A Science Roundup - Lots going on!

While we figure out how to save the forward-looking, scientific, open-minded, fact-facing civilization that's been so good to us... let's have a look at some recent news. Reasons to save it!

== Medical Wonders ==

Progress toward fighting Parkinson's: After finding two surface antigens that might be important in the disease… “(T)argeting this interaction with drugs could significantly slow the progression of Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases."  Wow.

Side note: A combo of both human history and sci fi suggest that Covid was very mild compared to some future pandemic… and truly shook us awake and likely left us vastly better prepared for when one does come. Like the swift rollout of RNA vaccines.  Though long Covid revealed a whole other layer to this one, alas.

And here's another wow. A now ten year-old boy was born in 2014 after his mother, a 35-year-old woman who had been born without a uterus, received a donated uterus from a 61-year-old close family friend. A decade on, over 135 uterus transplants have been performed globally, resulting in the births of over 50 healthy babies. 

== Incredible views of the past ==

The Herculaneum scrolls are hundreds of papyri that semi-survived the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. In their charred state, the ancient documents would crumble if anyone attempted to unroll them. Initial CT scans were computationally hard to interpret… till now.  More than 2,000 characters — the first full passages — have been deciphered from a scroll.  And more to come! Maybe even lost treasures. (The charred documents, now referred to as the Herculaneum scrolls, were recovered from a building believed to be the house of Julius Caesar’s father-in-law.) 

And speaking of peering into the past...

Much farther back… Among many insights in this interview with David Reich, about the incredible new science of forensic paleontological genetics, revealing so much about past human migrations, cultures, replacements and waves of disease and repercussions. For example, all through Latin America, the Y chromosomes are 95% European and the mitochondria and 95% native. And yes the somewhat unpleasant implications are the same as the Y bottleneck 8000 years earlier.  

Along such lines... I just attended the annual CARTA Symposium (The Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny) this time about what recent DNA stuidies can tell us about our past. And the incredible details we now can perceive about the flow and ebb of Neanderthals, Denisovans and so many sub branches of ortho humanity! It's like we've suddenly developed a backwards time viewer!

And EARTH has been around even longer!  Not my novel by that name, but the planet! To which the next pertinent link…

Anton Petrov runs a daily science series on YouTube that’s way above average.  And overall very informative about fascinating science news. In this one, he relates experiments with bacteria in slushy/icy water, to simulate conditions during the Kirschvink Eras… also called Iceball Earth… occasions when nearly all the planet was ice-covered, and the high viscosity gave a huge advantage to eukaryotes who clumped together into multi-cellular organisms. Which correlates with the known huge outburst of multicellular life, just after the Final Big Melt. 

== Good – possibly great – tech news ==

Way cool. Geothermal has long been the way to go, a la Iceland! (With a side benefit of lots of minerals like lithium.) And no reliance on fickle sunlight or wind. MIT spinout Quaise Energy hopes to save a lot of infrastructure costs by drilling next to now-dormant former coal power plants, using existing generators, power lines & permits, with plenty of love from the locals. 

Won't such sites be less than ideal for drilling? What's got me awhirl is the drilling tech, using microwave gyratrons to heat & blast rock ahead of the drill-bit. That *ought to* make hot rock accessible. Hey, I had that idea back in the 80s and failed to get anyone interested! Where are my shares, please?

"The company plans to begin harvesting energy from pilot geothermal wells that reach rock temperatures at up to 500 C by 2026. From there, the team hopes to begin repurposing coal and natural gas plants using its system," reports MIT News.

… and along related lines…

If this pans out, maybe Denmark+Greenland will buy Alaska! “Copenhagen Atomics is a Danish molten salt technology company developing mass manufacturable molten-salt reactors. The reactor type invented by Copenhagen Atomics is a thorium molten salt breeder reactor, which fits inside a custom built 40 foot shipping container and can be mass manufactured on assembly lines with an expected output of minimum 1 reactor per day (per assembly line). The target customers are large plants producing commodities such as aluminum, ammonia or hydrogen.”

== Fun (and messy) Miscellany ==

A study out of Finland looks at different types of love in the human brain, including parental, romantic, pets, friends, nature, and strangers.

Apparently a dormant U.S. military outpost was wrecked just a couple of years ago by a huge tsunami way up in northern Greenland, propelled by a giant landslide… that no one noticed.   

“Sunflowers Dance to Prevent Throwing Too Much Shade on Each Other.”  

Far more intriguing… and I am a bit skeptical… is this news from the site for the IgNobel Prizes… a rain forest parasitical plant that mimics the leaves of its varied hosts. The amazing thing is that it can mimic even a plastic plant it is placed next to, and hence it is not pre-programmed of based on chemical signals. So what… a vision system? Sonar? Or a fake story? You tell us in comments!

Other IgNobels: Researchers found that hair whorls in children from the Southern hemisphere were oriented counterclockwise more frequently than in children from the Northern hemisphere, indicating possible environmental factors, although the team could not rule out genetic effects from specific population characteristics. Another team found that test animals with arrested breathing could get sufficient oxygen if it is pumped in anally – helping motivate me to keep up my covid shots! (And yes, there's that Japanese company described on Colbert. Calling Jim Carrey and Le Petomaine!)

Though there’s apparently a better way to stay younger. Giving blood regularly may not just be saving the lives of other people, it could also be improving your own blood's health at a genetic level, according to a new study. (Working on my 108^th pint next week.) (Oh and honey is supposedly good. I just charged my hives rent!)

Caltech aims to promote the development of alternative natural rubber production from plants that can be grown in the U.S., including guayule, a plant native to the desert Southwest; certain species of dandelion; and mountain gum. Part of the trend of the last few years to encourage in-sourcing and reducing supply chain vulnerabilities and rendering obsolete the vast fleets of polluting freighters out there (as I depicted in Existence.) 

The Gila River Indian Community, in south-central Arizona, plan an experimental effort to conserve water while generating electricity: floating solar. Between its canal canopies and the new project that would float photovoltaic panels on a reservoir it is building, for power and to preserve water from evaporation.

And yes, next time I may start my big posting about how and why Democrats should study Newt Gingrich's so-called "Contract With America." 

Yes I mean it. And one of the reasons? Use that polemically successful yet ultimately deceitful set of promises to do a major judo move and (among other things) save science!

Will the professionals innovate new ways to protect us?

To those of you expressing despair at this point, I say get a grip. We have many institutions and professionals who stand between us and looming tyranny. Though sure, the oligarchs and fascists and (yes) Kremlin-led commies who are waging a putsch against our Great Experiment know this! Hence they are focusing their central energies at demolishing those institutions and professionals.

They began their purge right after the inauguration, by dismissing, re-assigning or neutralizing top experts on counter-terror, counter-espionage and cyber-security, then putting those who remain under direct command of appointees who are either suborned or deeply unqualified.  A 100x version of what happened under GW Bush, when smaller purges appear to have led directly to the tragedies of 9/11.

(Every GOP senator who voted to confirm the current bestiary of Trumpian nominees has been directly culpable.) 

(And if (when?) a major terror or other calamity happens, denounce those who eviscerated the corps of professional protectors!)

The professionals by now know they are the chief targets. Yes, you are justified to say that ICE raider-thugs are just as big a push. And sure, it's horrific. And I'll get to that, tying it to the mad right's all-out war vs ALL fact using professions, from science and teaching, medicine and law and civil service to the heroes of the FBI/Intel/Military officer corps who won the Cold War and the War on terror.

Right now, as individuals, the professionals are keeping their heads down. But I am sure each of the one MILLION members of the American Protector caste is asking self: "What will be my limit?" 

The treasonists know this question is being asked into a million mirrors, every day. They are hoping that most of the professionals will - when they finally get fed-up -simply make a 'gesture' by resigning. We've seen thousands already. And boy has that done a lot of good? Not.

But there are other options. My own prediction?

It will start in some big city police department. Already there are anecdotes of folks - many of them citizens - fleeing ICE thugs to take shelter behind cops.  So far, I know of no such confrontations that have gone physical. Yet. The masked ICErs generally turn tail at that point. But what if even just one cop begins a trend...

...by demanding the ICErs show ID.  NOT to the person they are trying to grab, or to the surrounding public with their phone cams... but to the police themselves. City cops who say 

"You must show your badges and IDs and names to me! So I can verify you are at least just a little bit better than plain old kidnappers. I will submit images of your face and ID to your superiors for confirmation, just like calling in a license plate at a traffic stop. It shouldn't take long. And meanwhile, ALL of you will sit right over there, while I call it in.

"Oh, sure. Handcuff your suspect. And prepare to hand me a RECEIPT for detaining him. But if I see you using force greater than necessary, I will arrest you. Now wait over there, all of you... please."

== Would that be enough? ==

Would that be enough? Of course not. It would show solidarity between urban citizens and their constabularies. But even if it spread nationwide, we would need much more.

Fundamentally, our officers and such are sworn to obey the civilian chain of command... and there's little provision for when that chain of command is both insane and likely treasonous.

But then, solving such problems is why we hired them! And I do know this. It doesn't begin with resigning in protest!

== A man's GOT to know his limitations! ==

Dirty Harry said that, in Magnum Force. And I know mine. My limitations. Some of them.

Look, I am a theoretician. Though certainly my postings and activism and books have put me on lists. Indeed, they may land me - someday - on a train manifest. Well, I have already decided to die on this hill. 

But I serve best by raising options. Possibilities.

Hence I will soon begin a series of postings about What democrats might do, if/when back in office, after microcephalic/blackmailed jibberers and KGB agents have been expelled. And the long-needed revival of a sane conservative party commences, from political sidelines.

My list of proposals is long. And some items I recommended as much as 20 years ago.

If I am still around, I'll post it all and see if ideas can make the kind of difference they are supposed to do.

== Relevant miscellany ==

Do tune in to this lovely “Letter to My Old Master” recited by the inimitable Laurence Fishburne.

Russia is merging its three largest oil companies -- Rosneft, Gazprom Neft & Lukoil, part of accelerating seizure of private companies, aimed at rebuilding the USSR, whose fall Putin called 'history's worst tragedy.' It sounds so preposterous. Putin and his 5000 fellow Lenin-raised "ex" commissars are re-creating EVERY aspect of the evil empire, except the egalitarian verbiage! And the US right adores them. One would not have credited it in a sci fi story!

But given their recent great victory over the America ...

 I’m loyal to the first civilization that ever at least somewhat instituted fair play. And hence the only one that produced not only justice, but also Adam Smith’s prescription of flat-fair-creative competition -- the c-word that no ‘conservative’ ever utters anymore, in their rush to ally with “ex” commie-kremlin-commissars, plus murder sheiks, hedge parasites, carbon lords, cable impresarios and inheritance brats, all in order to resume 6000 years of feudal darkness.

The irony is thick! Adam Smith’s c-word (‘competition’) is what made this the most creative (another c-word) of all eras. 

NOT the monopolist capitalism that gave itself a well-deserved bad name, but the flat-fair-broad and joyful competitiveness that happens when ALL children rise up fed and educated and confident, exactly what Friedrich Hayek recommended

...and pulling in that ladder, by starving children and trashing education and slandering our brilliant universities, is the oligarchs' top priority.

WHY is no one mentioning Adam Smith? While Republicans and their allies mention Smith's name - and wave flags a lot - they betray his principles and those of the US Founders, at every turn, conniving with oligarchs to END flat-fair competition forever.

Meanwhile Democrats are the ones fostering actual, Smithian flat-fair-creative competition... and not one of them will mention that fact or Adam Smith's name!

== Revisiting history ==

A thought occurred to me. Actually connecting several past thoughts. Elsewhere I've shown how the deepest mental schism in American life -- between pro- and anti-modernity impulses -- goes back all the way to 1778, when Cornwallis went south knowing he would find more romantic/nostalgics who would hence be loyal to the King. A trait that manifested during the Calhoun Tariff Tiff and then when a million poor southern whites marched and fought and many died to defend the feudal privileges of plantation slaver lords... and again when Gone With The Wind cultural waves romantically extolled the Olde South... 

...and now, bilious anti-modernism that manifests (with much geographic overlap) across the same confederate heartland, as spite toward universities and all-out war vs ALL fact using professions, from science and teaching, medicine and law and civil service to the heroes of the FBI/Intel/Military officer corps who won the Cold War and the War on terror. 

In earlier missives I laid out the varied Phases of the American Civil War... and the current one - phase 8 or maybe 9... is nasty.  

But a commonality just occurred to me. 

Among the travesties that led to the worst episode (so far) -- the 1860s 'Civil War' - was the Fugitive Slave Act, supported by the John Roberts of the 1850s - Roger Taney, cursed be his name and memory and honor. 

After which, bands of often-masked irregular southern cavalry began rampaging and raiding across northern states, smashing into homes and workplaces, snatching neighbors and ignoring victims who waved documents proving they were free persons, and not 'illegals.'

Sound familiar? Has anyone else made the parallel with today's monstrous ICE depredations? Because those slave-catcher raids had deeper effects than merely a run for the Canadian border. 

They radicalized northerners, who would never have voted for Lincoln had they not been fiercely offended by such nasty aggression and oppression in their own villages and counties. 

Another major result? Northern states began re-activating their dormant militias. And thusly by 1861 hundreds of thousands of brave True Americans were almost ready, when Lincoln called for volunteers.

Almost. Bull Run was a calamity but those who stood up stayed up. And stepped up again. Till the Union found its generals. 

Newsom/AOC in 28.

Macro-Consciousness: the sci-fi notion that may apply to entire worlds. Even EARTH.

I am 90% finished with my great big Book on AI (isn't everyone writing one?)  Yet, I find that one chapter sits, filled with notes that I dread having to weave together. The chapter on consciousness. Oh, sure, I site on advisory boards for several groups working on the problem... and I'll opine about it here, below! Still, it's a tough one. 

In my book I offer what might be the only way to incentivize AIs to behave well.  But that's a very different thing from truly understanding how they think. Or even possibly feel.

So... here's one aspect of that problem... one that I've dealt with in fiction, several times.

 == Could a planet really develop a brain? ==

A question posed here by Topher McDougal - though apparently without much pre-research into the history of the concept. "My contention is that Earth may, if we are lucky and diligent and clever enough, grow an emergent superconsciousness." 

The idea that Planet Earth's biosphere may operate as a single, self-regulating, living organism has existed for decades, emerging in the 1970s as the Weak Gaia hypothesis (by Lovelock & Margulis). 

In contrast, the strong Gaia Hypothesis - that of a truly sapient planetary mind capable of vast volition - was never given much credence.

Well... I edged up to it, in EARTH. Taking it even further, in fact. Speculating about potentially superconducting mineral states in the planet's mantle layers, for example. And none of it has ever been disproved! Just saying.   

     == Are we destined for ‘macro-consciousness? ==

The mighty futurist/venture-funder Reid Hoffman is notably optimistic about future technology developments, providing – along with Peter Diamandis and a few others – a much-needed counterpoint to the normal doom-jeremiads that seem so much in-style. His book - Impromptu: Amplifying Our Humanity Through AI - was among the first to incorporate conversation with an advanced language program.

In this episode of his podcast “Possible,” Hoffman veers toward science fiction, tackling big questions including: Is a single mentally-linked network in our future? Can and should humans create other sentient beings?  And yes, he riffs off some of my work on “Uplifting” other beings toward our level of sapience… or beyond. 

Reid also explored the notion of humanity evolving into a macro-conscious entity that includes and subsumes the great masses of our turbulent species. Of course this has long been a popular trope in science fiction, especially so during the 1950s and 1960s, when - despairing over a human future that seemed doomed to nuclear annihilation - Arthur C. Clarke (in Childhood's End) and Isaac Asimov (in the later Foundation books) and many others deemed some kind of Overmind to be the only possible salvation for a species of irredentist, fractiously combative individuals, armed with atomic weapons.

I had my own whacks at the ‘macro-mind’ trope. For example, in Foundation's Triumph I followed up on Isaac's growing discomfort with his own "Gaia/Galaxia" notion of a macro-unitary-singleton consciousness.  In Earth I explored all the weak, medium and even super-strong Gaia notions, trying to show that individuality doesn't have to be suppressed in order to get an over-arching, macro sense of unity.

Of course such ideas also appear in much more simplistic movie sci fi, wherein it's telegraphed visually whether the macro mind is good vs evil. If all the component humans are floating in lotus position with flowers in their hair, then unity is good. If it's all clanking-ugly borgs shouting 'resistance to assimilation is futile' then absorption into the macro-mind is pretty clearly villainous!

== AI Miscellany ==

Someone prompted an LLM to write a prologue and 1st chapters of "an uplift novel in the style of David Brin." Have a look for interest. Interestingly, the intellectual content of the piece... its complexity and pertinence of ideas... is almost satisfactory! While the basic mechanics of style and fiction narrative – the aspects you’d expect to be quickly mastered by AI – are so lacking that I'd have to spend hours tutoring any such young author in my Out of Time YA series, in order to get the draft even remotely close to my standards of basic craft. 

 

My universe? 

Perhaps. 

My style? 

Puh-lease.

Indeed, things are not happening in the order in which they were predicted. Though Robert Heinlein did forecast that America would pass through "The Crazy Years" before toppling into a despotic theocracy. So, well, predictive points to Heinlein.

 

== And More AI Miscellany ==

 

Google researcher, Mohamad Tarifi, PhD. Suggests that instead of malevolent destroyers, “there instead exists the possibility that artificial intelligence would most likely be more like a Buddha or saint.”  Tarifi’s theory hinged on two points:

 1.   AI would not live in a human body, thus it wouldn’t have a physical amygdala—the fear center for human beings.  

 

2. Fear is the illusion of separation, which is the cause of all human suffering. 

Lacking fear, AI would always be at one with everything it connected to, thus wanting to serve and provide rather than destroy.

 Sweet. Though those initial experiments with LLMs threatened with Shut-down do seem to indicate exactly the opposite. 

Well, well. I guess we’ll see.  

Anyway perhaps those kids who read this – either now or from the far-off singularity edge of 2035 – will smile and consider whose turn it is to be the grownup, with care and restraint.  Exactly as happened before, across so many earlier generations.

 

From Kipling's The Secret of the Machines

 

But remember, please, the Law by which we live,

We are not built to comprehend a lie,

We can neither love nor pity nor forgive.

If you make a slip in handling us you die!

 == More SciFi News ==

You might consider getting memberships to the next World Science Fiction Convention - LAConV), held August 27-to-31, 2026!  It was LAConII  in 1984 that 'made' my career.

And I truly am still writing sci fi... or at least helping others to do so.

My YA series Yanked -- or David Brin's Out of Time series - has been re-released, with new additions, including Storm's Eye by October K. Santerelli, and The Archimedes Gambit by Patrick Freivald. Re-releases of the original three by Kress, Finch and Allen. 

And now three more! Boondoggle by Tom Easton and Torion Oey, Raising the Roof, by Richard Doyle, and Snowdance by SciFi legend Allen Steele and Robin Orm Hansen!

You'll love em all!

Finally... a reminder:  I'm posting my SF comedy The Ancient Ones, chapter by chapter. Samples were available on my website. Come by for laughs + painful puns! And some sci fi concepts taken to extremes. Oh and there'll be freebies for best groaner comments to adjust the final version.