Category "vampire"
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Superintelligence might be 40,000 years old?
10,000+ article views since 2015/06/27 Tim Berners-Lee’s corporations not the first forms of superintelligence? A topic that’s been retweeted by celebrity business leaders involves the prospect of a so-called artificial superintelligence on the horizon. This might be a boon to humanity or a terror, depending on who you read. Superintelligent artificial intelligence is related to the futurist and transhumanist concept of singularity. (So called because, as each generation of computers designs the next faster generation, technology and civilization shrinks under Moore’s law until vanishes into something like a black hole. Advancing towards the technological singularity is something of a Malthusian trap; fail and your civilization collapses violently (as we previously explored). It has been suggested that the technological singularity (together with convergent evolution) is the explanation for the Fermi Paradox. Superintelligence has been controversial of late as the topic of a bestselling book and rebuttals to it. Does the Singularity explain the Fermi Paradox?… Read the restRare genetic illnesses and the sweep of history
Genetics’ impact on the sweep of world history: This painting is mad King George III of the UK, who has forcibly removed from power both by the American colonists (yes, that King George) and later by the British themselves (through regency) after he quite obviously insane. Continuing on our earlier Halloween post of the very real Vlad III Dracula of Transylvania, it is suspected that King George’s illness was caused by the same hereditary porphyria, a recessive genetic illness rare among the common populace but more common in inbred noble and royal families that causes vampire-like symptoms (see our earlier post). King George (also prince-elector of Hannover and the Holy Roman Empire — he held a lot of titles for a crazy person) presumably had a much milder case or porphyria than Vlad III Dracula, as there are no accounts of blood drinking and it is not even certain he had this disease or perhaps other rare genetic illnesses.… Read the restgenetic disease turns you into a real-life vampire
Halloween photo 2: Could this real-life vampire, a genetic disease sufferer, see himself in the mirror? This is Transylvania born and bred (and Romania’s national hero and native son) Vlad III Tepes aka Vlad III Dracula (Wikipedia), real life noble and vampire. (His title translates from Romanian a bit higher than count, more like duke or prince.) Dracula (or Dracul, Dracule), is thought to have suffered from the genetic illness porphyria (Wikipedia), which symptoms match that of a vampire. A recessive disorder, it is much more likely to occur in inbred noble or royal families, and DNA testing has shown several prominent, historical nobles suffered from the genetic disease. No, porphyria suffers don’t turn into bats, become immortal, or sleep in coffins. And a genetic disease is hereditary, so a bite from a porphyria sufferer wouldn’t do much to you. (Rabies, the obvious disease basis for werewolf folklore, is another matter entirely.)… Read the restConsciousness: vampire mirror reflections?
Halloween photo: Is this classic silent film vampire conscious or not? Can he pass the mirror test of animal intelligence? Or does he fail the test because he cannot see himself in a mirror and therefore lacks consciousness? 🙂 We originally did this as a series of Halloween (and mirror) themed photos on our IG feed. However, thanks to True Blue, Vampire Diaries, Interview with a Vampire, and Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight, vamps are so chic these days this is practically evergreen content. This is actor Max Schreck from the 1922 silent horror movie Nosferatu, said to be a then-popular German knock-off of the US Dracula silent film. (The plot was in fact based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula book, with a different name for the vampire.) Since Nosferatu is a fictional vamp, he lacks a soul, and cannot recognize or see himself in a mirror. So, continuing on our theme these last few photos, perhaps this means Nosferatu is not self-aware or conscious?… Read the restRecent Comments
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