Category Archives: Transhuman News

Image by KREMLIN PRESS SERVICE / HANDOUT/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Remember all those sexy, shirtless photos of Russian President Vladimir Putin back in the 2000s? Let us jog your memory.

Back in the day, Putin wanted Russian citizens to think of him as a rugged, athletic outdoorsmen, and was often photographed swimming and horseback riding, among other activities.

The now-69-year old Putin was 47 when he took office, first as prime minister in 1999, and then in 2012 as president. But his health has failed in the years since, and a new report published by investigative Russian outlet Proektearlier todayfound that the leader keeps multiple doctors on hand at all times, even keeping cancer specialists on call permanently.

Because of Putins athleticism, we pretty much already knew his back and spineare wrecked. Proektreports Putin sustained several sports injuries from falling off horses, and that during the early 2000s fell so badly he was temporarily stunned and couldnt get to his feet. In 2012, he was limping so noticeably during a TV appearance that the Kremlim instructed media outlets to use only still photos and cut all video footage of the president walking, and he has since been bowled over by a veteran ice hockey player during an exhibition.

That doesnt mean Putin doesnt receive treatment, though some of it is pretty woo-woo, including antler blood baths he supposedly takes. Other are more practical, and suggest that Putin may actually be struggling with thyroid cancer, since he regularly travels with a cadre of doctors and keeps a list of others on call at all times.

In 2019 Putin went skiing with Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko. According to Proekts reporting, two intensive care specialists, a neurologist, a dermatovenerologist, two ENTs, and an oncology surgeon stayed at the exact same resort at the same time.

Oncologist-surgeon Evgeny Selivanov has spent 166 days with the president in four years of service,according to the report,and has been near Putin any time the president has disappeared from public view. Otolaryngologists Igor Esakov and Alexey Shcheglov are the only two doctors who fly to Putin more often than Selivanov.

Thats significant, because diseases like thyroid cancer are usually diagnosed by an otolaryngologist. Then an oncologist and a surgeon help treat the patient.

It goes without saying that theres no shame in physical injuries or disabilities of any kind, and that chronic pain or illness shouldnt exclude anyone from leadership. But Putin and his counsel see admission of sickness as a sign of weakness, so the cadre of specialists is striking.

Its pretty sad that in 2022, a 69-year-old cant let the people he serves know he might be struggling with a serious illness. For both disability rights and visibility, it seems not much has changed since FDRs tenure.

And for someone with Putins immense power, of course never mind his involvement in the ongoing war in Ukraine the idea that he might be struggling with serious health concerns is a matter of keen geopolitical interest.

More on political medical news: Police Find Find Fetuses in Home of Anti-Abortion Activist

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Putin Almost Always Accompanied by Cancer Specialist, Investigation Finds - Futurism

But what does that actually mean?Hard Cap

Bitcoin was designed to have a hard cap of 21 million Bitcoins, a limited coin supply that in some ways mimics the theoretically finite supply of other valuable goods like gold.

Well over a decade after the first Bitcoin was mined, the mainstream cryptocurrency is nearing its next threshold: 19 million mined Bitcoins, as Axios notes, a notable milestone.

Which leaves the obvious question: what happens as the world bears down on that final supply?The answer, it turns out, is anything but clear.

Roughly every four years, the number of Bitcoins minted for each block in Bitcoins blockchain gets halved, slowing down the mining process significantly.

Once the very last Bitcoin is mined, miners will no longer get any reward. Given the currently established rate, though, the final21 millionth Bitcoin wont be mined for over 100 years.

One complexifier is that were not even sure if there even are 19 million Bitcoins currently circulating. In 2020, for instance, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis found that around 3.7 million coins hadnt been touched for at least five years. Other firms suggest around three million will never be retrieved.

In short, nobody really seems to know the significance of hitting the 19 million mark.Still, that means that more than 90 percent of the Bitcoins that will ever exist are already out there a striking figure.

At the time of writing, a single Bitcoin is still valued at over $45,000, so the news hasnt exactly had much of an effect.

But will Bitcoin always be worth that much? Mining the token, a process referred to as proof-of-work, is an energy intensive and environmentally harmful process, meaning that once its value falls enough, miners may no longer be incentivized to continue.Needless to say, as the supply of coins becomes shorter, much will come to hinge on the future value of the currency.

Institutionally, governments and the banking industry have increasingly started embracing Bitcoin as a legitimate currency. Miners worldwide also made record revenue from mining Bitcoin in 2021.

Proof-of-work mining has proved to be far less popular, with governments around the globe banning the practice, including China, once home to the largest Bitcoin mines, citing its massive carbon footprint and connections to shady practices.

Where does that leave the future of Bitcoin? Thats the billion dollar question on the minds of crypto investors and the answer is as hazy as ever.

READ MORE: Bitcoin nears full supply with 19 million coin milestone [Axios]

More on Bitcoin: Exxon Mobil Is Starting to Burn Excess Gas to Mine Bitcoin

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They've Now Mined Almost All the Bitcoin That Will Ever Exist - Futurism

A study looking at the effects of a widely prescribed diabetes drug has linked the medication to an increased risk of birth defects.

The Danish study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that men who took metformin, a common drug used to treat Type 2 Diabetes, within three months before conceiving a child were 40percent more likely to have kids with birth defects.

Curiously, the study which analyzed more than a million births via national registries in Denmark between the years 1997-2016 does not get into the specifics about what kind of defects occur, only that they are genital and that these defects were found most often in male infants.

While the frequency of genital birth defects, which were the only type researchers identified as statistically significant, in children born to fathers with Type 2 Diabetes was 3.1 percent overall, the frequency increased to 4.6percent for babies whose fathers took metformin during the three months prior to conception.

The study, which focused on more than a millionbabies born to women under the age of 35 who did not have diabetes and men under the age of 40, was undertaken because, as the researchers wrote, diabetes reduces semen quality and increasingly occurs during reproductive years.

Along with looking at men who take metformin for their diabetes, researchers also focused on men who took insulin for diabetes as well and found it wasnt correlated with genital birth defects in the same way as metformin.

The researchers also found that men who took metformin prior to the three month period prior to conception werent more likely to end up with kids with birth defects.

Studies like this one are meant more to establish a correlation with the intention of future studies, and the authors acknowledged that information on underlying disease status was limited and that further research should replicate these findings and clarify the causation.

Whether the finding should affect the medication that anybody is taking at this time is an open question that experts say patients should leave up to their doctors.

In general, metformin is effective, cheap and safe to the person who is taking it. Those are important factors to consider, Maarten Wensink, an epidemiologist at the University of Southern Denmark who coauthored the research, told Live Science. Whether or not to take metformin is a decision that every patient should [discuss] with their treating physician.

But for now, these troubling findings should, if nothing else, highlight how important neonatal care is for men as well as women..

READ MORE:Preconception Antidiabetic Drugs in Men and Birth Defects in Offspring [Annals of Internal Medicine]

More on scary birth defects:Weed-Killing Chemical Used in Deadly Agent Orange Toxin Found in 1 in 3 Americans

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Commonly Prescribed Drug Linked to Birth Defects - Futurism

Die Hard actor Bruce Willis been diagnosed with a cognitive disorder thats affecting his ability to speak and work and its likely more common than youd expect.

In a sad Instagram post, the actors daughter Rumer Willis wrote that her father has been diagnosed with aphasia, a neurological condition in which people have difficulty with language and particularly with remembering words.

As a result of the diagnosis, the 67-year-old actor is, per his daughters post, stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him.

The Mayo Clinic describes aphasia as a condition that robs you of the ability to communicate which can affect ones ability to speak, write and understand language, both verbal and written.

According to the National Institutes of Health, people most often develop aphasia suddenly after a stroke or head injury, though neither has been reported in Willis case.It can also be caused by a brain tumor or a degenerative condition, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Although most aphasia sufferers are middleaged, its a common disorder that can affect anyone including small children, the NIH notes. The National Aphasia Association estimates that there are at least two million people in the US with aphasia, and roughly 180,000 more are diagnosed with it every year.

While cognitive exercises are the most often prescribed treatments for aphasia patients, which can include everything from joining book clubs to speech therapy, advances in non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) technology are carving new avenues of research and experimental treatment for people who develop aphasia,particularly after having strokes.

Trials are currently underway to study NIBS effectiveness for a host of disorders including aphasia, and with any luck, they will be able to help people who suffer from this disorder thats affected one of Americas most beloved actors.

As Bruce always says, Live it up,' the actors daughter wrote, and together we plan to do just that.

More on aphasia research:New research seeks breakthroughs in aphasia recovery [University of Queensland Australia]

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Bruce Willis Is Halting His Movie Career Due to Aphasia. Here's What That Means - Futurism

What in god's name is he talking about?Twitter Finger

Guess whos blasting out furious, lengthy tweet threads about international relations and government space agencies again? Why, none other than Dmitry Rogozin, head of the entire Russian space program.

The Roscosmos chief is a fan of sending out threatening and mildly unhinged rants on social media and its usually pretty clear what hes railing about. This last thread, though, is a doozy. So much so, media outlets are split on what he actually means.

I believe that the restoration of normal relations between partners in the International Space Station and other joint projects is possible only with the complete and unconditional lifting of illegal sanctions, Rogozin said online yesterday.

Hes referring to the cooperation of US and Russian astronauts on the ISS, which was set to shut down even before Russia invaded Ukraine and started killing its citizens. The US now finds itself in a tricky position, because we need Russia to power the ISS and Russia needs us equally so.

Sure, Rogozin has threatened to kinda maybe blow the space station up, crush the US with it, and so on and so forth. Thats just Rogozins way, sort of like a certain Twitter-happy president we used to know.

The thing thats tripping outlets up is whether if this time, Rogozin really means it.

Russia to halt cooperation over International Space Station, the Guardian reported in a yesterday.

The pub took Rogozin at his word, reporting that because the US hasnt lifted sanctions on Russia that affect the space program, the Roscosmos chief will follow through on his threats to shut down relations and possibly, operations. ArsTechnica, a more niche science and tech pub, reported the Guardian had it all wrong. Rogozin, would not, in fact, follow through with anything because he wants to keep the ISS aloft until 2030 and hasnt exactly been taking any concrete steps despite being a blowhard for a while. In fact, a US astronaut just flew back to Earth on a Russian craft, and everybody said it was just fine.

We tend to side with ArsTechnica, truth be told. Rogozin has said a lot but done less.

Still, this is Russia were dealing with. The country is raising suspicions its carrying out a genocide, trying to start a world war and has increasingly killed innocent civilians. Its impossible to say what lengths Putin and his cadre would be willing to go to, and a lack of galactic caution could end in disaster for real human astronauts and NASA employees.

We ought to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

More on Roscosmos troubles: Satellite Company Now Launching With SpaceX After Ditching Russia

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Russia's Latest Statement on the Space Station Is So Strange That Experts Are Divided - Futurism

"Get the message out that while Meta is the current punching bag, TikTok is the real threat."Low Blow

Looks like Facebook is still super jealous of TikTok, despite re-branding itself as Meta, promoting its metaverse, and losing previous campaigns to take down the newer, short-form video app.

Now, it turns out that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerbergs behemoth company was so jealous of TikToks success with younger audiences that it started paying one of the United States largest consulting firms to wage a media war on the competition, according to a new report published this morning in the Washington Post.

Get the message out that while Meta is the current punching bag, TikTok is the real threat especially as a foreign owned app that is #1 in sharing data that young teens are using, a director at the firm, called Targeted Victory, said in email obtained by WaPo.

One of the main tactics Targeted Victory employed was coordinating letters to the editor across the country that complained about TikToks threat to teens and the influence of its owner, a Chinese company called ByteDance. According to WaPo, staffers at the firm also tried to convince reporters to cover TikTok with a negative angle while sticking to the shadows, remaining hands offfrom the campaign.

Another staffer said it would be a bonus point to distract readers from legislation trying to reform and regulate big tech and social media companies,another of the firms staffers wrote in an email.

Earlier this year, Forbes reported that Facebook knows its losing against the competition. Its wannabe-solution Reels, it released on Instagram as an answer to TikTok, almost certainly wont bring back the millions of users whove made the switch.

The press campaigns were sometimes so bold as to defy comprehension. Remember the Slap a Teacher TikTok challenge that was so widely reported a few months ago? There was no trend, because it was a part of Targeted Victorys plan. The news spread only on Facebook, and VICE revealed that the trend was a hoax back in October of 2021.

A Meta spokesperson toldWaPo that We believe all platforms, including TikTok, should face a level of scrutiny consistent with their growing success.

In the chaotic world of tech, trends come and go. And Facebook cant seem to keep up.

More on metaverse plans: Startup Says Its Tech Can Inflict Actual Pain in the Metaverse

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Facebook Busted Paying Consulting Firm to Turn Users Against TikTok - Futurism

In spite of CEO Elon Musk claiming that Tesla may begin selling its Optimus humanoid robots next year, that timeline nearly impossible.

In a wide ranging interview,Musk granted to Axel Springer CEO Mathias Dpfner, the CEO said, among many other interesting things, that Tesla may be able to start selling the robots by the end of 2023.

I think we will have something pretty good at the prototype level this year, Musk told Dpfner, and it might be ready for at least a moderate volume production towards the end of next year.

The quote spurred an onslaught of credulous headlines. But theres just one problem: as Fortune pointed out, Teslas AI director Andrej Karpathy, whose job currently consists of heading up the companys controversial full self-driving (FSD) efforts, just started a four-month sabbatical.

And even if the company goes full steam ahead without Karpathy, robots are a notoriously difficult engineering challenge. Remember, when Tesla first announced the project, it showed off the robot except that it was just a person wearing a spandex suit.

Further casting doubt on the timeline, its also possible that Karpathy, like some of his predecessors, may be on his way out at the company.

Though Karpathy said on March 27 that hes taking some time off to rest [and] travel after spending five years at Tesla, and is looking forward to getting back to work with the companys robots again when he returns, Fortune notes that his leave is taking place while FSD Version 11 is still in the works a sticking point that some consider a harbinger.

The timing of Karpathys sabbatical, asFortune and some Twitter users have noted, is reminiscent of Doug Fields 2018 exit from the company that came after reports that he was taking a break from his job as Teslas senior vice president of engineering. He subsequently went on to work for a secretive car project at Apple after his break, and then Ford, where he now heads up the electric vehicle division.

Fortune also noted that in another interview, granted around New Years to MIT researcher and podcaster Lex Fridman, Musk seemed to play down Karpathys importance at Tesla, saying that although the AI head is awesome and obviously plays an important role, hes not the only one.

We have a lot of really talented people driving things, Musk told Fridman. People will give me too much credit and theyll give Andrej too much credit.

With all that said and with Musks superhuman ability to push timelines in mind it still seems vanishingly unlikely with Karpathys sabbatical that Tesla will be selling robots by the end of 2023. But then again, stranger things have happened.

READ MORE:Musk wants to start selling Teslas A.I.-powered humanoid robot next year, but his A.I. chief just went on sabbatical [Fortune]

More on Teslabots:Elon Musk Says Tesla Robots Could Achieve AGI

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Sorry, But There's No Way Tesla Is Selling a Humanoid Robot Next Year - Futurism

Maurice Wade: Silent LandscapesThe Andy McCluskey CollectionTrent Art, Newcastle

TWENTY-FIVE years before Morrissey, Maurice Wade contemplated the urban cityscape of Stoke on Trent as though every day were like Sunday.

These paintings, silent and grey, are the visual midwife of Morrisseys reactionary miserablism. They render the city as though it were made entirely of ash, and entirely devoid of people. They are painfully beautiful.

In the 1960s and 70s, Wade made at least 350 such paintings in a sustained act of love and aggression towards the city he lived in. All the images were drawn from subjects within walking distance of his own home.

For a working-class artist to make a vision of his neighbourhood was hardly a new phenomenon in the north: before Wades version of Stoke came LS Lowrys version of Pendlebury, Lancashire. The difference is the 30 years that divide them, and the gigantic shift in global perspective of World War II.

Lowrys factories are a 19th-century phenomenon. They contribute to the imperial economy, and Lowrys people (who dont cast shadows, interestingly) are underpaid and oppressed, but employed, busy and full of communal identity.In contrast, Wades potteries, factories and terraced houses are museum pieces, redundant anachronisms in a world whose technological economy has moved on. They existin an existential twilight, however bright the sky.

The combination of a world in shadows and a bright sky is a key motif for Wade.

For Magritte, who invented the motif, the view of buildings at night under a sunny midday sky was a delicious paradox, a mental luxury. His renditions of this effect (he called his own series The Empire of Lights) are like the illustrations of a bizarre fairy tale. You can imagine people inside them: street lights are on and widows are illuminated.

Wade treats this same surrealistic paradox with no trace of playfulness. He eliminates sentimentality, just like he eliminates people. Rather, he brings post-apocalyptic clarity to the environments of working-class life.

Come Armageddon, sings Morrissey. Come come, nuclear bomb. Is it the threat of mutually assured destruction the 1962 Cuban Missile crisis, for example that drains colour, humanity and empathy from Wades vision?

Born in 1917, Wade was the son of a gas fitter. Graduating from art school, he served in the army from 1939-1946 and thereafter was a primary school art teacher. After some success as a painter, eventually he opened his own art gallery and collected the British champions of post-Impressionism, the Futurists Wydham Lewis and the lesser known working-class artist William Roberts.

There is not, it seems, a single photograph of Maurice Wade, and very little biographical information. But the artists he collected are a clue to the context and the decisions that are the genesis of his own vision.

Lewis and Roberts were artists for whom Cezannes post-Impressionist formalism was a doctrine: the reduction of the subject to the geometrical simplicities of cone, cylinder and sphere. They were among the futurists who had taken these tools and used them to celebrate modernity: technology, speed and warfare.

Wade was for sure familiar with the aspiration as well as the tragic destiny of futurism. Yet, after another war, Wade surveys the past, the industrial city, with the tools of yesterdays future.

To re-deploy the analytical method of post-Impressionism was a deliberate strategy. He referred to it as hard formalism with an emphasis on geometrical shapes and sombre-toned colours that to Wade best interpreted the particular character of the situation.

But what situation, exactly?

Politically, the images reflect the absence of ideals. The achievement is a combination of perfection, and futurelessness futurism, but with no optimism and no prospects. It is as though, as a literate and educated artist, Wade had powerful tools of analysis, but in the meantime the subject had died.

This kind of post-war modernist formalism is akin to the drama of Samuel Beckett: it is an endgame, a cul-de-sac. It depicts a dead end, perfected and devoid of meaning.

Wade talks about it in near psychological terms: Over and above the evident stillness, he writes, it is sufficient if one can convey the presence of a human sensibility, a real meaning, a glance.

This human sensibility is his real subject, but what kind of sensibility? Whose is this glance at the world without optimism or sentiment, which has only a perfected play of tones? What kind of human sees a world reduced to shadows?

So antecedent to Morrisseys miserablism comes this very particular northern phenomenon. Its roots lie in post-Impressionism but it has abandoned the future, and it wants no truck with Futurisms revolutionary ambition. Lets call it Depressionism: vision without illusions.

Like Beckett, such art shouldnt be seen as symptomatic of mental illness, but as a kind of medicine, a caustic warning.

The paintings are visual manoeuvres in the dark, and the harbingers of Goth and Doom. And Depressionism, quite rightly, has its champions. These paintings are the property of Andy McCluskey, the 1980s pop star whose masterpiece Enola Gay is a meditation on the intentions of the pilot who dropped the atom bomb.

Ends April 29 2022. Free.

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Exhibition A painfully beautiful vision without illusions - Morning Star Online

Musk failed the vibe check.Bad Vibes

Turns out theres at least one thing money cant buy good vibes.

Elon Musk, billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, just failed the most intense vibe check in the world and probably got rejected from the super-exclusive German nightclub Berghain. Yesterday the Twitter-loving mogul said online he refused to enter Bergain, often called the worlds most depraved party, because someone had written peace on the wall.

Yeah, right. Musks follow up explanation was equally unbelievable and we cant help but feel sorry for the guy since people are absolutely roasting him.

According to partygoers whove gotten in, Berghain doesnt care how much money you have or what your name is. Their iconic bouncer Sven looks for outfits, aesthetic and vibes. In a world where, as one YouTuber described it, you can be anyone you want, privacy is of utmost importance. No phones or cameras are allowed but theres plenty of folks walking around on dog leashes and celebrities asking to be urinated on.

Were not sure exactly what Elon was hoping to get into at Berghain. Maybe he just wanted to blow off some steam after a hard days work at the new German Tesla Gigafactory.

Regardless, it didnt work out, and its a reminder that money really cant buy cool points have you seen Musks dance moves?

We know Musk has talked about being lonely before, and thats a normal human emotion. So is the fear of rejection and embarrassment but you wouldnt catch most of us making up the worlds worst excuse for not getting into a club and then tweeting it out for the entire internet to read.

More on Musks escapades: Elon Musk Threatens Vladimir Putin With a Flamethrower

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Yeah, Sure, We Totally Believe Elon Musk Refused [to] Enter Berghain - Futurism

Tourists headed to the International Space Station this month on board a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule as part of Axiom Spaces AX-1 mission are bringing a special scientific experiment with them: a headsettheyll use to map changes in brain activity during spaceflight.

And,to be honest, it looks like a prop straight out of the 1982 sci-fi movie Tron.

The experiment was developed by an aptly named Israel-based startup called brain.space. The headset measures brain activity using electroencephalogram (EEG),the company says, and analyzes it using machine learning.

The company wants to make sense of different human behaviors, for example, mood, cognitive load, fatigue and more, according to its website, by comparing the analyzed data to controlsubjects back on the ground.

The headset will examine day-to-day plastic changes to the brain tissues to study how microgravity affects the structure of the organ, according to the company.

Its not the first time brain activity has been studied in space, but the company claims its the first to utilize high-density dry EEG systems that dont require gel pads to be attached to the participants skull.

It was designed to be the most effective, cheapest, easiest-to-use EEG acquisition headset in the world, brain.space CEO Yair Levy told TechCrunch last month. One headset, for multiple people, that automatically configures itself perfectly to each ones head.

Three of the four AX-1 crew members will spend 15 minutes wearing the headsets twice a day while on board the space station. They will also be asked to complete visual oddball tasks by staring at stimulus presentations to detect abnormal brain dynamics.

But whether the flashy and upgraded gear will lead to breakthroughs in our understanding of the brain one of most persistent mysteries in modern science remains to be seen.

READ MORE: This Israeli startups sci-fi headset will map brain changes in space on private Ax-1 mission [Space.com]

More on the mission: First Entirely-Private Mission to Space Station Names Its Crew

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SpaceX Space Tourists Are Bringing a Brain-Reading Helmet to Space This Month - Futurism