Mr. Stolyarov argues that, whether or not anthropogenic global warming is real, political interference is not the proper way to address it. The solution is maximum individual liberty and freedom for entrepreneurs to innovate and develop improved technologies.
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Contrary to popular belief, automation does not lead to the loss of jobs. Automation is humankind’s best friend in terms of raising standards of living and freeing up human efforts to be devoted to truly creative and innovative tasks. Furthermore, Mr. Stolyarov argues that jobs are not in themselves a desirable goal; higher prosperity is – and higher prosperity allows humans to enjoy greater leisure while producing more than their ancestors could with more primitive tools.
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TRA’s Resources on Indefinite Life Extension page has been enhanced over the past two months with links to numerous fascinating articles and videos.
– “Scientists turn skin cells into beating heart muscle” – Kate Kelland – Reuters – May 22, 2012
– “Is Amyloidosis the Limiting Factor for Human Lifespan?” – Lyle J. Dennis, M.D. – Extreme Longevity – May 22, 2012
– “Israeli scientists create beating heart tissue from skin cells” – The Telegraph – May 23, 2012
– “Paralyzed rats walk again in Swiss lab study” – Chris Wickham – MSNBC.com – May 31, 2012
– “New Cancer Drugs Use Body’s Own Defenses” – Ron Winslow – Wall Street Journal – June 1, 2012
– “Bristol immune drug shows promise in three cancers” – Julie Steenhuysen – Reuters – June 2, 2012
– “Prostate cancer drug so effective trial stopped” – Victoria Colliver – San Francisco Chronicle – June 2, 2012
– “New ‘smart bomb’ drug attacks breast cancer, doctors say” – Associated Press – June 3, 2012
– “Alzheimer’s vaccine trial a success” – Karolinska Institutet – June 6, 2012
– “Man Cured of AIDS: ‘I Feel Good’” – Carrie Gann – ABC News – June 8, 2012
– “Artificial Lifeforms Promise Cleaner World, Healthier Humans” – Dick Pelletier – Positive Futurist – June 9, 2012
– “Secret of ageing found: Japanese scientists pave way to everlasting life” – RT – June 9, 2012
– “How aging normal cells fuel tumor growth and metastasis” – Thomas Jefferson University – June 14, 2012
– “People Who Justify Aging are Profoundly Wrong – Aging is Abhorrent” – Maria Konovalenko – Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies – June 14, 2012
– “Scientists tie DNA repair to key cell signaling network” – University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston – June 15, 2012
– “Deciding How We Age as We Age” – Seth Cochran – h+ Magazine – June 19, 2012
– “How we die (in one chart)” – Sarah Kliff – Washington Post – June 22, 2012
– “Modified humans: the most cost-efficient way to colonize space” – Dick Pelletier – Positive Futurist – June 2012
– “Japanese Scientists Grow Human Liver From Stem Cells” – Reuters and Singularity Weblog – June 2012
– “Why Do Naked Mole Rats Live So Long? Do they hold the key to human life extension?” – Maria Konovalenko – Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies – June 29, 2012
– “Scientists Develop Alternative to Gene Therapy” – ScienceDaily – Scripps Research Institute – July 1, 2012
– “How to live beyond 100” – Lucy Wallis – BBC News – July 2, 2012
– “Earth 2050-2100: longer lives; new energy; FTL travel; global village” – Dick Pelletier – Positive Futurist – July 3, 2012
– “Scientists discover bees can ‘turn back time,’ reverse brain aging” – Phys.org – Arizona State University – July 3, 2012
– “Secret formula may be key to reverse aging” – Mike Holfeld – Click Orlando – July 4, 2012
– “Is there a biological limit to longevity?” – Aubrey de Grey – KurzweilAI – July 5, 2012
– “Demystifying the immortality of cancer cells” – Medical Xpress – July 5, 2012
– “Suggesting a Test of Rapamycin and Metformin Together” – Reason – FightAging.org – July 5, 2012
– “Earth 2050-2100: Longer Lives; New Energy; FTL Travel; Global Village” – Dick Pelletier – Positive Futurist – July 7, 2012
– Aubrey de Grey – Aging & Suffering – Interview with Adam Ford – May 31, 2012
– Anders Sandberg on Singularity 1 on 1: We Are All Amazingly Stupid, But We Can Get Better – May 27, 2012
– Hugo de Garis on Singularity 1 on 1: Are We Building Gods or Terminators? – June 2012
Rand Paul’s endorsement of Mitt Romney on June 7, 2012, shows him to be more of a pragmatic politician than a principled friend of liberty. Mr. Stolyarov, a long-time supporter of Ron Paul and a Ron Paul delegate in Nevada, expresses his disappointment as well as his thoughts as to where friends of liberty should go from here.
Mr. Stolyarov endorses Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party candidate, for President in 2012, and also outlines three areas in which freedom has a better chance to make progress in the near term, as compared to political activism. These areas are (1) progress in personally empowering technology, (2) voluntary innovations for achieving liberty, such as the seasteading movement, and (3) improvements in health care and longevity.
References:
– Rand Paul’s endorsement of Mitt Romney
– “Penny Freeman, former staffer in tears over Ron Paul betrayals” – Interview with Penny Freeman by Adam Kokesh – June 8, 2012
– “Ron Paul campaign concedes: the rEVOLution endures” – Eric Field – The Examiner – June 8, 2012
– “Ron Paul Delegate’s Account of 2012 Nevada State Republican Convention” – Video by G. Stolyarov II – May 6, 2012
– Gary Johnson’s Campaign Website
– “Gary Johnson: Be Libertarian With Me“
Mr. Stolyarov celebrates the May 22, 2012, launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule and responds to Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s claims that private enterprise cannot make the biggest breakthroughs in science and exploration. On the contrary, Mr. Stolyarov identifies historical examples of just such privately driven breakthroughs and explains why private enterprise is more suited than a political structure for making radical improvements to human life.
References
– Launch of SpaceX Falcon 9 – Video from NASA
– Beautiful picture of SpaceX Falcon 9 flight
– “Neil deGrasse Tyson: Bringing Commercial Space Fantasies Back to Earth” – Video
– “SpaceX rocket on its way to outer space” – Marcia Dunn – The Associated Press – May 22, 2012
– “SpaceX rocket launch hailed as ‘a new era in space exploration‘” – W. J. Hennigan – Los Angeles Times – May 22, 2012
– “Neil deGrasse Tyson” – Wikipedia
– “SpaceX” – Wikipedia
TRA’s Resources on Indefinite Life Extension page has been enhanced over the past month with links to numerous fascinating articles and videos.
Articles
– “New Laser For Neurosurgery Allows Greater Precision And Efficiency For Removal Of Complex Turmors” – ScienceDaily – January 28, 2009
– “Tiny Particles May Help Surgeons by Marking Brain Tumors” – ScienceDaily – April 29, 2010
– “Tagging Tumors With Gold: Scientists Use Gold Nanorods to Flag Brain Tumors” – ScienceDaily – October 12, 2011
– “Immortal worms defy aging” – KurzweilAI – February 29, 2012
– “Earth 2512: humans embrace their technologies; reach for the stars” – Dick Pelletier – Positive Futurist – April 2012
– “Teenager Invents Anti-Aging, Disease-Fighting Compound Using Tree Nanoparticles” – Science 2.0 – May 8, 2012
– “A Libertarian Transhumanist Critique of Jeffrey Tucker’s ‘A Lesson in Mortality’” – G. Stolyarov II – May 13, 2012
– “Gene therapy for aging-associated decline” – KurzweilAI – May 16, 2012
– “Breakthrough in Gene Therapy Holds Great Promise” – Joshua Lipana – The Objective Standard – May 16, 2012
Videos
Aubrey de Grey – Debate with Colin Blakemore: “This house wants to defeat ageing entirely”
The Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford University – April 28, 2012
Aziz Aboobaker
Neverending DNA and Immortal Worms – February 27, 2012
G. Stolyarov II
The Real War – and Why Inter-Human Wars Are a Distraction – March 15, 2012
A Libertarian Transhumanist Critique of Jeffrey Tucker’s “A Lesson in Mortality” – May 15, 2012
There are plenty of potential sources of concern when it comes to the environment. We are polluting the air we breathe and the water we drink; we are depleting the oceans of fish; we are punching holes in the ozone layer; we are warming the climate to dangerous levels—and all of these problems, we are given to believe, are only getting worse.
Taken together, these worries, along with the ones discussed in more detail above, make up what Danish statistician Bjorn Lomborg referred to as The Litany in his controversial(1) 2001 book, The Skeptical Environmentalist. Lomborg plumbs the available data and the environmentalists’ arguments on each of these issues and discovers, to his surprise, that things are not as bad as they are made out to be. Like forest cover, air and water quality are generally improving in the developed world, and have been for decades. The ozone problem had a fairly simple and affordable solution which has been implemented. As for the climate issue, even setting aside the serious uncertainties contained in computer models, it will be much easier for us to adapt to future warming than to try, largely in vain, to prevent it. Our trillions of dollars, Lomborg emphasizes, would be far better spent dealing with more pressing problems like poverty in the developing world—and, he adds, helping the world’s poor climb out of poverty would have the additional benefit of allowing them the relative luxury of caring about and improving the state of their forests and the quality of their air.
We need not choose between improving the environment and alleviating world poverty, for the two categories of problems stem from the same kinds of causes. It is inadequately secure property rights and protectionist trade policies that keep the world’s poor from improving their lot; it is the absence of adequate property rights that threatens the ocean’s fisheries; it is irrational government policies that give polluters the right to pollute and forbid those whose property is polluted from seeking damages; it is government subsidies that lead to the wasteful use of water and other resources. We don’t often hear it in the media, but the solution to global poverty and to the environmental problems that do exist is one and the same: greater economic freedom.
1. Readers who are curious about this controversy are invited to visit www.greenspirit.com to see the debate between Lomborg and Scientific American, and decide for themselves which party is trying to clarify the issues and which is trying to muddy the waters.
Bradley Doucet is Le Quebecois Libré‘s English Editor. A writer living in Montreal, he has studied philosophy and economics, and is currently completing a novel on the pursuit of happiness. He also writes for The New Individualist, an Objectivist magazine published by The Atlas Society, and sings.
TRA’s Resources on Indefinite Life Extension page has been expanded today with links to several engaging articles, some describing recent groundbreaking discoveries in layman-accessible terms.
– “Group Set To Sequence 1000 Genomes By The End Of The Year” – Peter Murray – Singularity Hub – April 4, 2012
– “Nanostars Deliver Cancer Drugs Direct To Nucleus” – Catharine Paddock, PhD – Medical News Today – April 8, 2012
– “Human-machine interfaces: becoming one with our machines” – Dick Pelletier – Positive Futurist – April 2012
– “Fullerene C60 administration doubles rat lifespan with no toxicity” – KurzweilAI.net – April 17, 2012
– “Eternal health and youth will soon be possible, scientists say” – Dick Pelletier – Positive Futurist – April 17, 2012
TRA’s Resources on Indefinite Life Extension page has been expanded today with links to several hours of highly engaging videos:
Cushing Academy: Panel on Aging – Dr. Aubrey de Grey – December 14, 2009
Aubrey de Grey’s Plan to Stop Aging – BigThink – June 2, 2011
Peter Thiel on “Back to the Future” at Singularity Summit 2011 – October 23, 2011
An Immortal Life? An Evening with Aubrey de Grey – October 26, 2011
Brave New World with Stephen Hawking – Episode 2: Health – January 2012
Brave New World with Stephen Hawking – Episode 5: Biology – January 2012
The false dichotomy of the afterlife – Video by Zinnia Jones – March 8, 2012
Even after SOPA/PROTECT IP’s demise, assaults on the Internet in its present form have continued on a variety of fronts. Some of these assaults are in the form of legislation, while others are deployed by nominally private entities that in fact thrive on political connections and special privileges. These attempts would limit harmless individual expression and create the presumption of guilt with respect to online activity — quashing that activity until the accused can demonstrate his innocence.
Mr. Stolyarov focuses on four of these assaults: H.R. 3523 – the dubiously named Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), NSA surveillance, ISP/trade-association cooperation, and Arizona’s House Bill 2549.
Remember to LIKE, FAVORITE, and SHARE this video in order to spread rational discourse on this issue.
References:
– “A Barrage of Assaults on Internet Freedom” – Essay by G. Stolyarov II
– “Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act” – Wikipedia
– “Stop Online Piracy Act” – Wikipedia
– “PROTECT IP Act” – Wikipedia
– “The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)” – James Bamford – Wired Magazine – March 15, 2012
– “NSA vs USA: Total surveillance zooms-in on Americans” – Video from RT
– “RIAA chief: ISPs to start policing copyright by July 1“- Greg Sandoval – cNet – March 14, 2012
– “American ISPs to launch massive copyright spying scheme on July 12” – Stephen C. Webster – Raw Story – March 15, 2012
– “US ranked 26th in global Internet speed, South Korea number one” – Shawn Knight – TechSpot – September 21, 2011
– “Arizona bill could criminalize Internet trolling” – Chris Morris – Yahoo! Games – April 3, 2012
– “Arizona Wants to Outlaw Trolling by Banning ‘Annoying’ Comments” – Paul Lilly – Maximum PC – April 5, 2012
