140 Followers
842 Following
835 Posts
PhD in Human Genetics, McGill University
Clarion 2016

Emerging from hibernation to say I've finally published the core manuscript from my PhD:

"Modular Ontologies for Genetically Modified People and their Bioethical Implications" https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11569-024-00459-4

Modular Ontologies for Genetically Modified People and their Bioethical Implications - NanoEthics

Participants in the long-running bioethical debate over human germline genetic modification (HGGM) tend to imagine future people abstractly and on the basis of conventionalized characteristics familiar from science fiction, such as intelligence, disease resistance and height. In order to distinguish these from scientifically meaningful terms like “phenotype” and “trait,” this article proposes the term “persemes” to describe the units of difference for hypothetical people. In the HGGM debate, persemes are frequently conceptualized as similar, modular entities, like building blocks to be assembled into genetically modified people. They are discussed as though they each would be chosen individually without affecting other persemes and as though they existed as components within future people rather than being imposed through social context. This modular conceptual framework appears to influence bioethical approaches to HGGM by reinforcing the idea of human capacities as natural primary goods subject to distributive justice and supporting the use of objective list theories of well-being. As a result, assumptions of modularity may limit the ability of stakeholders with other perspectives to present them in the HGGM debate. This article examines the historical trends behind the modular framework for genetically modified people, its likely psychological basis, and its philosophical ramifications.

SpringerLink
Vivek Ramaswamy acquires activist stake in BuzzFeed

The former GOP presidential candidate owns 7.7%

Axios

Russian oil is being massively routed to the EU via Turkey, which has become a key transit point. From February 2023 to February 2024, Turkey's purchases of Russian oil increased by 105%, and its fuel exports to the EU rose by 107%. The scheme is possible because of a workaround in Brussels sanctions that allows “blended” fuels into the EU if they're labeled as non-Russian.

https://www.politico.eu/article/how-turkey-become-vladimir-putin-pit-stop-sell-camouflage-fuel-eu/

How Turkey became Putin’s ‘pit stop’ for selling camouflaged fuel to the EU

Moscow bagged €3 billion through a sanctions loophole that allows Turkey to relabel Russian oil and ship it to the EU.

POLITICO

2020: Microsoft sets goal to be carbon negative by end of the decade.

2023: Microsoft's emissions are 30% higher than in 2020.

Main cause? The relentless push to meet AI demand, which requires new data centers built out of carbon-intensive steel, cement, chips.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-15/microsoft-s-ai-investment-imperils-climate-goal-as-emissions-jump-30

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

What the entire bloody fuck is wrong with literally EVERYone at The New York Times?
Taser Company Axon Is Selling AI That Turns Body Cam Audio Into Police Reports

Axon says its AI will help get more police out of the office and on the streets. Critics worry it’ll make cops lazy and potentially introduce errors into crucial evidence.

Forbes

Excellent investigation by the New York Times into all the ways major AI companies are frantically grabbing, copying, and stealing text to feed their AI models: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/06/technology/tech-giants-harvest-data-artificial-intelligence.html?unlocked_article_code=1.iU0.xcEk.CIQuR1C9u9N1&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

(Gift link there)

apparently Meta considered buying Simon & Schuster

How Tech Giants Cut Corners to Harvest Data for A.I.

OpenAI, Google and Meta ignored corporate policies, altered their own rules and discussed skirting copyright law as they sought online information to train their newest artificial intelligence systems.

The New York Times
Revolutionary Silicon Spikes Destroy 96% of Viruses on Contact

An international research team led by RMIT University has designed and manufactured a virus-killing surface that could help control disease spread in hospitals, labs, and other high-risk environments. The surface made of silicon is covered in tiny nanospikes that skewer viruses on contact. Lab te

SciTechDaily
Really interesting and accessible article on the prospects on gene therapy in fetuses:
https://www.statnews.com/2024/02/21/fetal-surgery-tippi-mackenzie-in-utero-gene-therapy/
Meet the fetal surgeon forging CRISPR’s next frontier: curing diseases in the womb

Tippi MacKenzie envisions doing surgery without scalpels or sutures, editing fetal genes to prevent inherited disorders.

STAT

Do you think that this is a good graph to use to help counter the people that try to assert that we should first focus on ending capitalism before we decarbonize?

This is Cuba's rate of decarbonization.