Category Archives: Transhuman News

Direct-to-consumer genetic testing has enabled millions of individuals to determine their ancestry and gain insights about their genetic pre-disposition to inherited diseases. While individual genotyping information is stored securely, some people consent to share their genomic data for further study.

This data sharing has raised some valid concerns about genomic privacy. For example, could hackers reidentify a person perhaps construct a picture of their facebased on genotype data downloaded legally from open-source web platforms?

In 2017, genomics-based health intelligence company Human Longevity and other research groups reported that it was feasible to predict a persons facial appearance from their DNA.

Intrigued by the privacy risk implications of this work, Washington University in St. Louis faculty member Yevgeniy Eugene Vorobeychik, an expert in applying game theory to determine privacy risks in data sharing settings, undertook his own study.

We wanted to see to what extent these results can generalize to the real world, said Vorobeychik, associate professor of computer science & engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering. We explored whether it was possible to demonstrate in a more practical situation that these concerns were real.

Vorobeychik and his co-authors WashU graduate student Rajagopal Venkatesaramani and Vanderbilt University Biomedical Informatics Professor Bradley Malinfound the task of linking faces and genomes is much harder on average than previously reported. They published their findings inScience AdvancesNov. 17, 2021.

In the study, they developed a method to calculate the risk of reidentifying individuals from a carefully curated dataset of 126 genomes obtained from the OpenSNP genome-sharing platform by linking these to publicly posted face images. Specifically, they used neural network models to predict visible physical traits, such as hair, eye and skin color, as well as sex, and then used this information along with known genotype-trait correlations to score possible genome-face matches.

Earlier phenotype association studies used high-quality photos taken in a laboratory setting with professional quality lighting. Vorobeychiks team, on the other hand, conducted their research using real-world photographs found on social media sites.

What we did was construct probabilistic models for these different kinds of visual characteristics and essentially connected the dots by scoring the matching quality between particular genomes and particular faces, Vorobeychik explained. We then used that scoring system to predict which matches are most likely.

Overall, their results suggest that its sometimes possible to link public face images with public genomic data, but the success rates are well below what prior research papers suggest in idealized settings.

However, our observations are about average privacy risk for a collection of individuals; it is possible that for some people the privacy risk is indeed high, Vorobeychik said.

To protect those individuals privacy, Vorobeychiks team created a method that alters a social media photo just enough to prevent the neural network from reliably identifying visible traits, and thereby reducing the risk of those who have publicly released their genomic data and whose image appears elsewhere online.

Our method adds enough imperceptible noise to the image so its difficult for a deep neural network to link the phenotype of the face to a particular genome, he said. This carefully crafted noise doesnt change ones perception of [the face] to the naked eye.

This tool could be further developed into image filters that individuals could use to protect their social media photos from hackers who might try to link their images to genetic data theyve publicly shared on OpenSNP or other online sites.

Reference: Venkatesaramani Rajagopal, Malin Bradley A., Vorobeychik Yevgeniy. Re-identification of individuals in genomic datasets using public face images. Sci Adv. 7(47):eabg3296. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abg3296.This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

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Predicting Facial Appearance From DNA Is Harder Than First Thought - Technology Networks

(Photo : Evan Zimmermann and Jeff Bezos Invest in an Anti - aging Biotech Startup that is Focused on Reversing the Ageing Process ) (Photo : Evan Zimmermann and Jeff Bezos Invest in an Anti - aging Biotech Startup that is Focused on Reversing the Ageing Process )

Moderna backer Evan Zimmermann joined Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, investing in Altos Labs, a startup dedicated to reversing the aging process and extending the human lifespan. The exact amount that Zimmermann and Bezos invested has not yet been made public, but according to MIT Tech Review, data released by Altos Labs in June states that the company has raised over $270 million.

Zimmermann is an early backer of Moderna, which today is famed for its coronavirus vaccine. While in recent years legions of investors piled into Moderna, due to its position as the frontrunner in the global hunt for a coronavirus vaccine, Zimmermann was an early believer in its technology. A fact which has raised his public profile considerably, given the latter's tremendous success in developing a coronavirus vaccine. Moderna has sold $1.7bn worth of coronavirus jabs in the first three months of the year and its share price has rocketed more than 1,000 percent since the start of 2020.

Bezos, Amazon's founder, who Forbes currently ranks as the world's richest person with a net worth of around $200 billion, stepped down as CEO back in July to spend more time on philanthropy and passion projects. Bezos is said to have a fairly long-standing interest in longevity research, and he previously invested in an anti-aging company called Unity Biotechnology. It's been said that young people dream of being rich, and rich people dream of being young.

Evan Zimmermann and Bezos Expeditions, the investment office of Jeff Bezos, did not reply to an email seeking comment.

Searching for the key to immortality may sound like the preoccupation of a superhero movie villain, but a growing number of biotech companies (and billionaires with cash to spare) are investing in research that could prevent and reverse the ageing process in humans. While many of these ageing-focused biotech companies seek to combat the diseases associated with getting older, Altos Labs will seek a different path in postponing death through rejuvenating the entire human body on a cellular level.

Altos Labs plans to establish several institutes around the world and is recruiting a large cadre of university scientists with lavish salaries and the promise that they can pursue unfettered blue-sky research on how cells age and how to reverse that process.

"The philosophy of Altos Labs is to do curiosity-driven research. This is what I know how to do and love to do," says Manuel Serrano of the Institute for Research in Biomedicine, in Barcelona, Spain, who plans to join an Altos Labs facility in the UK. "In this case, through a private company, we have the freedom to be bold and explore."

"There are hundreds of millions of dollars being raised by investors to invest in reprogramming, specifically aimed at rejuvenating parts or all of the human body," says David Sinclair, a researcher at Harvard University who last December reported restoring sight to mice using the technique. "What else can you do that can reverse the age of the body?" he says. "In my lab we are ticking off the major organs and tissues, for instance skin, muscle and brain - to see which we can rejuvenate."

Any treatment for a major disease of aging could be worth billions, but Altos Labs is not counting on making money at first. "The aim is to understand rejuvenation," says Serrano. "I would say the idea of having revenue in the future is there, but it's not the immediate goal."

In his final letter to Amazon shareholders, Bezos included a quote ruminating on death and decay that he had found in a book by the biologist Richard Dawkins: "Staving off death is a thing that you have to work at ... If living things don't actively work to prevent it, they would eventually merge with their surroundings and cease to exist as autonomous beings. That is what happens when they die." Bezos meant that nations, companies and individuals have to fight to remain distinct, original and unique. Rewinding the clock to your younger days could be one way to do that.

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Evan Zimmermann and Jeff Bezos Invest in an Anti - aging Biotech Startup that is Focused on Reversing the Ageing Process - Tech Times

Galpagos tortoises.Credit:YleniaChiari.

Galpagos giant tortoises are one of the longest-lived vertebrates, with many living past 100 years of age in the wild. In captivity, they can live even longer. One captive individual, Harriet, lived for at least 175 years. How do they do it? In a new study, researchers at the University of Buffalo compared the genomes of Galpagos giant tortoises with those of other turtles and found the animals evolved to have extra copies of certain genes. These extra copies are thought to offer protection against the biological degeneration typically associated with aging, including cancer.

The new study builds upon past research performed in 2018. Back then, Yale University and Universidad de Oviedo, Spain, sequenced the genome of the famous Lonesome George, who died in 2012 at age of 100 and was the last giant tortoise on Pinta Island. When researchers compared Lonesome Georges genome, as well as that of the Aldabra giant tortoise (Aldabrachelys gigantea), to other species, they found genes associated with metabolism regulation and immune response.

These genes may explain the generous size and long lifespans of these species. The researchers have found that tumor suppressors are expanded in the tortoises genomes compared to other vertebrates. The analysis also found specific alterations in two genes whose overexpression is known to contribute to cancer, and which may be part of a giant-tortoise-specific cancer mechanism.

But its not only the genes themselves that may offer protection against cancer. The new study found that giant tortoises have extra copies of genes, an indirect consequence of a defense mechanism they evolved in order to cope with stress related to damaged proteins.

Experiments on cells cultured from Galpagos giant tortoises showed that they self-destruct faster and easier than those of other turtle cells when exposed to stressors. That may sound like a poor defense mechanism, but this proclivity for self-destruction protects the giant tortoises from biological glitches that can form tumors, thereby helping the animals evade cancer.

In the lab, we can stress the cells out in ways that are associated with aging and see how well they resist that distress. And it turns out that the Galpagos tortoise cells are really, really good at killing themselves before stress has a chance to cause diseases like cancer, said Vincent Lynch, an evolutionary biologist at the University at Buffalo and co-author of the new study.

Very large animals like the Galpagos giant tortoises, which can weigh as much as 300 kg (660 lbs) and can grow to be 1.3 m (4 ft) long, ought to be more prone to cancer because, all other things being equal, they have more cells in their bodies. The more cells, the greater the statistical odds that some mutations arise that can lead to cancer. But since the 1970s, scientists have found that there is no relationship between body size and cancer incidence,a counter-intuitive phenomenon known as Petos Paradox after English statistician and epidemiologist Richard Peto, who first observed the connection.

In fact, one of the largest animals in the world, the bowhead whale, is virtually cancer free. On land, only a fraction of elephants get cancer compared to 1 in 5 humans. Why exactly some of the largest animals have such long lives is a major avenue of research with important implications for our cancer-prone species.

If you can identify the way nature has done something the way certain species have evolved protections maybe you can find a way to translate those discoveries into something that benefits human health and disease, Lynch says. Were not going to go treating humans with Galpagos tortoise genes, but maybe we can find a drug that mimics certain important functions.

The authors of the new study add that their research also carries a message about conservation. Five subspecies of the Galpagos tortoise have been extinct since they were first studied by Charles Darwin, who used their evolutionary defenses, like a distinct shell, to define his theory of natural selection. Over 100,000 have been killed over the centuries by hunters, pirates and whalers who ate the tortoises on their travels. Although not endangered, the Galpagos tortoise is listed as a vulnerable species.

Studies like this demonstrate why preserving biodiversity is so important, says Scott Glaberman, the papers first author and an assistant professor of environmental science and policy at George Mason University. Extreme species like Galpagos giant tortoises probably hold many secrets for dealing with major human challenges like aging and cancer, and even climate change. Our study also shows that even within turtles, different species look, act and function differently, and losing any species to extinction means that a piece of unique biology will be lost to the world forever.

The findings appeared in the journal Genome Biology and Evolution.

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Galpagos giant tortoises often live over 100 years without cancer. The secret to their longevity may be in their genes - ZME Science

November 19, 2021

Today, the two major political parties are often blamed for a plethora of problems in American governance. But for most of the last century and a half, political party competition has had positive effects on the welfare of Americans.

Gerald Gamm and Thad Kousser make the case against one-party-dominated states in an opinion piece inThe Hill: its bad for our health.

Thats according to new research by Gerald Gamm, a professor of political science and history at the University of Rochester, and Thad Kousser, a political science professor at the University of California, San Diego.

The pair conducted a historical analysis spanning all 50 states for the period 18802010. In the studyLife, Literacy, and the Pursuit of Prosperity: Party Competition and Policy Outcomes in 50 States, published in the American Political Science Reviewthey present two related findings:

Competition between parties is not just healthy for a political system but for the life prospects of the population, says Gamm, whose research focuses on Congress, state legislatures, urban politics, and modern party politics.

The data show that states in which the same party won most elections and held an overwhelming majority of seats in the state legislature were likely to have populations with lower life expectancy, levels of education, and incomecoupled with higher infant mortality. But as soon as competition among parties within a state increased and a second party started winning seats and more elections, state spending on infrastructure and human capital went upand with it, literacy, earnings, and longevity.

We find that states that spend moreand spend more because of party competitionbecome places where children are more likely to survive infancy, where they learn to read and where they graduate from high school, where adults live longer lives, and, at least in the pre-New Deal era, where people earn higher incomes, says Kousser, an expert on term limits, governors, and state politics.

How do the researchers explain the data?

According to Gamm and Kousser, when one party holds overwhelming power, it tends to divide into factions. Moreover, legislators have an incentive to push for pork-barrel projects that narrowly target groups of constituents.

By contrast, when two parties closely compete for control of a statehouse, lawmakers find they can improve their individual reputations by helping their parties pursue a statewide program. Democrats have an incentive to show how they differ from Republicans and vice versa. Demonstrating what their party stands for, not through district bills or pork-barrel spending but through statewide policy making, provides a route to electoral success.

In turn, the authors write, Party competition creates bonds between copartisans from across the state and between the executive and legislative branches, leading both parties to work for programs that benefit a broad set of constituents.

That question has, indeed, hovered over their latest work. Arguably, American politics began changing profoundly in the 1980s. Gamm notes that the last four decades have been a time of unremitting and closely fought party competition in national politics, new social and cultural cleavages, historically high levels of partisan polarization, a collapse in mediating institutions, shifting norms and rules in Congress, geographic sorting, and the growth of social media. Whereas in the past, voters and elites alike agreed on many policy goals, politics nowadays has increasingly become a zero-sum game, with the two major parties in fundamental conflict on most important issues.

In the contemporary environment, we recognize that the historic importance of party competition may be attenuated, negated, or even reversed, the team writes. They caution that the rise of the Democratic Party in this era as a distinctively liberal party may also mean that the party in control matters more now than it did in the past.

With often a lag of decades between cause and effect, Gamm and Kousser posit that readers in a generation or two may conclude that party competitiona hallmark of American politics since the days of Madison, Hamilton, and Jackson and perhaps the nations greatest contribution to modern democracyceased to be beneficial in the 1980s. But its too early to know whether the contemporary shift toward party polarization will prove permanent.

That means our generation cant (yet) render the verdict.

What we show here, they conclude, drawing on a full century of data on party competition and spending, as well as data on health, literacy, and prosperity through 2010, is the central importance of two-party competition to the rise of the American state and the flourishing of the American people.

Data sources and the dataset for the study are accessible at the American Political Science Review Dataverse here.

Do political term limits work?

Rochester political scientist Lynda Powell, who has studied the effects of legislative term limits since 1995, testified on Capitol Hill about her research findings on the matter.

Tags: Arts and Sciences, Department of Political Science, Gerald Gamm, research finding

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Are political parties getting in the way of our well-being? - University of Rochester

NAPLES, Fla. The newly named head of the LPGA Tour, Mollie Marcoux Samaan, presented her first Commissioner's Award at the Rolex Awards Dinner Thursday night to longtime golf broadcaster Judy Rankin. The longevity and passion Rankin continues to display as she closes on her 59th year connected to the LPGA Tourfrom playing to broadcastingmade her a natural selection for Marcoux Samaan's first time handing out the honor. Yet as Rankin commanded the room during her 10-minute acceptance speech, the veteran commentator shared for the first time publicly that she'll be phasing out of broadcasting in 2022.

"I'm coming to the end of my time," said Rankin, who turns 77 next February. "I'm not going to do a Brett Favre and retire about four times. I am seriously slowing down. I don't know how much their will be after this, at some point I will see you next year."

Rankin reflected on her six decades around the LPGA, appreciating the front-row seat she has had to some of the most storied players in the game. She knew all 13 founders and enjoyed the successes of Nancy Lopez and Annika Sorenstam, who looked on from the table just right of Rankin, to Karrie Webb and today's stars showing the continued growth of the game.

"I don't think there's ever been a better time for the LPGA Tour," said Rankin, who was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2000.

When Marcoux Samaan has been around Rankin since taking over as LPGA's commissioner this summer, it's been evident to her how much the 26-time winner cared about the players on tour, describing the LPGA as Rankin's neighborhood since the 60s. "I love the way she's watching from a human perspective," Marcoux Samaan said. "Every time someone's got a really tough putt, she's worried for them. She's analyzing their stroke and being extremely critical and analytical, but at the same time as a person, she's wanting them to succeed, which is something that's really important to me in life."

In working on Rankins scheduled for next year, her Golf Channel producer, Beth Hutter, appreciates the gravity of the moment as the pioneering broadcaster steps down. "I don't think many people realize she was one of the first females to ever work in men's golf. We see Dottie, we see Amanda [Blumenherst], we see Kelly Tilghman, but Judy was the first. Back then, that had to have been hard."

As of now, Rankin will work around four tournaments in 2022.

Her fellow commentators were effusive in their praise of her 38-year broadcasting career. "There's nobody who's ever been a commentator in the history of the game that commands more respect for every word she says than Judy Rankin," Jerry Foltz said. "She's the master of the craft, and she learned from the best. She learned from the Bob Rosburg era, an era when less was more. Modern televised golf, less isn't necessarily more. She still respects that time-honored tradition that the players being the stars, not the commentators."

Karen Stupples interacted with Rankin as a player and as a broadcaster. She'd stop practicing during her playing career when Rankin came up to her on the range because of how meaningful those interactions were. "If Judy Rankin came up to talk to you," Stupples said, "you felt pretty bloody special."

Working alongside Rankin in the booth for the 2004 Women's British Open champion felt just as special. "A complete role model to every single women who's gotten into the industry in terms of broadcasting," Stupples said. "She is the playbook when it comes to how to go about your business and how you conduct yourself, and how you say it and at the right time."

After Rankin spent 10 minutes reflecting on her career and the status of the LPGA, she maintained the broadcasting standard she set as she signed off. "I have really had a great time, I really have," Rankin said. "It's been something. Thank you."

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Judy Rankin to reduce her TV schedule in 2022 in what will be her last year of broadcasting - GolfDigest.com

The longer lives we are living present serious challengesand opportunities.

Its quite amazing to consider that in the United States, half of todays 5-year-olds can expect to live to age 100. The extra years of life that weve gained over the past 100 years is one of humankinds greatest achievements. However, these gains produce their own challengesand opportunities.

The trouble is, current norms, expectations, employer practices, and government policies evolved when people lived, on average, about half as long. At an individual and collective level, we need to make some significant changes to successfully accommodate these additional years of life. If we dont tackle these challenges, as a society, well incur significant costs and disruptions, and well lose numerous opportunities for enriching the lives of all our citizens.

To address both the challenges and opportunities that our gift of longevity creates, the Stanford Center on Longevity recently released a report titled The New Map of Life. This report identifies seven principles that can guide us if we choose to rise to the occasion.

Age diversity is a net positive

Communities, employers, and families will all benefit if we combine the energy and enthusiasm of younger people with the wisdom and emotional intelligence of older people. Instead of wringing our hands about the costs of an aging society, we can reap remarkable dividends from a society that is age diverse.

In the years ahead, employers might explore how different age groups can best learn and work together. Families might explore multigenerational living arrangements that benefit both young and old alike.

Invest in future centenarians to deliver big returns

The years between birth and kindergarten are the best time for children to learn the cognitive, emotional, and social skills theyll need to succeed for a potentially long life. These skills will deliver benefits that can compound for decades, and theyll help give children the resilience to recover from the setbacks that are inevitable for all people who live a long life.

Align health spans to life spans

Nobody wants to add extra years of frailty and dependence to their lives. We need to make investments in health that will accrue for people of all ages and from all walks of life. As the pandemic has demonstrated, we all pay for the setbacks encountered by people who are impacted by poverty, discrimination, and environmental damage.

Prepare to be amazed by the future of aging

Todays 5-year-olds will benefit from significant future medical advances and emerging technologies. The speed at which the COVID vaccines were developed shows the potential that scientific advances have to diminish the negative impact of disease on our health and longevity.

Work more years with more flexibility

If you live to 100, it makes no sense to retire in your early 60s and not work for one-third of your life. It simply takes too much money to live exclusively for that long on financial resources you set aside during your working years. In addition, youll still have years ahead of you when you can be productive and contribute to society.

However, most people reaching age 60 dont want to work at the pace of their earlier years, and theyll want more flexibility and control over the hours and conditions under which theyll work.A gradual exit from the workplace might be more beneficial for all concerned, compared to abruptly and completely leaving the workforce at a specified age.

Employers will need to adjust their human resource policies to accommodate all workers, not just older ones, who may want more remote work, or more flexible scedules, to accommodate their personal lives. Individuals will need to adjust their expectations and plans to accommodate the reduced income they might earn in exchange for this flexibility, particularly in their later years.

Learn throughout life

Simply put, youre not finished learning when you graduate from high school or collegeeven today. If youre currently in your 60s, imagine that you only know now what you learned back in high school and college, ignoring all the developments in our society and science since then. In this imaginary scenario, you wouldnt know how to operate a cellphone, use personal computers and the internet, understand how to invest in IRAs or 401k plans, and so on.

Well continue learning at each stage of our lives, particularly as the rate of innovation accelerates. As a result, well need to explore new options for learning outside formal educational settings.

Build longevity-ready communities

Our homes and communities have a strong influence on whether we get sufficient physical exercise and build crucial social connections, as well as supporting the life-long learning we need. Well need to be diligent about reducing the negative health impact of indoor and outdoor pollution that many homes and communities experience.

The New Map of Life report is an inspiring read that contains many more details, statistics, and insights on the challenges we face.

To build longevity-ready societies and communities, governments, employers, businesses, healthcare providers, insurance companies, developers, nonprofit organizations, families, and individuals all have significant roles to play. If we want to create a world that values and supports 100-year lives, its going to be a matter of all hands on deck!

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How Can We Support 100-Year Lives? - Forbes

The streaming services cant help themselves. Everyone wants to make the next Game of Thrones, and that includes HBO, which is bringing the House of the Dragon prequel series to air in 2022. Depending on how you felt about that eighth season, you may or may not be into the idea of another GoT, but it will likely materialize, sooner or later. Perhaps we wont witness that successor as a weekly event series (since binging is here to stay), but the TV powers that will keep trying their damndest. Netflix has given the feat a shot a few times already, first with puppets in The Dark Crystal, a stunning show that proved too expensive and labor-intensive to continue producing. Then came The Witcher, which already existed as a franchise before the first Netflix season and could eventually eclipse Thrones in popularity and longevity, along with the speed at which prequels and movies keep spinning into action.

Now heres this: The Wheel Of Time stars Rosamund Pike in a sweeping, complex adaptation of Robert Jordans fantasy book series. Is it Thronesy enough? The show wont match that title for everyone, but it might for you.

Actually, Amazon Prime currently boasts two contenders for must-see epic fantasy series on the way. One of them, Lord of the Rings, is due in fall 2022, but consider this: founder Jeff Bezos (who, yes, is not the most stellar human being, but many billionaires are not) reportedly straight-up declared that he wanted to knock everyones socks off with a new Thrones. The first candidate arrives this week, and The Wheel Of Time is every bit the sprawling story that successful fantasy epics should be made of. Theres even a you know nothing dropped into Episode 3 to make you think of Jon Snows chronic grumpy face. Yet theres this consideration, too: The Wheel Of Time desperately wants to conjure up Westeros, and it cannot hide that intent.

Now, lets talk about why if you are looking for your new Thrones you should give this series a whirl, while being a little more chill than the shows own dreams.

The source material already exists and will last for eons: If you arent yet familiar with the story, then you can at least rest assured that theres no George R.R. Martin-type scenario where the source materials author keeps promising to finish another book, and then the show decides to stop waiting and blows past author intent in a way that many found to be (to put this kindly) unsatisfying. That sort of thing hurts when youre so invested and loved a show so much, and then it careens into an ash-filled city and some unassuming fellow in the corner wins the game, despite all the maneuvering. Opening yourself up to yet a similar epic saga takes some trust. I get it.

Here, Robert Jordans popular fantasy book series includes over a dozen novels with hundreds of characters, and fans of these characters have wanted to see the storys settings spring to life from the printed page for decades (the first book published in 1990). Thats enough for Amazon to have already greenlit a second season, and its likely that the existing fanbase should keep this thing afloat for the show to lay extensive groundwork and move past the worldbuilding stage of the initial episodes. Theres an abundance of content potential, which showrunner Rafe Judkins would like to mine for eight seasons (*cough* like Thrones).

The epic nature of the story is undeniable: Anything that I write here would not adequately speak to the sheer volume of what this shows sorting out, and Ive seen six episodes that barely scratch the storys surface. This first season follows Rosamund Pikes quest as Moiraine, a member of the Aes Sedai, a group of ladies (and only ladies) who possess immense magical powers. This is a story where reincarnation is the sh*t hence The Wheel Of Time title, which isnt exactly a time is a flat circle thing and that includes Moiraines assertion that the Dragon Reborn, who will be the key to humanitys fate is among a group of young adults. That person, whoever it might be, has quite a job ahead of them against evil forces. There are battles and showdowns and a quest, and yes, all epic and rendered against beautifully vast landscapes with plenty of adult themes and graphic violence to shake your home theater system.

Rosamund Pike: Thats a big enough point here to stand on its own. Shes the biggest name, and granted, shes not playing a sociopath here. Yes, thats unfortunate because deranged is what she does best, but its nice to see her stretch her wings. Shes much more restrained than usual in this role, but its swell to have her around as an anchoring presence amid a cast of largely unknowns (shoutout to Daniel Henney, who holds down the Lan Mandragora role, which bears some passing similarities to Jorah Mormont). I do, however, wonder why producers somehow did not slide Sean Bean into this show. That would make for some nice crossover potential.

Its all about finding your new Thrones: Sometimes its easy to forget, especially when a show was such a cultural juggernaut, that the way Thrones hit was highly specific to individual taste, and different aspects of the show landed differently with different people. What Im saying is this: Thrones managed to appeal for a myriad of reasons, including the colorful characters, morphing motives, magical storylines, the tantalizing (although sometimes disappointing) reveal of villains, the maneuverings of power, and the game itself, and so on. That leads me to believe that the search for the next Game of Thrones is a search in vain. This should be more about viewers search for their own next Thrones. And for a decent amount of people, The Wheel Of Time will fit that bill. Some people will still prefer The Witcher or wait for Lord of the Rings or some other streaming show to come in the future.

Dont overthink it, man: Its easy to get tripped up during the first few The Wheel Of Time episodes while attempting to make sense of dozens of characters. And its easy to not care too much about the out-of-the-gate battle scenes without having established emotional stakes in these characters, but the tapestry does begin to fall into place. So, if youre looking for another Thrones, keeping an open mind (even if you havent read a shows source material, and theres a huge time investment if you actually want to read Jordans books now) is key. Youll hopefully find what youre looking for, but first, youll have to give it a shot.

Amazon Primes The Wheel Of Time debuts on Friday, Nov. 19.

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'Wheel Of Time': Is It Really The Next 'Game of Thrones'? - UPROXX