Vitamin D and Omega-3 Slow Aging

Previously in DO-HEALTH (including all 2,157 participants), we reported that omega-3 alone reduced the rate of infections by 13% (ref. 22) and the rate of falls by 10% (ref. 23), and all three interventions combined showed a significant additive benefit on reducing prefrailty by 39% (ref. 24) and incident invasive cancer by 61% (ref. 25) over a 3-year follow-up. The aim of the DNAm analysis in DO-HEALTH Bio-Age was to assess the effects of the interventions at the molecular level. Three of th...

 Fantasy Reflected How the Privileged Wanted the World to Be

For far too long, fantasy, as a genre, was used as a way to reflect the worldview of those in power. It leaned into stereotype and reflected how the privileged wished the world was. Modern fantasy is more reflective of the actual world, which includes the wide variety of life experiences that exists. Trans people, people of color, and women playing a larger role, are all part of modern fantasy because they’re all part of the actual world, and it’s important that our stories and world bui...

 Internet as a "Playground for Losers"

Realize that the internet and social media, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Reddit is mostly bullshit. These apps are used daily by losers. Even if a successful person posts on Twitter or Instagram, that’s only 5% of their life, the rest of their time spend with firends, on gym or reading productive book. If people are truly getting things done, they’re busy and don’t have time to waste online. The internet is actually place for losers. If you can't stop doom scrolling you are addicte...

 PDR - Personal Data Record

One probable near-term outcome of AI and a through-line in all three of the scenarios is the emergence of what I’ll call a “personal data record,” or PDR. This is a single unifying ledger that includes all of the data we create as a result of our digital usage (think internet and mobile phones), but it would also include other sources of information: our school and work histories (diplomas, previous and current employers); our legal records (marriages, divorces, arrests); our financial ...

 AI Learning and Human Learning Builds on What Came Before

In 2017, an AI system called Amper composed and produced original music for an album called I AM AI. The chord structures, instrumentation, and percussion were developed by Amper, which used initial parameters like genre, mood, and length to generate a full-length song in just a few minutes. Taryn Southern, a human artist, collaborated with Amper to create the album—and the result included a moody, soulful ballad called “Break Free” that counted more than 1.6 million YouTube views and w...

 Alexa and Humans All Experience the World Differently, bu...

When you use Alexa to find a table at your favorite restaurant, you and she are both aware and responsive as you discuss eating, even though Alexa has never felt the texture of a crunchy apple against her teeth, the effervescent prickles of sparkling water against her tongue, or the gooey pull of peanut butter against the roof of her mouth. Ask Alexa to describe the qualities of these foods, and she’ll offer you details that mirror your own experiences. Alexa doesn’t have a mouth—so how...

 How Capitalists Use the Language of Cults

In her book, Montell offers evidence that these linguistic tactics have seeped out from cults and into wider society. Propelled by capitalist demands and the reach of social media, the language of cults, she says, is now everywhere. If you question the business model of a multi-level marketing scheme, well, that's just "stinkin' thinkin'," a thought-terminating cliche popular with MLMs like Amway. Similarly, when the predictions of QAnon and other conspiracy theorists don't come to pass, foll...

 Thought Terminating Cliche

Another trick in the cult leader's language toolkit is the thought-terminating cliche. These are sayings that end uncomfortable conversations or trains of thoughts. "It is what it is." "Everything happens for a reason." "Let's agree to disagree." They shut down argument and critical thinking, which is why they're so handy to authoritarians who don't like to be questioned. Charles Manson countered any rational objections to his ravings by saying, "No sense makes sense." Try arguing with that. ...

 Chengyu: Four-Character Chinese Expressions

心神不宁 (xīn shén bù níng): “to feel bad about nothing” 损人利己 (sǔn rén lì jǐ): “to seek benefit at the expense of others” 幸灾乐祸 (xìng zāi lè huò): “to enjoy others’ misfortunes” 力不从心 (Lì bù cóng xīn): “the qualities aren’t at the level of the aspirations” 亦步亦趋 (yì bù yì qū): “to blindly imitate someone” 桃李满天下 (táolǐ mǎn tiān xià): “to have pupils everywhere” 省吃俭用 (shěng chī jiǎn yòng)...

 Evaluating ChatGPT as a Bullshit Machine

The structure of the paper is as follows: in the first section, we outline how ChatGPT and similar LLMs operate. Next, we consider the view that when they make factual errors, they are lying or hallucinating: that is, deliberately uttering falsehoods, or blamelessly uttering them on the basis of misleading input information. We argue that neither of these ways of thinking are accurate, insofar as both lying and hallucinating require some concern with the truth of their statements, whereas LLM...