harms increasing as well as overall uncertainty), societal risk tolerances could have understandably reacted. It may seem that there has been an overall shift towards more risk-averse approaches.

However, perceived in another way, it is merely that the world has changed, while societal risk tolerances have remained even, and these social preferences have gradually expressed a reaction to the shift in power in the techno-social environment. In other words, it is risk that has increased, not risk aversion. In a world where there are more dangerous choices, there is more to say no to, [14] and a greater role for ethics as well.

[1] World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST), The Precautionary Principle (Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 2005) 7-8. Available at: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000139578

[2] Precautionary Principle, Glossary of Summaries, EUR-Lex: Access to European Union Law, website, accessed July 6, 2016. Available at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/summary/glossary/precautionary_principle.html

[3] Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, New Directions: Ethics of Synthetic Biology and Emerging Technologies, Washington, D.C, December 2010, p. 27, 123. Available at: http://bioethics.gov/sites/default/files/PCSBI-Synthetic-Biology-Report-12.16.10_0.pdf

[4] Amy Gutman, The Ethics of Synthetic Biology: Guiding Principles for Emerging Technologies, The Hastings Center Report (July-August 2011): 17-22. Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/j.1552-146X.2011.tb00118.x

[5] Alison McLennan, Chapter 5: Environmental risk: uncertainty, precaution, prudent vigilance and adaptation, in Regulation of Synthetic Biology: BioBricks, Biopunks and Bioentrepreneurs, Elgar Studies in Law and Regulation, by Alison McLennan (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018). Precis available at Elgar Online: https://www.elgaronline.com/abstract/9781785369438/14_chapter5.xhtml?

[6] Keir Giles, Russia Hit Multiple Targets with Zapad-2017, U.S.-Russia Insight, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, January 2018. Available at: https://carnegieendowment.org/files/Giles_Zapad_web.pdf

[7] Hans Jonas, The Imperative of Responsibility, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984) 38.

[8] Michael Davis, Three nuclear disasters and a hurricane, Journal of Applied Ethics and Philosophy 4 (August 2012) 8. Available at: https://eprints.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2115/50468/1/jaep4-1_micael%20davis.pdf

[9] Brian Patrick Green, Transhumanism and Roman Catholicism: Imagined and Real Tensions, Theology and Science 13:2 (2015): 196.

[10] Brian Patrick Green, Little Prevention, Less Cure: Synthetic Biology, Existential Risk, and Ethics, Workshop on Research Agendas in the Societal Aspects of Synthetic Biology, Tempe, Arizona, November 4-6, 2014. Available at: https://cns.asu.edu/sites/default/files/greenp_synbiopaper_2014.pdf

[11] Max More, The Proactionary Principle, Version 1.0, Extropy.org, 2004. Available at: http://www.extropy.org/proactionaryprinciple.htm

[12] Emil Konopinski, Cloyd Margin, and Edward Teller Ignition of the Atmosphere with Nuclear Bombs, Classified US Government Report (declassified 1979), August 14, 1946. Available at: https://fas.org/sgp/othergov/doe/lanl/docs1/00329010.pdf

[13] Daniel Ellsberg, Risking Doomsday I: Atmospheric Ignition, in Daniel Ellsberg The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner, (New York: Bloomsbury, 2017) pp. 274-85.

[14] Brian Patrick Green, The Catholic Church and Technological Progress: Past, Present, and Future. Religions, special issue guest edited by Noreen Herzfeld, 1 June 2017, 8(106): 12. Available at: http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/8/6/106/htm

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Six Approaches to Making Ethical Decisions in Cases of ...

The bell sound on Concept of Credence, from Markus Guentners new album Extropy, is just the bees knees. It comes out of nowhere, through a crack in the dense clouds of choir-synth-string-harmonics that form the bulk of the record, and its so evocative as to induce a little bit of whiplash. Such a terrifically ancient sound makes for a great contrast with Guentners hyper-treated textures; its just about the last thing anyone would expect to hear on a record like this. The bell itself is such a loaded soundso deeply intertwined with religion, ritual, death, and inevitabilitythat its easy to start thinking in outlandish, cosmic terms: Could this be the bell that tolls for all of us, floating somewhere in the seas of time?

Extropy leans hard into interstellar new-age aesthetics and sci-fi splendor. The portentous horn on Everywhere immediately conjures associations with Also sprach Zarathustra, the theme used in 2001: A Space Odyssey to announce humanitys transcendence and in innumerable parodies to mock sci-fi self-seriousness. The rest of the seven-track album sounds like the searching, minor-key themes from countless science documentaries and space operas, amplified and blown up until it resembles the vastness of space itself. Within these ebbing, flowing sheets of sound, Guentner suspends lonely little instrumentsa sonorous cello on Here, a sparkling vibraphone-synth on Nowhereto approximate the luminous little objects that twinkle from the murk of the cosmos.

Guentner is probably best known for his association with Wolfgang Voigts Kompakt label. He appeared on the first eight Pop Ambient compilations, and his 2001 debut In Moll is a highlight of the labels early catalog despite being clearly indebted to Voigts almighty GAS project. But Guentners textures have always been a little colder and more metallic than Voigts vivid swaths of sylvan psychedelia, and the compositions on Extropy have a steely edge that keeps them from feeling too weightless or incorporeal. They move like tied-down balloons, yearning to drift away but still tied to the constraints of gravity. Theres a heaviness to this music, which may have something to do with Rafael Anton Irisarris mastering. The Black Knoll Studio boss favors a gauzy yet bottom-heavy sound in both his own music and his engineering jobs for artists like Warmth and Loscil. Its easy to see why hed be drawn to a project like this.

Extropy does a great job of sounding epic and huge, but epic and huge isnt quite enough to sustain the project over its seven-track, hour-long runtime. This music is too forceful to be soothing, too gentle to be buffeting, and without any contrasting techno-oriented material, as on In Moll or 2005s 1981, the great, gauzy textures seem to swirl around vacantly, with nothing to stir them up. Guentner claims this music was inspired by the pseudoscientific prediction that human intelligence and technology will enable life to expand in an orderly way throughout the entire universe. But Extropy never really expands; it just pulses and contracts like an astral object viewed through the cold remove of a telescope.

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Markus Guentner: Extropy Album Review | Pitchfork

Twelve years ago today, Bitcoin creator Dr. Craig Wright (as Satoshi Nakamoto) sent 10 bitcoins to developer and cryptographer Hal Finney. Why is this so important? It was the first ever person-to-person Bitcoin transaction, the first of many millions more.

Like all Bitcoin transactions, its details are public and recorded forever on the blockchain.

It should also remind us that transactions are what Bitcoin is all about. For some, that means money payments between two people. For others, its a way to timestamp and record data on the blockchain. Many of those transacting on the Bitcoin network today arent human at alltheyre sensors and devices transmitting data via automated processes to Bitcoins ledger, timestamping it all for later auditing and retrieval.

Its a symbol of how Bitcoin has changed, yet stayed exactly the same, since those earliest days. A transaction broadcast and processed on Bitcoin SV (BSV) in 2021 follows the same basic protocol rules as Satoshi and Hals first one in 2009. These rules should not change, and should not be able to change, for Bitcoin to endure and remain trusted far into the future.

If youre transacting on a network in 2020 that calls itself Bitcoin but does not follow these original protocol rules; if you sent a Bitcoin transaction and it cost you $10 (or more) in fees to do so then that network is not Bitcoin.

Thanks to the removal of data limits on transaction blocks, and fees that average (today) about 1/100 of a U.S. cent, Bitcoin BSV has the ability to process not only every financial transfer in the world, but also enough data to match the internet itself. It does so following the same rules Satoshi set when he published v0.1 of the protocol software three days before Finney received those 10 bitcoins.

Back to January 2009

Finneys tweet the day before the transaction, where he wrote simply Running bitcoin, is probably the most-quoted tweet in Bitcoin historyand probably worthy of a birthday itself:

Hal Finney showed a keen interest in Bitcoin from the time the Bitcoin white paper was published in 2008, posting that Bitcoin seems to be a very promising idea. According to Dr. Wright, he also provided advice and assistance that helped keep the network running. By Wrights own admission, he was a better computer scientist than coder. Although he wrote the original Bitcoin software release himself, Finney (and later others) helped stopped the network from falling over in its first month, building a robust system destined to define the future of the digital economy.

Hal Finney was already well-known in programming and cryptography circles for developing the PGP encryption system with Phil Zimmerman in the 1990s. He also developed RPOW, or re-usable proof-of-work, and was known to be interested in the concept that was then known as cryptocurrency.

In the last five years of his life, Finney suffered from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), eventually endured near full-body paralysis, and passed away in August 2014. A long-time member of the Extropy Institute, he requested his body be cryopreserved at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation facility in Arizona.

Finney continued to post on the original BitcoinTalk forum until his illness made it too difficult for him to contribute further. He frequently interacted with Satoshi and others from 2010 to 2013. One such exchange went:

Id like to hear some specific criticisms of the code. To me it looks like an impressive job, although Id wish for more comments. Now Ive mostly studied the init, main, script and a bit of net modules. This is some powerful machinery.

Satoshi replied: That means a lot coming from you, Hal. Thanks.

New to Bitcoin? Check out CoinGeeksBitcoin for Beginnerssection, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about Bitcoinas originally envisioned by Satoshi Nakamotoand blockchain.

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12 years ago, Satoshi Nakamoto sent Hal Finney 10 bitcoinsthe first transaction - CoinGeek

The Bhagavad Gita informs us that the world is made of two intertwined entities: the material (prakriti) and the spiritual (purusha). The latter is technically not an entity as it cannot be measured. It is what makes us alive.

Matter has three qualities (guna): the lucid (sattva), the passionate (rajas) and the sluggish (tamas). Everything in nature displays these three qualities in different proportions. The human mind has decided that the lucid state (sattva-guna) takes us towards spirituality. Unfortunately, the human mind is drawn towards achievement and that stokes passion (rajoguna). It is also drawn towards laziness and that stokes sluggishness (tamo-guna).

We are told that the world will be a better place if we choose sattva-guna over rajo- or tamo-guna. Yet, all children are encouraged to be aspirational, achievement driven, rather than contentment driven. This stokes rajo-guna. The child prefers getting lost in video games and self-gratifying partying. That generates tamo-guna.

Most gurus tend to make a virtue of sattva-guna, traditionally associated with Brahmins as well as religious and spiritual activities. They present tamoguna, traditionally associated with Shudras or service-providers, as something to be frowned upon, but are reluctant to condemn rajo-guna, traditionally associated with Vaishyas and Kshatriyas, those involved in economic and political activity. But this reveals the typical class and caste bias of any elitist society: children and servants are lazy, leaders and entrepreneurs are hardworking, and holy men are just perfect.

People look at the world around and blame the horrors around obesity, war, poverty, pollution, climate change, hunger, crime as tamo-guna, which has become a shorthand for negativity. But what causes tamo-guna? Is it the same as entropy or implosion, tendency to collapse, to give up energy? Does that make sattva-guna extropy, drawn up by energy, intelligence, until it becomes excessive and turns into rajo-guna resulting in explosion? These are typical engineering terms, from the world of physics, used for objects. They cannot be applied to organisms, especially humans organisms with imagination.

It has been observed that most activists in the world are from the field of humanities, and most terrorists are graduates with an engineering degree. Both are trying to save the world, change the world their way. One uses psychological force of protest, the other uses physical force of violence. But each one believes they have the answer to the worlds problems. Both are filled with rajo-guna, aspiration, desire, passion. Neither is sluggish or lazy. Both have problems with the rich and the powerful, who they feel suffer from tamo-guna, as they are too lazy and too comfortable to challenge the status quo or hierarchy that benefits them. The rich and the powerful feel those who complain a lot suffer from tamoguna. For Marxists, tamo-guna is with holy men who sell the opiates of religion and spirituality to the rich and powerful. Everyone feels those they dont like have tamo-guna, and what they do not like is tamo-guna. Thus Bhagavad Gitas triguna theory is used by all to serve their own purpose. There is a different way to look at tri-guna. And it involves a radical re-reading of the Bhagavad Gita.

The Kauravas think of themselves only. That is because they have no faith in anyone or anything. Hence the self-absorption. This is rajo-guna, the drive to be autonomous, independent, to care for no one as no one cares for you. The helpless and lost Arjuna is tamo-guna, hoping someone will save him, take care of him. Krishna is asking Arjuna to see the purusha around him, not some cosmic transcendental energy, but people around him: the para-atma (the other) not the param-atma (the infinite). To empathise with them, to see their fear, their loneliness, which drives them to be greedy or lazy, succumb to rajas or tamas. And to be dependable enough to uplift others, until they are capable of uplifting still others. This makes Bhagavad Gita a journey from dependence (tamas) and independence (rajas) to dependability (sattva).

Abrahamic faiths such as Christianity and Islam are linear faiths between those who believe and an almighty God. This forms the template of most guru conversations, especially when the guru is presented as greater than mother, father and God. The sun with planets around. But Hinduism is a cyclical faith located in the relationship between the self ( jiva-atma) and the other (para-atma), the infinite others around us creating the infinite divine (param-atma).The guru is supposed to redirect our gaze of the sun back to the earth, to people around us.

As long as we dont empathise with people, we will seek to isolate ourselves from the world (tamo-guna), like Shiva, or seek conquest over them (rajo-guna), like Brahmas children, the devas and the asuras. Vishnu teaches us to descend down (avatarana) and uplift (uddhara) until those uplifted can uplift others. This empathy for others is sattva-guna, sorely missing in the modern discourse. In the end of the Mahabharata, when Yudhishtira is furious to find the Kauravas in heaven, Dharma tells him, In life, Kauravas did not share the earth with Pandavas and in death Pandavas do not wish to share heaven with Kauravas. How are you different? How can you ever be truly liberated?

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The essence of Bhagavad Gita: Understanding the significance of sattva-guna, rajo-guna and tamo-guna - Economic Times

ESPOO, Finland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Basware (Nasdaq: BAS1V), the global leader in networked procure-to-pay solutions and e-invoicing, announced its 2019 Partner Awards at its annual Partner Connect Conference.

The annual Basware Partner event brings together Advisory Partners, System Integrators, VARs and BPOs for training and collaboration sessions that explore best-practices, Basware products and future product roadmaps.

Our intent was to celebrate all of our partners at the annual Partner Connect conference, originally scheduled for April in Berlin, said Bram Kuijper, VP of Global Partner Success for Basware. Obviously, our global event required a pivot to a virtual event this year.

Basware Partner Connect 2020 Virtual Reality broadcast live sessions May 11-15 providing partners with a similar content delivery experience, along with the convenience of on-demand recorded sessions. Part of the virtual conference includes the annual award session recognizing partners demonstrating excellence in the following categories.

Extropy Advisors: Customer Excellence Award acknowledging the partner with the best customer implementation case.

"Extropy Advisors is honored to receive the 2019 Partner Customer Excellence award from Basware! Our mission is to empower our clients to execute on a successful digital transformation journey, and especially proud to be recognized by Basware for this award. We are grateful for the partnership and collaboration with the Basware team and look forward to bringing success to many more clients with our Partners." - Ravit Gutman, Strategic Initiative Leader for Extropy Advisors.

ICreative: Business Excellence Award acknowledging the partner driving the best results across four critical business areas.

We are extremely proud to receive the Business Excellence Award in recognition of outstanding practices in the ground-breaking 17 years we have been a Value Added Reseller of Basware. We are thankful to have a strong customer base that is driving our ambition and helps us grow. - Vincent Wouters, CEO at ICreative.

All award applications were submitted through rigorous reviews of overall success criteria, based on case overviews, best practice delivery, and maximizing the customer value through Basware solutions.

Congratulations to the Basware Partner 2019 Business Excellence and Customer Excellence award winners, said Kuijper. It is so important to provide the support, counsel and guidance for companies seeking to automate processes particularly during a time of obvious disruption. One of the clear benefits to using a partner for implementation is immediate access to instant expertise and the nimble approach they offer a tremendous benefit for any company seeking to get automation of processes right the first time.

To learn more about Basware partnerships, visit our website. To learn more about source-to-pay (S2P) Ecosystems, read Basware as an Ecosystem provider.

About Basware:

Basware is the only procure-to-pay and e-invoicing solution provider that empowers businesses with 100% spend visibility through 100% data capture. Our cloud-based technology enables organizations to fully manage their spend, mitigate financial risk and reduce the cost of operations via automation. With the worlds largest open business network and an open technology ecosystem, we are uniquely positioned to deliver the solution required for Visible Commerce, which provides customers with complete transparency into all the flows of money, goods, and services around the world. A global company, Basware has offices in 14 countries and is traded on the Helsinki exchange (BAS1V: HE).

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Basware Annual Partner Awards Announced - Business Wire

The Knights of Unicron are a heroic Autobot subgroup from the Shattered Glass continuity family.

The Knights of Unicron were once evil Autobots, but the benevolent god of extropy Unicron reformatted them into his agents of peace. Now, they serve truth and justice across known space. Their members are:

Following their defeat at Decepticon City on Earth, Optimus Prime's forces retreated aboard Sky Lynx for Cybertron. Memory's Splinter Midway through, however, Sky Lynx announced that they would have to lighten the load. Rodimus took the opportunity to dump Optimus, Brawn, Prowl, Inferno, and Ratchet out the airlock. The five badly injured Autobots then found themselves in the presence of Unicron. Familiar Reflections Now dominated by good due to the Shroud, the god of extropy offered Optimus and his troopers truth and enlightenment. After Unicron showed Optimus a vision of his greatest victory, Prime accepted, and Unicron healed and reformatted them. The newly-formed Knights were then sent to Cybertron to stop Rodimus's chaos. Arriving in Rodimus's throne room, the Autotroopers took on the evil Autobots while Nova went head to head with Rodimus. Nova succeeded, sending Rodimus tumbling down into the depths of Cybertron. Restoration The Knights soon had the Autobots arrested, but Unicron contacted Nova to warn him that a greater threat awaited. Cybertron then seemingly began to fall apart. While the Knights barely maintained their footing, Rodimus reappeared and ordered his Autobots to evacuate. Cybertron then completed its transformation into the physical form of the Cybertronians' creator-god, Primus. Awakened by Rodimus and dominated by evil due to the Shroud, the dark Primus observed the nearby dimensionally-displaced Earth and tried to destroy it. However, Earth revealed itself as another Transformer god, Primus's sister Gaea. As the titans clashed, the Knights came to Gaea's aid, taking out Primus's eyes. Gaea then destroyed Primus and transformed herself into a new Cybertron as a home to both heroic Autobot and heroic Decepticon. The Knights became the guardians of the new joint society as a new age of peace dawned. The Future Buried...

Excerpt from:

Knights of Unicron (SG) - Transformers Wiki - TFWiki.net

I found a strange behavior with TMG 2010 when publishing a website. It appears to rewrite URLs sent outbound to clients when the "send original host header is sent" under certain conditions. Here are those conditions:

Here is precisely what I encountered:

So by process of elimination I found that this appears to be TMG not affecting any host header inbound, nor affecting the alternate URLs outbound.This appears to affect only the main URL outbound, as TMG appears to be rewriting the protocol part of the header when the submitted form returns a redirect from http to https (changing https back to http).

Fixes: Uncheck the "send original host header..." flag and all functionality works correctly. I don't think this is as "clean", because it means that TMG touches every request and changes the host header to the internal host header, however on the IIS bright-side this means the web server will see the same host header no matter what clients request (normalization). The only caveat is that if you wanted to use an internal URL (instead of IP address) for the site that was the same as the external URL it would either not work, or would require a DNS trick on TMG to force it. Or, you could just change the internal URL to something else (not used).

TMG proxy background:

This isn't so much of a bug in TMG as a "feature". TMG is designed to allow external access to internal resources. I've found that it makes a powerful and flexible reverse proxy server, you just have to contend with a few "features". TMG's basic design-premise is based on rewriting URLs that are normally only internally visible, to URLs that are externally visible. This means that TMG errs towards the side of rewriting in exception cases, which this appears to be. This methodology appears to assume that the web servers are dumb, and don't know about external URLs. This premise is fine, except when it is necessary for the web server to perform some type of functionality that requires a complex redirect based on a user action (such as switching to https when a user logs in). TMG assumes that the redirect is internal in nature and blocks the redirect in favor of maintaining the original URL and same-protocol bridging (or more accurately not bridging). This appears to only be an issue when TMG is confused by using the external URL as the internal URL (same as listener and client requests). This shouldn't be an issue when you specify that TMG uses an IP address for the internal site, however it appears that MS has designed TMG to be "smarter" and "more helpful" by performing host header translation outbound, even when you request it no to do so...

Continued here:

TMG 2010 rewriting original host headers when ... - Extropy