CryoNet #33017 - #33019

CryoNet - Tue 2 Nov 2010

    #33017: Re: Gateway president [Keith Henson]
    #33018: Nano-swimmers [benbest]
    #33019: Re: Nano-swimmers [benbest] [Jonano]

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Message #33017
Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2010 16:08:35 -0700
Subject: Re: Gateway president
From: Keith Henson <[email protected]>

On Mon, Nov 1, 2010 at 2:00 AM, David Stodolsky <[email protected]> wrote:

snip

> "Work" is a modern concept

Replace "work" with the effort (or time) required to gather, hunt or
farm sufficient to subsist.  This can be measured across cultures.

> and as such could not have served as a factor in the Early Environment of Adaptation (EEA),

Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness is the usual meaning of EEA in
an evolutionary psychology context.
http://www.anth.ucsb.edu/projects/human/epfaq/eea.html

> which is the overwhelming source of genetic determination in Man. Regardless of popular science nonsense, such as the "Selfish Gene," humans and most animals manifest a group survival instinct, as well as an individual survival instinct. In fact, in most evolving systems it is possible to identify adaptations at the cellular, bodily, group, and ecosystem levels.

I think you violate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor when
all of these levels can be understood as simple consequences of genes.
 You do have to include Hamilton's rule, i.e., inclusive fitness but
that just says that a gene can affect the survival of its copies
without being in the same body.

> What the Gateway Computer President is saying in the above quote, is that he considers Gateway to be his 'Group' and feels it is necessary to work for its success and survival.

I doubt it.  What you see in people like the Gateway guy where people
work hard far beyond the need to do so is the result of selection.
Northern temperate zone farmers had to work hard in the spring, summer
and fall--far beyond their immediate needs--in order to store enough
food to get their families and animals through the winter.

The ones who did not pile up enough food or firewood to get through an
extra long, extra cold winter died and their farms were reclaimed by
the children of those who did pile up more than they would have needed
for an ordinary winter.  A few thousand years of this results in genes
for over achievers in the population of survivors.

Clark was only looking at the historical records from the mid 1200s.
I suspect this had been going on since farmers moved into northern
Europe.

> The reason that Dr. Clark's findings are limited to selected cultures is that these Cultures have made the connection, perhaps only implicitly, that 'work' is good for the success of the Group. So, the pre-existing group survival instinct is channelled into 'work' for the benefit of the Group.
>
> Unfortunately, current marketing strategy, while recognizing the key role of the group through fee reductions for family members, fails to take advantage of this fundamental human instinct. The key to marketing success is to form self-identifying groups or find pre-existing ones, and to target an appropriate suspension offer to the Group as an entity.

I don't have any really good ideas about why cryonics is so hard to
sell, but I doubt this is a big factor.

Keith

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Message #33018
Date: Mon, 01 Nov 2010 22:59:43 -0400
From: [email protected]
Subject: Nano-swimmers

   This posting is very out-of-character for me.
I rarely pay much attention to nanotechnology
and I try to avoid making postings that are
just links to news articles. But this is one
that I can't resist.

  There has been considerable question about
how nanomachines could be powered, especially
those operating at cryogenic temperatures.
Now it appears that there are "nano-swimmers"
-- nanowires powered by external magnetic
fields swimming like bacteria with flagella:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20879711

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja1072349

http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=8420.php

Admittedly, these are operating in solution
rather than boring through solids, but at
least it shows the potential.

        -- Ben Best

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Message #33019
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2010 04:39:18 +0100
Subject: Re: Nano-swimmers [benbest]
From: Jonano <[email protected]>

Ben Best wrote:

"This posting is very out-of-character for me. I rarely pay much
attention to nanotechnology and I try to avoid making postings that
are just links to news articles. But this is one that I can't resist."

Welcome aboard ! We are 2 to have nothing to do. That's machine's world now.

--Jon

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