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Category: neuroscience – Page 857

The Objectivity Myth: What we call “Objective Reality” is just a colorful misnomer

Objective reality is merely a pattern that a mind constructs because it provides a useful simplified explanatory scaffolding of the long series of subjectively perceived moments stored in its memory. Needless to say that the Vigner’s Friend experiment mentioned in the article is not the only experimental evidence for the objectivity myth. Think about it when the next time you come across these overloaded terms ‘objective reality’ and ‘objectivity’ — to be precise, they mean ‘intersubjectivity’ instead: Termites would never comprehend chess, for example, this human abstraction lies beyond their species-specific intersubjective mind-network. Apart from inter-species levels of abstractions we should consider psychological, cultural and linguistic differences between individuals of the same species that makes objectivity simply non-existent. Conclusion: we can still use ‘objective reality’, ‘objectivity’ or ‘objectively’ colloquially but we should bear in mind that in a deeper sense these terms are no more than colorful misnomers. https://medium.com/@alexvikoulov/the-objectivity-myth-what-w…b697a5179d

#ObjectivityMyth #ObjectiveReality #ConsensusReality #intersubjectivity #UniversalMind #UniversalConsciousness

“It will remain remarkable, in whatever way our future concepts may develop, that the very study of the external world led to the conclusion that the content of consciousness is the ultimate reality.” –Eugene Wigner

Gearing for the 20/20 Vision of Our Cybernetic Future — The Syntellect Hypothesis, Expanded Edition | Press Release

“A neuron in the human brain can never equate the human mind, but this analogy doesn’t hold true for a digital mind, by virtue of its mathematical structure, it may – through evolutionary progression and provided there are no insurmountable evolvability constraints – transcend to the higher-order Syntellect. A mind is a web of patterns fully integrated as a coherent intelligent system; it is a self-generating, self-reflective, self-governing network of sentient components… that evolves, as a rule, by propagating through dimensionality and ascension to ever-higher hierarchical levels of emergent complexity. In this book, the Syntellect emergence is hypothesized to be the next meta-system transition, developmental stage for the human mind – becoming one global mind – that would constitute the quintessence of the looming Cybernetic Singularity.” –Alex M. Vikoulov, The Syntellect Hypothesis https://www.ecstadelic.net/e_news/gearing-for-the-2020-visio…ss-release

#SyntellectHypothesis

Ecstadelic Media Group releases the new 2020 expanded edition of The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind’s Evolution by Alex M. Vikoulov as eBook and Paperback (Press Release, San Francisco, CA, USA, January 15, 2020 10.20 AM PST)

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Named “The Book of the Year” by futurists and academics alike in 2019 and maintaining high rankings in Amazon charts in Cybernetics, Physics of Time, Phenomenology, and Phenomenological Philosophy, it has now been released as The 2020 Expanded New Deluxe Edition (2020e) in eBook and paperback versions. In one volume, the author covers it all: from quantum physics to your experiential reality, from the Big Bang to the Omega Point, from the ‘flow state’ to psychedelics, from ‘Lucy’ to the looming Cybernetic Singularity, from natural algorithms to the operating system of your mind, from geo-engineering to nanotechnology, from anti-aging to immortality technologies, from oligopoly capitalism to Star-Trekonomics, from the Matrix to Universal Mind, from Homo sapiens to Holo syntellectus.

Continue reading “Gearing for the 20/20 Vision of Our Cybernetic Future — The Syntellect Hypothesis, Expanded Edition | Press Release” | >

33 Crucial Terms Every Futurist, Transhumanist, and Philosopher Should Know Going Forward

We can’t evolve faster than our language does. Evolution is a linguistic, code-theoretic process. Do yourself a humongous favor, look over these 33 transhumanist neologisms. Here’s a fairly comprehensive glossary of thirty three newly-introduced concepts and terms from “The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind’s Evolution” by futurist, philosopher and evolutionary cyberneticist Alex M. Vikoulov. In parts written as an academic paper, in parts as a belletristic masterpiece, this recent book is an exceptionally easy read for an intellectual reader — a philosophical treatise that is fine-tuned with apt neologisms readily explained by given definitions and contextually… https://medium.com/@alexvikoulov/33-crucial-terms-every-futu…a1c8b993c8

#evolution #consciousness #futurism #transhumanism #philosophy

“A powerful work! As a transhumanist, I especially loved one of the main ideas of the book that the Syntellect Emergence, merging of us into one Global Mind, constitutes the quintessence of the coming Technological Singularity. The novel conceptual visions of mind-uploading and achieving digital immortality are equally fascinating. The Chrysalis Conjecture as a solution to the Fermi Paradox is mind-bending. I would highly recommend The Syntellect Hypothesis to anyone with transhumanist aspirations and exponential thinking!” -Zoltan Istvan, futurist, author, founder of the U.S. Transhumanist Party

Terms such as ‘Artificial Intelligence’ or ‘Neurotechnology’ were new some time not so long ago. We can’t evolve faster than our language does. Evolution is a linguistic, code-theoretic process. Do yourself a humongous favor, look over these 33 transhumanist neologisms. Here’s a fairly comprehensive glossary of thirty three newly-introduced concepts and terms from “The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind’s Evolution” by futurist, philosopher and evolutionary cyberneticist Alex M. Vikoulov. In parts written as an academic paper, in parts as a belletristic masterpiece, this recent book is an exceptionally easy read for an intellectual reader — a philosophical treatise that is fine-tuned with apt neologisms readily explained by given definitions and contextually:

AGI Naturalization Protocol, AGI(NP) — initiating AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) via human life simulation training program, infusing AGI with a value system, ethics, morality and generally civilized manners to ensure functioning in the best interests of society as a self-aware agent. Read more: http://www.ecstadelic.net/top-stories/how-to-create-friendly…-explosion #AGINaturalizationProtocol #AGINP

Digital Presentism: D-Theory of Time

#DigitalPresentism #DTheoryofTime #TemporalMechanics

Temporal philosophy is a fascinating but eerily difficult topic. Correctly answering the philosophical questions and paradoxes of time paves the way to unlocking one of the last remaining mysteries of mind since our perception of time and consciousness, as you know, are simply inseparable. A new theory of time, Digital Presentism, comes from the triangulation of temporal physics, digital physics and experiential realism. This essay addresses the flaming questions in philosophy of time: “Is time fundamental or emergent?”, “How does time exist, if at all?”, “How can we update the current epistemic status of temporal ontology?” For starters, let’s recap what we’ve learned so far about physics of time. Here’s a quick summary: in Time Series essays, we dissected the nature of time through the prism of these 7 common misconceptions:

Holo Syntellectus: Are We Evolving into a New Cybernetic Species Interlinked into the Global Mind?

Behind all this doom and gloom, the current COVID-19 viral threat, dreaded climate disasters and feared robocalypse, it’s hard to see a bigger and amazingly brighter picture. Are we evolving into a new species with hybrid thinking, interlinked into the Global Mind? Once our neocortices are seamlessly connected to the Web, what will that feel like to step up one level above human consciousness to global consciousness? Any crisis, including the current one, is an opportunity to transcend the quagmire of status quo.

Are we evolving into a new species with hybrid thinking, interlinked into the Global Mind? At what point may the Web become self-aware? Once our neocortices are seamlessly connected to the Web, how will that feel like to step up one level above human consciousness to global consciousness?

In his book “The Global Brain” (2000) Howard Bloom argues that hyperconnected humans and machines resemble a lot the neurons of the “global brain,” and the coming Internet of Things (IoT) with trillions of sensors around the planet will become effectively the nervous system of Earth. According to the Gaia hypothesis by James Lovelock, we have always been an integral part of this “Meta-Mind,” collective consciousness, global adaptive and self-regulating system while tapping into vast resources of information pooling and at the same time having a “shared hallucination,” we call reality.

The Difference Between Success and Failure: (Neuro)science of Getting and Staying Motivated

There is no question that motivation is one of the hardest and yet important factors in life. It’s the difference between success and failure, goal-setting and aimlessness, well-being and unhappiness. And yet, why is it so hard to get motivated — or even if we do, to keep it up?

That is the question that scientists led by Professor Carmen Sandi at EPFL and Dr Gedi Luksys at the University of Edinburgh have sought to answer. The researchers worked off previous knowledge that told them two things: First, that people differ a lot in their capacity to engage in motivated behavior and that motivational problems like apathy are common in neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders. Second, to target an area of the brain called the “nucleus accumbens”.

Sitting close to the bottom of brain, the nucleus accumbens has been the subject of a lot of research. The reason is that it was quickly found to be a major player in functions like aversion, reward, reinforcement, and motivation.

Antibody drug lowers risk of death in elderly COVID-19 patients: Cuban study

The 19 hospitalized patients from a single nursing home had tested positive for the virus in April.

All were older than age 64 and had chronic health conditions such as hypertension, dementia, heart disease, diabetes and lung diseases. Their age and health issues are considered risk factors for severe COVID-19.

The patients received either one or two intravenous doses of itolizumab along with the standard treatments used in Cuba at the time. Those included antiviral drugs, antibiotics, chloroquine, interferon, and blood thinners. Only two patients required oxygen therapy after the first dose, and all but one were discharged from the hospital in 14 days.

N”(Reuters) — An antibody drug already being used against the coronavirus in Cuba decreased the risk of intensive care admission and death among nursing home residents with moderate COVID-19, according to a small study conducted in the island nation.

India’s Biocon Ltd said earlier this month it received regulatory approval in India for itolizumab for use in coronavirus infected patients with moderate-to-severe respiratory distress. It was originally tested as a treatment for psoriasis.

Researchers, including from Cuba’s Center of Molecular Immunology, which developed itolizumab, said timely use of the drug in combination with standard therapy helped reduce inflammation and prevented COVID-19 from worsening.

Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and ICAM-2 Differentially Contribute to Peripheral Activation and CNS Entry of Autoaggressive Th1 and Th17 Cells in Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis

Scientists from 4 different Swiss universities describe how adhesion molecules activate autoaggressive immune cells and drive their infiltration in the nervous system in a model of multiple sclerosis.

Click to read the paper published in Frontiers in Immunology: https://fro.ntiers.in/tp1U

In experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of multiple sclerosis (MS), myelin-specific T cells are activated in the periphery and differentiate in T helper (Th) 1 and Th17 effector cells, which cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) to reach the central nervous system (CNS), where they induce neuroinflammation. Here, we explored the role of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and ICAM-2 in the activation of naïve myelin-specific T cells and in the subsequent migration of differentiated encephalitogenic Th1 and Th17 cells across the BBB in vitro and in vivo. While on antigen-presenting cells ICAM-1, but not ICAM-2 was required for the activation of naïve CD4+ T cells, endothelial ICAM-1 and ICAM-2 mediated both Th1 and Th17 cell migration across the BBB. ICAM-1/-2-deficient mice developed ameliorated typical and atypical EAE transferred by encephalitogenic Th1 and Th17 cells, respectively. Our study underscores important yet cell-specific contributions for ICAM-1 and ICAM-2 in EAE pathogenesis.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is considered an autoimmune inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS). Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a prototypic animal model for MS, mimics many aspects of the acute inflammatory phase of the human disease (1). In EAE, naïve myelin-reactive CD4+ T cells are activated and differentiated in peripheral lymphoid tissue into encephalitogenic Th1 or Th17 cells, which travel in the blood circulation to the CNS. After crossing the blood-brain barrier (BBB) they next infiltrate in the CNS parenchyma, leading to clinical manifestation of the disease (2). EAE can be actively induced by immunization with CNS myelin antigens emulsified in complete Freund’s adjuvant (aEAE) or by injection of myelin-reactive CD4+ T cells into syngeneic naïve recipients (tEAE) (3, 4).

Activation of naïve CD4+ T cells during aEAE occurs in the draining peripheral lymph nodes (dLNs), where T cells recognize their cognate antigen (Ag) on antigen-presenting cells (APCs) forming periodic contacts between the T-cell receptor (TCR) and the myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG)aa35−55 peptide loaded major histocompatibility complex (pMHC) on the APCs, referred to as the immunological synapse (IS) (5, 6). The fate of naïve T cells is determined within hours after Ag exposure by interacting with APCs in LN. The interaction between the integrin lymphocyte function associated antigen-1 (LFA-1) on the T cells and its ligand intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) on the APCs is suggested to be involved in modulating the IS. However, APCs additionally express ICAM-2, an alternate ligand of LFA-1.

Putting on weight slows blood flow to the brain, increasing Alzheimer’s risk

COSTA MESA, Calif. – Health experts say around half of American adults are overweight or obese. While excessive body weight is linked to a number of serious health conditions, including diabetes and heart disease, a new study reveals it can also reduce blood flow to the brain. Researchers warn this can put overweight individuals at great risk for Alzheimer’s disease.

The study examines brain blood flow in 17,721 adults between 18 and 94. To do this, researchers use a brain imaging technique known as single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT).

SPECT is a technique in which doctors inject a radioactive tracer into a patient’s blood and then use a special camera to look at the flow of blood. Participants were then split into five categories: underweight, normal weight, overweight, obese, and morbidly obese — to examine blood flow in each of their brains. The brain scan data reveals lower blood flow across virtually all brain regions as body weight increases.

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