lumanlife-blog

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Humanity Reset

Despite huge potential, humanity appears to be headed in one direction. Down.

For a long time, humanity looked to be improving. Sprinting speeds that once seemed impossible became commonplace. And the record for oldest person in the world was broken over and over.

When we take a partial view of history, many think human development has been one long process of improvement. One that will continue forever. But this idea of exponential progress and growth is fantasy.

All humanity’s greatest civilizations that rose to prominence, eventually crashed and burned. All natural ecosystems follow the same adaptive path — so why would human civilizations be any different?

Latest research shows the humans species is experiencing declines in many of the capacities that ranked it atop the tree of life. More troubling is the fact declines are on a global scale.

This evidence flies in the face of many widely held beliefs across science and business that humans have an endless capacity for growth.

Clearly growth has limits…

In stark contrast to the 20th Century which saw rising gains in many areas, recent stats paint an entirely different picture. In today’s world:

Children are more abused

Teenagers are more suicidal

People are more miserable

Men + women are less fertile

People are more addicted to drugs

Domestic partners are more violent

People experience lower life expectancy

People are fatter + dumber + shorter; and

Businesses are less innovative, particularly in the US

Declines in human potential will accelerate because our kids are being continually exposed to two dysfunctional ecofactors:

toxic ‘junk products’ created by corporations (e.g., fast food, nutrient-poor school meals, cheap drugs, screen media)

toxic nurturing from inept parents (e.g., people that give birth to kids who are mentally and financially unstable)

Possible solution

It’s time we demanded our politicians and key decision makers put policies in place to limit junk products and toxic nurturing. Only then can humanity expect reversal of fortunes and ultimately a brighter future.

Policy A: Introduce Externality Reports — this policy would ensure corporations are fully accountable for negative externalities. In other words any interactions that negatively impact living systems during the production, distribution, consumption and disposal of their products. This could be done by applying regulatory guidelines to increase transparency, with legal action taken when regulatory norms are breached.

The rationale — governments already require education and healthcare to conduct impact reports on outcomes, so why shouldn’t businesses be made more accountable for the damage they cause on ecosystems?

The benefits — dramatic reductions in lifestyle-related diseases, more investment and innovation in sustainable products and environments, and healthier cities for individuals and living systems.

Policy B: Introduce Parental Care Permits — this move would ensure anyone choosing to reproduce are mentally, physically and financially stable. Reproductive fitness and responsible parenting would be state controlled by experts in the field, introducing puberty blocking agents into young children before they become fertile. Parental Care Permits (PCPs) would be offered to young adults who are biologically, psycho-socially and economically fit to reproduce and nurture offspring.

The rationale — government routinely legislates and issues licenses to people wishing to adopt children and care for animals in healthy (and safe) conditions, so why should birth parents be treated any differently?

The process — establish a Ministry for Parental Fitness responsible for innovating (and eventually administering) mandatory puberty suspension in children. Psychologists, obstetricians and gynecologists would be authorized to issue PCPs to those best placed to breed and become parents.

The benefits — reductions in domestic violence against women (and men), increased learning and development opportunities for children, and a more empathic population with increased life expectancy.

It would be delusional to expect such systemic policy changes will be relatively easy to develop and implement. Of course they won’t…

Corporate lobbyists will do everything in their power to keep business opaque (i.e., corrupt).

Pro-life groups will do everything in their power to push back on controlling healthy parenting.

But with decades of failed public health policies behind us, it’s time policy makers took drastic measures to reverse declines.

It’s time to replace human-centered with life-centered policy

Maybe even a paradigm shift to a Life Potential Movement.

We live in hope…

___

References

Degli Esposti, M., Humphreys, D. K., Jenkins, B. M., Gasparrini, A., Pooley, S., Eisner, M., & Bowes, L. (2019). Long-term trends in child maltreatment in England and Wales, 1858–2016: an observational, time-series analysis. The Lancet Public Health, 4(3), e148-e158.

Helliwell, J., Layard, R., & Sachs, J. (2019). World Happiness Report 2019, New York: Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

Joshi, H and Fitzsimons, E. (2016) The Millennium Cohort Study: the making of a multi-purpose resource for social science and policy. Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, 7(4), 409–430.

Levine, H., Jørgensen, N., Martino-Andrade, A., Mendiola, J., Weksler-Derri, D., Mindlis, I., … & Swan, S. H. (2017). Temporal trends in sperm count: a systematic review and meta-regression analysis. Human reproduction update, 23(6), 646–659.

Murray, C. J., Callender, C. S., Kulikoff, X. R., Srinivasan, V., Abate, D., Abate, K. H., … & Abdelalim, A. (2018). Population and fertility by age and sex for 195 countries and territories, 1950–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. The Lancet, 392(10159), 1995–2051.

Bewley-Taylor, D. R., & Nougier, M. (2018). Measuring the ‘World Drug Problem’: 2019 and Beyond. In Collapse of the Global Order on Drugs: From UNGASS 2016 to Review 2019 (pp. 65–83). Emerald Publishing Limited.

World Health Organization. (2013). Global and regional estimates of violence against women: prevalence and health effects of intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence. World Health Organization.

Ho, J. Y., & Hendi, A. S. (2018). Recent trends in life expectancy across high income countries: retrospective observational study. bmj, 362, k2562.

Reilly, J. J., El-Hamdouchi, A., Diouf, A., Monyeki, A., & Somda, S. A. (2018). Determining the worldwide prevalence of obesity. The Lancet, 391(10132), 1773–1774.

Bratsberg, B., & Rogeberg, O. (2018). Flynn effect and its reversal are both environmentally caused. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(26), 6674–6678.

NCD Risk Factor Collaboration. (2016). A century of trends in adult human height. Elife, 5, e13410.

Konczal, M., & Steinbaum, M. (2016). Declining Entrepreneurship, Labor Mobility, and Business Dynamism: A Demand-Side Approach. New York: Roosevelt Institute. http://rooseveltinstitute. org/declining-entrepreneurship-labor-mobility-and-business-dynamism.

Unerman, J., Bebbington, J., & O’dwyer, B. (2018). Corporate reporting and accounting for externalities. Accounting and Business Research, 48(5), 497–522.

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (2009). Child adoption: trends and policies. New York: United Nations.

[lumanlife-blog]

Roundup: Digital health provider news from Q1 2018

Through a mix of studies, pilots, and deployments, the first quarter of 2018 saw a lot of providers moving deeper into digital health. At the same time, more moves by Apple and a lot of action from the federal government continued to create new possibilities for the space.

Apple moves in 2018

Apple’s healthcare move that generated the most talk in 2018 was the launch of a Health Records feature in its consumer-facing Health app, first in a 12-health system pilot, and then in a full launch with 39 health systems.

The feature uses HL7's FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) specification. Users will be able to see things like allergies, medications, conditions, and immunizations, as well as the sort of things they might check an EHR patient portal for, such as lab results. They can be notified when the hospital updates their data. The data will be encrypted, and users will need to enter a password to view it.

Apple also began data collection for its Stanford Heart Study this quarter, and tipped its hand a little in the informed consent document for the study. This document is the first confirmation from the tech giant that the study data will be used — or at least could be used — in the development and approval of an FDA-cleared product. The product in question is not a new hardware product (for instance, a competitor to AliveCor's KardiaBand). Instead, the investigational device referenced is the study app itself, including, presumably, the algorithms for detecting irregular heart rhythms using the Apple Watch's sensors.

The quarter also saw a new CareKit app and a new ResearchKit app. San Diego-based Sharp HealthCare used Apple’s CareKit, an open source toolkit for hospitals and health systems, to develop its mobile offering, the Sharp Health Companion app. The software is designed to help people navigate their surgery experience, including pre-surgery care, interventions, and post-surgery care. In a pilot focused on cataract surgery patients, Sharp reported that patients achieved an average medication adherence rate of 78.2 percent using the app. The Sharp research team also reported zero surgery cancellations, zero post-surgery complications, and zero readmissions.

At a HIMSS pre-conference event Dr. Lee Hartsell, assistant professor of neurology at Duke University Medical Center, spoke about a new ResearchKit study focused on multiple sclerosis. MS Mosaic, named because its goal is to create a comprehensive picture of the disease from fragmented patient reports, is an Apple ResearchKit app that launched in September. The app includes a number of tracking tools for people with MS to report their daily symptoms, activities, and experiences. In return, they get various features that help them understand trends in their disease.

Telemedicine

At HIMSS 2018 and during the months leading up to it, providers highlighted new forays into telemedicine, among other trends.

Methodist Family Health Centers, a part of Methodist Medical Group and an affiliate of Methodist Health System, in January unveiled Methodist NOW, an online diagnosis and treatment service that enables patients to receive easy access to care by connecting them virtually with their Methodist Family Health Center providers. Methodist NOW, powered by telemedicine vendor Zipnosis, facilitates care delivery through evidence-based online interviews paired with real-time chat functionality that enables patients and providers to exchange messages when additional information is needed for a diagnosis.

Telehealth platform InTouch Health teamed up with North Carolina-based Mission Health and Pennsylvania-based Jefferson Health to develop new telehealth tools aimed at improving patient access and reducing cost. Once developed, the products will be tested at Mission and Jefferson Health facilities. Mission Health primarily serves rural and suburban residents, where as, Jefferson Health cares for many patients living in urban areas. By testing the products at various locations the team aims to create platforms that are applicable across geographies and markets.

And Kaiser Permanente Colorado reported success with Chat with a Doctor, an asynchronous telemedicine service. Chat with a Doctor works like this: When patients go to Kaiser’s main website or to book an appointment, they have the option to use the chat service instead. If they do, they’re connected directly to a Kaiser doctor who is chatting with a maximum of three other patients. The doctor can assess simple things and prescribe some medications. If the condition is more complicated, they connect the patient to a staffer who will schedule an appointment.

Other telemedicine deals:

Through a collaboration with telemedicine company SnapMD, Valley’s Snyder Center for Comprehensive Atrial Fibrillation began offering online consultations. These visits will be designed for prospective patients living in New Jersey and New York interested in learning more about the center’s AFib treatment model.

Consumer-focused telehealth company PlushCare will began offering Thermo Fisher allergy tests. After video consult with PlushCare’s physicians, undiagnosed patients can schedule the test at a local lab and then review the results with the telehealth physician.

The University of Mississippi Medical Center's National Center for Telehealth announced a partnership with SnapMD, deploying the latter's Virtual Care Management software to power UMMC's telehealth platform.

A new collaboration between the Mayo Clinic and Corindus Vascular Robotics may pave the way for off-site coronary procedures. The partnership, backed by a recent grant awarded to the clinic, will take the form of a multi-phase preclinical investigation of the feasibility of telestenting — robotic percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedures conducted remotely. The technology could provide a means to better manage coronary artery disease among rural or other underserved populations worldwide.

Patient engagement

While telemedicine initiatives helped hospitals connect to patients outside the hospital, patient engagement, coaching, and chronic condition management programs helped them to enhance the experience of patients inside the hospital and, in some cases, improve outcomes and reduce readmissions.

Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Massachusetts launched a new app-based initiative to try to keep patients from coming back to the hospital’s cardiology department. The hospital teamed up with Twine Health — prior to its acquisition by Fitbit — to launch a program that virtually connects patients with a health coach who helps them stick to their goals. For the past six months, Newton-Wellesley has been enrolling any eligible patient that wants to participate in the program. Patients download the app during an office visit and meet their health coach in person in the office. They set health goals that the app then helps them track once they go home.

Many of the engagement programs we wrote about this quarter focused on children’s hospitals and pediatric health.

In January, MedStar Health announced that it will begin offering expectant mothers a “Mommy Kit” containing an iPhone app, wireless weight scale, and wireless blood pressure cuff. The not-for-profit health system in Maryland and the Washington, DC area, said it joined forces with startup Babyscripts. The kit can be used to generate patient data that, in turn, is captured and transmitted automatically to both the user and the clinic. The Babyscripts app also delivers evidence-based guidelines approved by the patient’s obstetrician in the form of daily nutritional, medical, and lifestyle action items.

Boston Children’s Hospital teamed up with Klick Health in March to bring pediatric patients HealthVoyager, a medication education and patient experience platform that uses VR to show patients their individual medical findings in an immersive 3D environment. The initiative will be part of a validation study to gauge the technology's effect on patient and family understanding and engagement. The trial will focus on pediatric gastrointestinal patients. It will let the children take a peak into their GI track and see exactly what doctors are doing during a procedure. The goal is to make it easier for doctors to explain what is happening during a procedure and in turn increase patient engagement

And healthcare management and communication platform Oneview has recently announced that it will be deploying its new app, Oneview Connect, at Sydney Children’s Hospital Network, which is the largest network of hospitals and services for children in Australia. The app is designed to help patients and their caregivers not just while the patient is in the hospital, but also when the patient is at home. The app was first deployed in a trial run at the Sydney Children’s Hospital Network but will now be available to all patients at Children's Hospital at Westmead.

We also profiled two children’s hospitals overall strategies for patient entertainment and engagement: University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital, which is working with Oneview Healthcare, and Phoenix Children’s Hospital, which is using a comprehensive system of iPads for patient education and entertainment.

Pain management

The quarter saw a larger-than-usual amount of news about chronic pain, which seems to be a hot area of focus for digital health.

Toronto-based startup, ManagingLife, announced that its chronic pain symptom tracking app has been deployed in four Ontario chronic pain sites. The technology will be deployed to the four centers for 24-months and is funded through the Government of Ontario Office of the Chief Health Innovation Strategist's Health Technologies Fund.

The app was first created in 2011, and at the time focused primarily on the users experience. But it has since expanded. Now there are three components to the platform. The first part is the original patient facing app which lets users record how they are feeling on a regular basis. The app summarizes these reports for patients so they can see trends. The second part of the app aims to help facilitate the doctor and patient conversation. Physicians can print out the pain report and have it on hand when the patient comes for a visit.

In February, Evidation Health just announced the launch of a 10,000 person chronic pain study, called the DisCover Project. The research aims to quantify chronic pain and develop digital biomarkers for chronic pain severity, flare ups and quality of life by using activity trackers, health apps, and other more traditional data points.

The study will examine data points including activity behavior data from wearables, the patients’ demographics, medical histories, pain diaries, quality of life measures, voice and speech data, and sleep. Participants are expected to bring their own wearable. The study is expected to include data from Apple Watches, Garmins and Android Watches. Researchers will then use machine learning to identify digital signals tied to health outcomes. The longitudinal case-control observational study will look at data from 4,000 participants in the control group who do not suffer from chronic pain and data from 6,000 patients in the case group that live with chronic pain.

Finally, at HIMSS, Samsung announced a partnership with Travelers Insurance, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Bayer, and AppliedVR around using virtual reality for pain management. Samsung and Travelers will fund a 16-month study of between 90 and 140 patients, conducted at Cedars, using technology from Samsung, Bayer, and AppliedVR. Patients in the trial will use therapeutic VR — delivered via a Samsung Gear VR headset paired with a TENS nerve stimulation device from Bayer and a GearFit 2 tracker, also from Samsung. Participants will track day-to-day functional status, work productivity, and their use of pain medications.

Other provider news

This quarter, surgeons from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center became the first in the country to use AR during a minimally invasive sinus procedure. Surgeons used Stryker’s Scopis Target Guided Surgery technology to plan a pathway and view critical structures in preoperative medical scanning. This mapping was then overlaid onto the surgeon’s endoscopic views of the surgical area, helping the surgeon follow the defined path and avoid critical structures.

The Mayo Clinic released the results of a new study, which show an 80 percent increase in enrollment of clinical trials for breast cancer when using IBM’s Watson for Clinical Trial matching system. The Watson system uses artificial intelligence to analyze unstructured information and pull out insights from the data. In addition to the uptake in participants, the trial showed that the technology could significantly reduce the time it takes to screen an individual patient for clinical trial matches.

WoundCare, an app developed by researchers from the Wisconsin Institute of Surgical Outcomes Research, Department of Surgery, University of Wisconsin, Madison, was created this quarter with the goal of earlier detection of surgical site infections and prevention of hospital readmissions. Due to the prevalence off surgical sire infections, the WiSOR research team decided to see if postoperative wound monitoring could be effectively achieved by having patients upload photos through the WoundCare app and answer a few brief questions to gather information not easily captured through images. During the study of 40 patients, seven wound complications were detected and one false negative was found.

Finally, a meta analysis published in the inaugural issue of Nature's Digital Medicine in January found that remote patient monitoring had no statistically significant impact on six reported clinical outcomes that the research studied including BMI, weight, waist circumference, percentage of body fat, systolic blood pressure, or diastolic blood pressure. Researchers combed through 4,348 articles that were published on PubMed from January 2000 to October 2016.

Originally published in MobiHealthNews by Jonah Comstock

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Virtual assistant app proves successful in the West Midlands A year after NHS services across the West Midlands began trialling a virtual health assistant app, an alliance of CCGs has said it has seen positive results.

Since April 2017, around 4.5 million people living in the area were given access the Ask NHS app.

The app uses an evidence driven system based on statistical analysis to help guide self-assessment of acute symptoms and direct patients to the most appropriate services

This means patients can:

Check symptoms via the app’s symptom checker, delivered by voice through the app’s interactive virtual health assistant, or via the app’s text mode chatbot

Book GP appointments, where available. Patients are given a choice of available appointment times and can book or cancel appointments directly from the app

Find local NHS services using the NHS Directory of Service (DoS)

The West Midlands Integrated Urgent Care Alliance, which is comprised of NHS Sandwell and West Birmingham CCG and 16 other CCGs across the West Midlands, trialled the technology, which was created by Sensely and Advanced.

Since the app was launched, the alliance has said 63% of the completed Ask NHS symptom checker outcomes led to a recommendation to contact 111, 14% to schedule a GP appointment, 12% to follow self-care advice and 12% to call 999.

Rachael Ellis, chief officer at Sandwell and West Birmingham CCG and lead on Integrated Urgent Care in the West Midlands region, said: “The Ask NHS app provides patients with on-demand access to NHS services 24/7. We want to make it as easy as possible for patients to obtain medical advice in the way that best suits them. For some, using the app is the most convenient. Patient safety and quality are, of course, our top priorities, but offering patient choice is also important and we believe the app helps us do that.”

The app is integrated with NHS 111, EMIS and NHS Choices, as well as being NHS Spine compliant.

It uses Sensely’s learning engine and Advanced’s Clinical Decision Support (CDS) technology.

Sticking with the West Midlands, back in October 2016, Digital Health News reported how Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust and System C had transferred all the child health department data from the region onto the company’s CarePlus software.

The integrated child health system covers Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Herefordshire, Sandwell, Shropshire, Solihull, Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent, Telford and Wrekin, Walsall, Warwickshire, Wolverhampton and Worcestershire.

Originally posted in DigitalHealth.net

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Are we breeding a generation of screen junkies? New research suggests unhealthy habits start much earlier than you think.

Our children are spending an increasing amount of time on their digital devices. On average, British children have their first Internet experience at five and by seven own their own phone. Children refusing to put down their phones is a common flashpoint in many homes, with a third of British children aged 12 to 15 admitting they do not have a good balance between screen time and other activities.

The problem is more severe in the US, with children as young as 13 being treated for digital technology addiction. Over the the past eight years, one digital rehab centre located near Seattle has provided residential “intensive recovery programs” for young kids who have trouble curbing their use of electronic devices. This is because mobile devices are so engaging that they counter any other instincts a child has to explore and socially interact with the world. It’s perhaps no surprise that three-quarters of British kids are spending less time outdoors than prison inmates.

Despite repeated warnings from public health experts, research looking into the addictive nature of digital media is limited. Until recently most research focused on video game addiction. Based on available data, the American Psychiatric Association has introduced a new diagnosis, Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD). IGD symptoms include many of the addictive behaviours associated with impulse control problems such as excessive time spent online, inability to control use, and dramatic loss of interest in other social activities.

To find out whether these symptoms can be accurately applied to digital media, a team of researchers at Central Michigan University studied levels of digital dependency in preadolescent children (aged 4 to 11) and whether excess use was linked to other childhood problems. The trial applied a long and short version of the Problematic Media Use Measure (PMUM) to map children’s symptoms of addictive habits in line with IGD diagnosis. Some of the short form items included:

It is hard for my child to stop using screen media

When my child has had a bad day, screen media seems to be the only thing that helps him/her feel better

My child’s screen media use causes problems for the family.

The amount of time my child wants to use screen media keeps increasing.

My child sneaks using screen media

Researchers recruited 291 mothers of preadolescent children (mean age of seven years), because mothers are more likely to monitor and restrict media use. Mothers were then asked to say when their kids got their first device, how long they use them and for what purpose (e.g., playing games, watching videos). They were also asked about whether their kid’s emotional and psychosocial states appeared to be dysfunctional.

Results linked high levels of screen time with psychological and behavioural problems, such as aggressive and hyperactive behaviour and social problems with other children. Findings add weight to a growing body of evidence that shows chronic computer use ruins lives by disrupting brain function. While more research is needed to confirm results, it’s clear that parents need to seriously monitor their children’s media consumption habits.

So what should parents do? Psychiatrist Richard Graham, who runs a specialist technology addiction clinic at the Nightingale Hospital in London, says parents need to examine their kid’s behaviour and ask simple questions like: “Is excess screen time preventing them from doing other activities… is it stopping them from attending school or being social… and are they in danger of losing their ability to control habits?” Parents also need to lead by example and limit their own use of digital devices, and replace tech-time with valuable outdoor activities. Graham argues:

“There’s something about those outdoor, immersive experiences that really helps tech-addicted children. Even just going swimming, going to a football match, or going to the cinema can have a positive effect.”

With more engaging digital experiences around the corner (in the form of virtual and augmented reality) it’s time the technology sector started to invest serious energy in establishing ethical guidelines. So that the technologies of tomorrow are designed to bring out the best in our kids.

Grant Munro is director of London’s Digital Health Advisory Board and honorary academic at the National Institute of Health Innovation, University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is cofounder of the Innovation Party, Britain’s first political movement dedicated to fostering agile governance through peer-to-peer networks. His health blogs Shockism.com and Luman.life focus on charting frontier health technologies to help people get the most from life. He can be reached at Medium, Twitter, Facebook, GrantMunro.com or via email at hello@grantmunro.com.

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Legislation and Ethical Guidelines for Intelligence Technologies (LEGIT): principles for a more enlightened and civilized society

Abstract Recent technological advances to augment human intelligence (aka Intelligence Amplification or IA) can potentially allow us to make our cities and citizenry smarter than ever. However, their corruptive and disruptive impact on health suggests the information technology (IT) industry must establish an ethical framework to ensure our future generations get the most from life. To mitigate risks, a number of organizations have introduced various codes of ethics. Despite this positive move, most codes focus on enabling public access to data and professional integrity to the exclusion of all else. While both domains are important, we argue that they do not nurture the kind of intelligences humanity needs to thrive and prosper. To address these blind spots, this paper draws on recent evidence that three human factors (chronobiology, collaboration, creativity) are vital to humanity's future, and that harnessing them will ensure our IT professionals design more life-supporting systems. The 3 "Laws" presented as Legislation and Ethical Guidelines for Intelligence Technologies (LEGIT) aim to stimulate critical debate on the subject and nudge the sector to take practical and meaningful action.

The future of AI

The idea of artificial intelligence or AI has been around since the 1956 summer workshop at Dartmouth University. The workshop was convened by John McCarthy, who coined the term “artificial intelligence,” and attended by a raft of AI pioneers including Claude Shannon, Herbert Simon, and Marvin Minsky. This seminal event defined AI as a set of methods that could provide machines with the ability to achieve goals in the world. Attendees of the workshop believed that, by 2001, computers would implement an artificial form of human intelligence (Solomonoff, 1985). Recent advances in neural networks modelled on the human brain have resulted in striking breakthroughs, most of which involve a machine learning technique known as deep learning. Deep learning uses a photograph’s pixels as input variables to predict variables without needing to understand underlying concepts, just as standard regression model predicts a person’s income based on educational, employment, and psychological stats. Such algorithms are now found to beat humans at games of skill, master video games with no prior instruction, 3D-print original paintings in the style of Rembrandt, grade student papers, cook meals, vacuum floors, and drive cars (Guszcza et al., 2017).

Due to more effective algorithms, computing power, data capture and storage, real-world AI applications have exploded in the last decade. AI systems are already built into everyday technologies like our mobile devices and voice-activated personal assistants to help us manage various aspects of our lives. AI is also being used within legal, financial, and workplace sectors to predict behaviours map leisure preferences (Campolo et al., 2017). In addition, thousands of digital health apps are being developed to help track our daily activities and prompt us to make healthier lifestyle choices (Topol, 2015). The problem is that AI algorithms only work when data used to train them are sufficiently reflective of the environment in which they are used. In other words, when routine tasks can be encoded in big data sets, algorithms have become brilliantly adept at outperforming humans. Yet when given a more novel task that requires conceptual reasoning, even the most powerful AI still cannot learn as well as a five-year-old does (Gopnik, 2017). This is because AI is founded on computer-age statistical inference — not on an approximation or simulation of what we believe human intelligence to be (Efron and Hastie, 2016). This kind of narrow type of machine learning is far from the vision outlined at the Dartmouth workshop in 1956, or indeed expressed in AI fictional characters such as HAL 9000 in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

AI’s narrow machine learning is also doing very little to augment our own cognitive capacities. Recent government drives towards automation has meant people increasingly work and live in a 24-hour Society. These 24-hour lifestyle changes have placed huge demands of flexibility on the human body (Kreitzman and Foster, 2011). Instead of living diurnally (active in the day, resting at night) people are living in an always-on “now,” where priorities of the present dominate. Living in this state of what Douglas Rushkoff calls “present shock” means people have developed a distorted relationship to time. Financial traders no longer invest in futures but instead expect profits from computer algorithms. Citizens have no historical sense of how their governments function and demand immediate results from representatives. Children txt during an event to find out if there’s something better somewhere else (Rushkoff, 2013).

This is not to say that the idea of AI does not have great potential. Automating mechanical tasks has transformed society for millennia and is likely to continue to do so into the future (Innis, 2004). What needs to be carefully considered are the practical ramifications of 24/7 AI systems on people and society. Mobile phones are already negatively impacting the mental health and wellbeing of children (Carr, 2011). Meals consumed at night increase our risk of heart disease. Long-term shift work is sparking a raft of reproductive problems such as risks of miscarriage, retarded foetal development, and spontaneous abortion. Sleep loss is also triggering an epidemic in obesity, gut disorders, and drug addiction cycles as people try to maintain regular function (Kreitzman and Foster, 2011). Increased work-related accidents, number of sick-days taken, and family and marital stress are just some of the factors that will negatively impact our ability to succeed in the coming decades.

The reason AI systems are so damaging is simple. Unlike algorithmic systems we create to optimise work functions, humans are not computers that run software programs 24/7. We need vital environmental cues to synchronize our body’s biological rhythms to the Earth’s daily and annual cycles. When cues are disrupted due to erratic behaviors (disrupted eating and sleeping), we get ill. As neuroscientist Russell Foster explains:

“All of us in the developed world now live in a ‘24/7’ society. This imposed structure is in conflict with our basic biology. The impact can be seen in our struggle to balance our daily lives with the stresses this places on our physical health and mental well-being. We are now aware of this fundamental tension between the way we want to live and the way we are built to live”.

Figure 1: Intelligence Amplification (IA)

It's becoming increasingly clear the most promising AI applications are not in algorithmic machines that authentically think like humans, but in harnessing technologies to enable human and computers to think better together, a field called Intelligence Amplification (IA) (Figure 1). IA has huge potential to allow us to make our cities and citizenry smarter than ever. However, recent developments are sophisticated enough to pose great risks if placed in the wrong hands, whether they be corrupt governments, corporations or both as is the case in 21st century politics (Müller and Bostrom, 2016). To mitigate risks, we must establish clear legislation and ethical guidelines for information technology (IT) professions, so future intelligence systems enable a more enlightened and civilized society (Berman and Cerf, 2017). 

Indeed, ethical guidelines for IT professions have already been established in some but not all countries. Dr. Eike-Henner Kluge authored 11 principles for the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) which have been adapted by the British Computer Society (BCS) and UK Council for Health Informatics Professions (UKCHIP). The European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI) does not explicitly state any code, but is a member of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) (Samuel and Zaiane, 2014). 

Despite various adaptions, all codes converge around four key principles:

Public Interest (i.e., the need to maintain regard for public health, privacy, security and wellbeing of others and the environment; and to promote inclusion and equal access to IT)

Professional Integrity (i.e., the need to undertake work that reflects professional competence; continue to respect, develop, and share knowledge; and to comply with legislation)

Duty to Relevant Authority (i.e., the need to carry out professional responsibilities with care and diligence, in accordance with the Relevant Authority's requirements)

Duty to the Profession (i.e., the need to accept personal duty to uphold the reputation of the profession and not take any action which could bring the profession into disrepute)

Wearable computing pioneer Steve Mann has also spent many years developing a code of ethics on human augmentation which has resulted in three fundamental "Laws". These include: (i) the right to know when and how you are being monitored in the real and virtual world; (ii) the right to monitor the systems or people monitoring you and use that information in crafting your own digital identity; and (iii) the user should be able to understand the world they are in immediately (Mann et al., 2016). 

While the above codes are an important first step toward mitigating risks of human enhancement and AI, the challenge is they focus on enabling public access to data and professional integrity to the exclusion of all else. While both factors are necessary, they do not nurture the kind of intelligences humanity needs to thrive and prosper. To address these blind spots, this paper draws on recent evidence that three human factors (chronobiology, collaboration, creativity) are vital to humanity's future, and that harnessing them will ensure our IT professionals design more life-supporting systems. The 3 "Laws" presented as Legislation and Ethical Guidelines for Intelligence Technologies (LEGIT) aim to stimulate critical debate on the subject and nudge the sector to take practical and meaningful action.

Law I: Protect chronobiology

All technologies must provide humans with 24-hour temporal reference points to help them measure their progress, ambitions, and actions (Figure 2). Integration of temporal factors in technologies will remind humans they exist in a physical body, and that circadian clocks, which display 24-hour periodicity, control nearly all biological patterns, including brain-wave activity, sleep-wake cycles, body temperature, hormone secretion, blood pressure, cell regeneration, metabolism and behaviour (Kreitzman and Foster, 2011).

During working hours, humans have a basic right to know when and how organizations are tracking their chronobiology, and reciprocally monitor the chronobiology of organizations. During evenings, weekends, and holidays, humans have the right to disconnect from being monitored, and reconnect with people and groups that matter to them, such as family and friends. All human monitoring and communication must be limited to working hours to support optimal sleep/wake cycles and longevity (Kreitzman and Foster, 2011).

Figure 2: Protect 24-hour human chronobiology

Law II: Integrate collaboration

Smart cyber-physical systems offer humans the ability to create and share goods at near-zero marginal cost (Rifkin, 2014). This post-capital shift to what some call the “the sharing economy” or “zero marginal cost society” is estimated to be worth $4.5 trillion by 2030 (Lacy and Rutqvist, 2016). To maximise the potential of this shift and overcome current challenges, organizations will need to reward creative collaboration between citizens and incentivize sustainability (Rifkin, 2014, Lacy and Rutqvist, 2016).

To achieve this, future technologies must integrate radical human collaboration into every stage of the development cycle (Figure 3). Prioritizing creative diversity will ensure technologies are less contaminated by cognitive bias, which will boost human skills and knowledge to result in breakthrough innovations (Page, 2008). Diverse collaboration will also ensure systems are systemic in nature, addressing root causality of problems rather than changing parts of the whole (Snowden and Kurtz, 2003).

Figure 3: Integrate human collaboration at every stage of development

Law III: Nurture creativity

Highly desirable metatrait of creativity (aka social effectiveness) is central to determining human physiological, reproductive, and socioeconomic success (Rushton and Irwing, 2011, Cloninger, 2013, Musek, 2007). The three underlying traits that give rise to creativity have various labels, however they tend to reflect common characteristics related to Dynamism (self-expression, openness), Emotionality (self-awareness, self-transcendence), and Stability (self-efficacy, self-regulation).

For humans to thrive and prosper, technologies must nurture creative adaptiveness (Figure 4), to ensure everyone can reap its physiological, reproductive, and socioeconomic benefits (Rushton and Irwing, 2011, Cloninger, 2013, Musek, 2007). Nurturing creative adaptiveness across all levels of society also has the potential to solve many of the 21st century’s most complex problems (De Beule and Nauwelaerts, 2013), and thus mitigate some of challenges posed by AI (Brundage, 2015).

Figure 4: Nurture human creative adaptiveness traits

Technologist Pledge

As technologist and member of the technology profession:

I WILL RESPECT & MAINTAIN the health, autonomy, and dignity of people and communities;

I WILL PRACTICE in accordance with the 3 Laws outlined in the LEGIT to maximise outcomes in human chronobiology, human collaboration, and human creativity;

I WILL NOT PERMIT considerations of age, ethnicity, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, or any other factor to intervene between my collaborative work with people;

I WILL ATTEND TO my own health and abilities to ensure my work is of the highest standard;

I WILL NOT USE my technological knowledge to violate human rights, even under threat; and

I WILL RESPECT & SHARE knowledge for the betterment of people and technology.

References

BERMAN, F. & CERF, V. G. 2017. Social and ethical behavior in the internet of things. Communications of the ACM, 60, 6-7.

BRUNDAGE, M. 2015. Taking superintelligence seriously: Superintelligence: Paths, dangers, strategies by Nick Bostrom (Oxford University Press, 2014). Futures, 72, 32-35.

CAMPOLO, A., SANFILIPPO, M., WHITTAKER, M. & CRAWFORD, K. 2017. AI Now 2017 Report. AI Now Institute at New York University.

CARR, N. 2011. The shallows: what the Internet is doing to our brains, WW Norton.

CLONINGER, C. R. 2013. What makes people healthy, happy, and fulfilled in the face of current world challenges? Mens Sana Monographs, 11, 16.

DE BEULE, F. & NAUWELAERTS, Y. 2013. Innovation and creativity: pillars of the future global economy, Edward Elgar Publishing.

EFRON, B. & HASTIE, T. 2016. Computer age statistical inference, Cambridge University Press.

GOPNIK, A. 2017. Making AI more human. Scientific American, 316, 60-65.

GUSZCZA, J., LEWIS, H. & EVANS-GREENWOOD, P. 2017. Cognitive collaboration why humans and computers think better together. Deloitte Review.

INNIS, H. A. 2004. Changing concepts of time, Rowman & Littlefield.

KREITZMAN, L. & FOSTER, R. 2011. The rhythms of life: the biological clocks that control the daily lives of every living thing, Profile Books.

LACY, P. & RUTQVIST, J. 2016. Waste to wealth: the circular economy advantage, Springer.

MANN, S., LEONARD, B., BRIN, D., SERRANO, A., INGLE, R., NICKERSON, K., FISHER, C., MATHEWS, S. & JANZEN, R. 2016. Code of Ethics on Human Augmentation. VRTO Virtual & Augmented Reality World Conference + Expo.

MÜLLER, V. C. & BOSTROM, N. 2016. Future progress in artificial intelligence: a survey of expert opinion. In: MÜLLER, V. C. (ed.) Fundamental Issues of Artificial Intelligence. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

MUSEK, J. 2007. A general factor of personality: evidence for the Big One in the five-factor model. Journal of Research in Personality, 41, 1213-1233.

PAGE, S. E. 2008. The Difference: how the power of diversity creates better groups, firms, schools, and societies, Princeton University Press.

RIFKIN, J. 2014. The zero marginal cost society: the internet of things, the collaborative commons, and the eclipse of capitalism, St. Martin's Press.

RUSHKOFF, D. 2013. Present shock: when everything happens now, Penguin.

RUSHTON, P. & IRWING, P. 2011. The general factor of personality: normal and abnormal. In: CHAMORRO-PREMUZIC, T., VON STUMM, S. & FURNHAM, A. (eds.) Wiley-Blackwell handbook of individual differences. Wiley-Blackwell.

SAMUEL, H. W. & ZAIANE, O. R. 2014. A repository of codes of ethics and technical standards in health informatics. Online J Public Health Inform, 6, e189.

SNOWDEN, D. & KURTZ, C. F. 2003. The new dynamics of strategy: sense-making in a complex and complicated world. IBM Systems Journal, 42, 35-45.

SOLOMONOFF, R. J. 1985. The time scale of artificial intelligence: reflections on social effects. Human Systems Management, 5, 149-153.

TOPOL, E. J. 2015. The patient will see you now: the future of medicine is in your hands, Tantor Media.

Grant Munro is director of London’s Digital Health Advisory Board and honorary academic at the National Institute of Health Innovation, University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is cofounder of the Innovation Party, Britain’s first political movement dedicated to fostering agile governance through peer-to-peer networks. His health blogs Shockism.com and Luman.life focus on charting frontier health technologies to help people get the most from life. He can be reached at Medium, Twitter, Facebook, GrantMunro.com or via email at hello@grantmunro.com.

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Neuroprosthetics: the case for cochlear implants

In the 18th century, a biologist named Luigi Galvani made a dead frog twitch using electricity. Scientists ever since have used that act to make significant progress in the development of neuroprosthetics. A neuroprosthetic refers to any device that supplements or replaces the input and/or output of the nervous system. Research development in recent years suggest neuroprosthetics can be an effective way to substitute a motor, sensory or cognitive modality that may have been damaged due to an injury or a disease, or to augment existing neural function for improved performance.

Currently, most technologies explore the same principle, an external device (e.g. video or microphone) captures and processes audiovisual data which then drive electrodes to stimulate either the auditory or the optic nerve. Effectively simulating naturally occurring output from the ear or the eye. The three most commonly implantable devices approved by the FDA are cochlear implants, retinal implants, and deep brain stimulation.

Retinal implants, such as the Argus II  implantable devices designed to replace phototransduction within the eyes of people with retinal diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa. Most devices are placed either epiretinally, on the retina surface and adjoining the RGC layer, or subretinally, outside of the retina adjoining or in place of the remnants of the retinal pigmented epithelial and photoreceptor layers. Epiretinal designs benefit from being easier and less risky to implant while subretinal designs may benefit by utilizing intact middle retinal layer processing pathways formed by amacrine, horizontal, and bipolar cells.

While retinal implants are currently undergoing human clinical trials for advanced macular degeneration, retinal prosthesis devices appear to hold promise. That being said, visual function outcomes are currently modest, being limited to high-contrast object recognition, localization, reading and basic navigation. The best visual acuity estimates for implant subjects have not even approached the threshold of legal blindness as defined in most countries. Nevertheless, the prospect of giving patients with retinal diseases enough visual function to be useful may help push research forward.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) involves using a pacemaker-like device to deliver constant electrical stimulation to problematic areas within the brain. DBS has been used to treat Parkinson’s disease since 1997, dystonia since 2003 and OCD since 2009. DBS and other neurostimulator technologies that can control and communicate signals to and from artificial body parts are the newest players in the space. A recent example being the paraplegic Juliano Pinto, who used a brain-controlled exoskeleton to kick off the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Other researchers have developed non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) devices to improve motor performance in stroke patients and creative thinking in healthy subjects.

While DBS and NIBS holds potential, much remains unknown about exactly how such devices affect brain function. Early reports need further replication before researchers can further gauge how substantive these effects are. The rapid adoption of DBS and NIBS devices to treat various neurological and psychiatric conditions has also attracted the attention of ethicists. While the therapeutic benefits of DBS for PD and dystonia are largely undisputed, ethicists have stressed the need for caution. Unknown extent of adverse effects, combined with the high cost, invasive nature, and difficulty managing patients’ expectations demand the field form clear ethical guidelines.

Cochlear implants collect and process sound using an external microphone; send processed signals to an implanted unit that stimulates the auditory nerve through a microelectrode array.Deaf or severely hearing-impaired children and adults can be fitted for cochlear implants. An expensive surgical procedure and significant therapy is required to learn or relearn hearing, and not everyone performs well. This is why decisions to have a cochlear implant should involve expert conversations with cochlear-implant surgeons and medical specialists.

In reviewing the above neuroprosthetic devices, the team at LUMAN identify cochlear implants as offering patients maximum life benefits with limited risk. While risk factors are always present, in line with any other kind of invasive surgery, surgical cochlear implantation is generally safe. In addition to surgery, one also needs to learn how to interpret signals transmitted by the implant, which can take considerable time and effort. Prior to implantation, all of these factors need to be considered.

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Image: Cochlear implants implanted into the head of a 14-year-old child, consisting of a sound processor behind the ear, which passes sound signals to a transmitter (circular, upper left and right) attached to the scalp. The transmitter sends sound to electrodes implanted in the cochlea of the inner ear. Electrical impulses from the cochlea are passed to the brain, allowing the person to hear. ⓒ Zephyr/SPL/mediadrumworld.com

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Nutrition and diet: what science leaves out

Nutrition and diet is one of the most frustrating fields around. While certain regimes such as the Mediterranean Diet boost life expectancy and health outcomes, much of the underlying nutritional factors remain a mystery.

Of course, having a clear knowledge of what foods are most beneficial intuitively makes sense from a survival perspective. However, much of the dietary research that delineates good from bad has the unsettling habit of fluctuating from one year to the next.

For example, coffee was initially deemed good for us, then bad, then good again, then it caused cancer, and then it cured cancer. And coffee is not the only example. For years, fat was a dirty word. After World War II, studies established links between saturated fat and heart disease. Most experts advised people to reduce fat intake, not only to reduce heart disease risk, but also because fat contributes to weight gain as it has more calories per gram than protein or carbohydrate. The problem is people stopped eating healthy fats, like olive oil. Instead of controlling weight, decline in fat consumption triggered higher rates of overweight and obesity.

The reason why nutrition is a tough nut to crack is because we first have to know exactly what food people eat, and in what quantities, combinations, positions, etc. If this sounds impossible, that’s because it is. Fortunately, scientists devised “memory-based dietary assessment methods” (M-BMs) which surveys people about their diet.

Unsurprisingly, when the scientists over at the Mayo Clinic looked into the M-BM, they found that the method was “fundamentally and fatally flawed” when it came to studying nutrition. They tried to be tactful about their findings by attributing failings of the M-BM to the unreliable nature of human memory, but the reality is people don’t forget, so much as imprint a “socially acceptable veneer” on their consumption habits (i.e. they lie).

Humans lie all the time, which is why a review of nutrition surveys found that around 60–65% of men and women report calorie intakes that are “not physiologically plausible.” Sadly this inaccurate data is what all food policy and dietary guidelines are based upon.

Award-winning nutrition journalist Gary Taubes argues that the reason nutrition fails as a science is because “the nutrition research community has failed to establish reliable, unambiguous knowledge about the environmental triggers of obesity and diabetes. Clinical uncertainty has opened the door to a diversity of opinions on the subject, of hypotheses about cause, cure and prevention, many of which cannot be refuted by the existing evidence. Everyone has a theory. The evidence doesn’t exist to say unequivocally who’s wrong.”

Based on findings, the LUMAN team advise people use common sense. Limit your intake of alcohol and drugs, try cooking your own food from natural ingredients, eat moderate and balanced portions, and reserve sugary processed foods for special occasions.

Image: Vertumnus by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, produced in Milan c. 1590–1591. The portrait depicts Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor painted as Vertumnus, the Roman God of the seasons.

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Wearables are poor monitors and motivators of behaviour change

Wearable devices such as the smartwatch and activity tracker are mobile devices connected to the Internet of Things. Devices such as the Apple Watch and Fitbit are designed to help us track fitness-related metrics (e.g. physical activity, calorie consumption, heartbeat, mood and sleep quality). Potentially sparking the kind of behaviour change we need to guide us towards healthier habits and disease prevention. Another potential benefit of wearables is their ability to enable web-based data sharing/collaboration between devices and people without requiring human intervention.

Despite their huge potential, current wearables are affected by data quality issues. According to a recent report by Stanford University School of Medicine, devices that measure calories are particularly poor. Researchers evaluated 7 devices (Apple Watch, Basis Peak, Fitbit Surge, Microsoft Band, Mio Alpha 2, PulseOn and Samsung Gear S2) with 60 volunteers and found that:

Not all wearables are created equal. The Apple Watch was a clear winner in both heart rate and energy expenditure, while Samsung's device reported the highest error rates.

The devices were consistently terrible at tracking energy expenditure, with the most accurate device off by an average of 27 percent. Ashley said the error rate should be less than 10 percent when these devices are used in non-medical settings.

Heart rate measurements have improved over the years. He described some of the early wearables as "random number generators." Ashley said that users can rely on this data-point.

The devices were better at measuring data collected during cycling than walking.

Errors also tended to be more common in men versus women, those with a greater body mass index, and with a darker skin tone.

The reason wearable devices are so inaccurate is because human behaviour and related biological function is incredibly varied: e.g. some people walk smoothly, while others take rigorous strides. People also respond differently to motivational cues. Yearlong studies by Patel et al. (2016) found that even when people have access to their activity levels or get paid to stay active, wearables don’t persuade them to exercise more, with almost half of respondents ditching devices within the first 6 months.

Based on this evidence, the LUMAN team advise people avoid investing in wearables, at least until devices are more personalised to user needs. Tech companies that develop more responsive devices, are likely those that will create more clinically effective and economically sustainable products.

Until then, our advice is invest your well-earned money in an effective personal trainer to motivate you, and a convenient gym membership to build positive reinforcement and social support.

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Cracks in the code: why DNA test kits are less reliable than you think

Ever since DNA was first used in 1986 to catch a killer, it's swashbuckled its way through society as an almost infallible weapon of truth: convicting the guilty, freeing the innocent, revealing bloodlines, paternity and identity.

As we enter the 21st century, DNA genetic testing and analysis is positioned as the sure fire away to achieve "precision medicine" – enabling doctors and patients to practise pro-active care: pinpointing diseases before they strike, and fighting them with therapies tailored to an user’s unique genome.

Despite the hype, mounting evidence suggests that using DNA genetic test kits to predict disease risks is anything but precise. That’s because the medical conditions or ethnicity profiles clinicians hope to illuminate are not the result of one specific genetic trait (marker) but a cluster of inconsistent markers. These days, nature's longest thread comes off a like a trickster, shape-shifting from person to person, written in a wily language no one fully understands, with at least three billion ways to misread it.

Until significant progress is made in genomic research, our advice from the team at LUMAN is to completely avoid using genetic testing kits such as AncestryDNA and 23andMe. Genetic information you receive may not only be inaccurate, but can also give you a false impression that you have control over your genetic destiny. Don’t be fooled.

Dr. Stephen Scherer (above) is director of the Centre for Applied Genomics and senior scientist at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children. His laptop displays mutations in a human genome; the red bar at the bottom of the screen counts instances where a gene is present in one copy instead of the usual two. Genetic testing is revealing new surprises in how much we still have to learn about reading the genetic code.

Edited from an article by Carolyn Abraham. Read the full article at https://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/science/genetic-testing/article37829424/

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'The Trip' immersive spin class at Les Mills, New Zealand.

Starting with Pump in 1990, Les Mills has become synonymous with exercise-to-music fitness programs in more than 80 countries. Since that time, Les Mills has continued to push the boundaries of fitness, moving from yesterday’s cassette-tape music to today’s fully immersive fitness experience. Les Mill’s latest reiteration of motion-to-music, The Trip, has been described as a ‘spin class through TRON.’

Tested for more than a year in Europe and Asia, and in operation also at the Les Mills gym in Newmarket, Auckland, New Zealand, The Trip offers an immersive 3D experience created by digital graphics and audio. Researchers studying the impact of spin classes found that six weeks of LES MILLS SPRINT™ increases cardiovascular fitness and body composition in moderately active adults.

The Trip features immersive computer-game audio visuals that have the spinners cycling in the far reaches of unknown galaxies. The goal is to provide immersion, distraction and interest – whatever it takes to get through the gruelling cycling class and, at the end, feel not just noodle-kneed but inspired to come back in a few days. 

Based on the above research, the LUMAN team believe immersive fitness experiences like The Trip provide multiple mental and physical benefits, as well as boosting social engagement. Let’s hope more of these immersive interventions are developed by fitness centres globally.

Adapted from Tuija Seipell Find us on Medium, Twitter and Facebook 

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Scientists develop pills to wage war on human aging

Aubrey de Grey, founder of anti-aging research group SENS believes it’s imperative science enters into a “war on age”. This phrase has become hugely popular, to the extent it is now part of our modern anti-aging lexicon, to help people express the idea that aging is fundamentally a disease that can be somehow "cured" (i.e. eradicated).

https://www.vox.com/…/aubrey-de-grey-life-extension-aging-d…

http://ideas.time.com/…/finally-the-war-on-aging-has-truly…/ 

Tackling debilitating disease and suffering as a result of aging is a noble quest. I suspect most people's opinion about science’s continued dedication to improving life is largely upbeat. However when asked about de Grey’s “war on age”, I fear their opinion may be far less flattering.

How so? Possibly because people intuitively know we can’t wage a war on age, as it’s a biomechanical process – not an physical enemy. It’s like having a war on rust. That kind of battle may initially eradicate some factors, but rust has a nasty habit of always coming back. So this kind of war is ultimately senseless and never-ending.

Aubrey de Grey’s “war” is in fact a cynical piece of PR advertising, a cleverly turned catchphrase and soundbite for 21st century mainstream media. It’s a scam, just as snake oil salesmen flogged “elixir of life” tinctures and biblical guides to an eternal “afterlife” millennia ago.

Based on the above findings, LUMAN aligns with mainstream anti-ageing research that focuses on extending health span (i.e. disease-free period, rather than extending life-span or unleashing immortality. In support of this health span approach, LUMAN does not advocate the use of anti-aging pills. 

While recent lab trials found supplements such as Niagen, Resveratrol, Metformin, and Rapamycin can potentially extend life span of rodents by several years, there is no evidence this extends to humans.

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We are not living in a computer simulation

A recent study by theoretical physicists from Oxford University in the U.K., published in Scientific Advances, confirms that life and reality aren’t products of a computer simulation.

The researchers, led by Zohar Ringel and Dmitry Kovrizhi, arrived at this startling conclusion by observing a novel link between gravitational anomalies (e.g. warped spacetime) and computational complexity.

Evidence that quantum systems can not be efficiently simulated using classical computation suggests other equally expansive quantum systems like human consciousness will be equally difficult to model.

These findings challenge two of the most popular theories in transhumanism, such as the Simulation Theory, advocated by entrepreneur Elon Musk and Singularity Theory, promoted by futurist Ray Kurzweil.

Challenges to the singularity (ie the moment machines overtake humanity by acquiring consciousness and superintelligence) has huge implications for current transhumanist debates.

To address these computational problems, it’s likely current bio-technical mind models may need to be replaced by socio-technical ones.

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NHS cut funding for pseudoscience

In 2017, NHS England announced plans to radically cut its drug bill to rescue ailing finances. To achieve this, the NHS will stop issuing prescriptions for over-the-counter medicines (e.g. cough mixture, cold treatments, eye drops, laxatives, sun cream).

The NHS also plans to cut funding for placebo-mediated #pseudoscientific treatments such as #herbalism and #homeopathy.

Poor outcomes of behavioural therapies suggest the NHS should add #CognitiveBehaviouralTherapy and #hypnotherapy to their list of cuts.

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Brainwashed: the misguided dangers of neuroscience

Science still knows very little about how the brain and body functions.This is highly frustrating because it’s our knowledge of these natural systems that we use to model computers.

Human communication is also way more nuanced than the sum of their Boolean parts. For example, invisible pheromones and bioluminescence factors play a significant role in human behaviour.

These blind spots in neuroscience have been brilliantly critiqued in a recent book by Sally Satel and Scott Lilienfeld call Brainwashed. Authors state that while #neuroimaging is widely regarded as the key to understanding everything we do, this approach is misguided and dangerous.

Current neuroscientific blindspots suggest any seismic advances in human computing aren’t likely to occur anytime soon, certainly not until researchers crack some of the fundamental mysteries of mind and body.

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Urban prosthetics: the problem with self-driving cars

Technology often incurs unpredictably huge and catastrophic effects on society. A good example was the birth of one of the most disruptive “urban prosthetics” of our time — the arrival of the car 100 years ago.

So taken by its ability to transform modern life, humanity placed it centre stage in the design of our cities and urban planning. As a result, virtually every city on the planet implemented urban design models that prioritised freeways, strip malls and American-style drive-ins. This radical urban paradigm ensured most aspects of human behaviour (e.g. seduction, conception, birth, education, professional life and death) could all be experienced from the comfort of the automobile.

In hindsight, car-centric urbanism has been irreversibly toxic, not only for people and society but also the global economy and planet. Current mania about self-driving cars follows a similar optimistic blindness. One of the current problems is that computer algorithms are not great predictors of human behaviour.

This kind of mental blindness is what you get when you focus on parts of the system instead of the whole.

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Can psilocybin mushrooms fight depression?

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), depression will become the second leading cause of disease by 2020.

Without effective scaled-up treatment, a staggering 12 billion working days — or 50 million years of work — will be lost to depression and anxiety disorders each year between now and 2030. It puts the annual loss to the global economy at $925bn (£651bn).

While drugs such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have been promoted by medical science, reviews find these drugs don’t work any better than placebo (i.e. an effect size of around 30%).

Psychedelic therapy using #psilocybin based mushrooms shows promise in the fight against #depression. Psilocybin treats depression not by suppressing emotionality by increasing emotional connection.

This is remarkable considering this kind of mechanism is actually the opposite effect of a major SSRI antidepressants used to treat the condition.

While these results are encouraging, it’s important to remember that anxiety and depression are beahvioural conditions– not diseases of the brain.

This reality suggests researchers will need to develop interventions that combine tailored chemical agents with sociological factors.

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The challenge of measuring life extension in aging research

The search for accurate ways to measure biological age is an ongoing quest in aging research. Affordable and clinically reliable aging biomarkers are vital in accelerating aging research. Unfortunately, the research community currently lacks effective tools to assess life extension outcomes of interventions.

The only accepted method is to conduct life span studies, which has typically resulted in endless debates over their validity. Costing investors considerable time and money. Recent studies in mice and humans show circulating monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) levels increase in an age-dependent manner. This supports the idea that MCP-1 may be used as a measure of biological age in response to life extension therapies.

However, it’s early days, and other approaches combining measures of aging and cellular reactions may be more accurate in the long run.

Only time will tell…

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