Elizabeth Bear | Project Hieroglyph

Elizabeth Bear replied to the topic Gengineered Superfood? Cloned meat? in the Conversation But what will we eat? 8 years, 8 months ago

There’s an interesting debate over whether cloned meat is vegan.
Elizabeth Bear replied to the topic How hackable is the human brain? in the Conversation Questionspace 8 years, 9 months ago

The question is not so much, “How hackable is the human brain?” as, “How do we hack the human brain ethically and with intention, rather than accidentally and destructively?” Not only do recent advances in neuroscience reveal that we humans retain neuroplasticity throughout our entire lives–you can teach an old plains ape new tricks–but that…[Read more]
Elizabeth Bear wrote a new post 8 years, 9 months ago

I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately into neuroplasticity and neurobiology, and some of the cool, freaky things that brains can do–and some of the tragic ones. Favorite weird brain facts/research angles/brain […]
Elizabeth Bear wrote a new post 8 years, 9 months ago

It seems to me that one of the great technological revolutions ongoing around us right now involved practical neurobiology–we’re getting more and more adept at understanding how brains work, in other words, and how to hack them.
Elizabeth Bear started the topic Harold "Sonny" White and NASA's warp drive project in the Conversation Big Ideas 9 years, 8 months ago

I was at the first two iterations of the 100-Year Starship Project (the initial planning meeting and the first symposium) and I’ve very recently been privileged to hear Sonny White’s updated ideas on a potentially practical warp drive, when I was at the Johnson Space Center in August. This gets a little detailed and more practical and more…[Read more]
Elizabeth Bear replied to the topic Lighter-than-air Bricks in the Conversation Big Ideas 10 years ago

On this topic: Graphene aerogels. NIFTY!

Graphene aerogel is seven times lighter than air, can balance on a blade of grass
Elizabeth Bear replied to the topic Ecosystem is not broken… in the Conversation The Moonshot Ecosystem 10 years ago

James,

The 100-Year Starship Project is an attempt at organizing something sort of Wikipedia-like, with limited DARPA involvement.

https://100yss.org/

I was present at the initial brainstorming session […]
Elizabeth Bear replied to the topic 3D printing your diet in the forum But what will we eat? 10 years ago

And here’s one on the current state of the technology, with a really unappetizing looking photo of a turkey cube mid-print-job.

<a […]
Elizabeth Bear replied to the topic 3D printing your diet in the forum But what will we eat? 10 years ago

I’ve eaten the occasional cricket lately. They have kind of a musty taste, but they’re not bad. (They come in a protein-bar formulation, and also in individual munchable snack packs.)

But as cheap protein, […]
Elizabeth Bear replied to the topic Let's talk about brains! in the Conversation Big Ideas 10 years, 1 month ago

Darusha,

Yeah. If you can reliably rehabilitate criminals–and not through aversive conditioning, a la A Clockwork Orange, but through actually “fixing” their brains… is it ethical to sentence them to that? […]
Elizabeth Bear replied to the topic Let's talk about brains! in the Conversation Big Ideas 10 years, 1 month ago

Bryan,

This is a thing I’ve been tackling in my own work, and a subject I find fascinating and complicated. I’ve got some wonking old neural atypicalities of my own (some innate, some acquired), so it’s a topic […]
Elizabeth Bear replied to the topic Let's talk about brains! in the Conversation Big Ideas 10 years, 1 month ago

Deep brain stimulation is pretty neat! And modern prosthetic technology is amazing. We’re really at a very crude level with all this stuff–I can’t wait to see what the next twenty years brings.
Elizabeth Bear replied to the topic 3D printing your diet in the forum But what will we eat? 10 years, 1 month ago

I think getting rid of the cows is the best of all possible options: humane/cruelty-free meat is very attractive to me. (I eat animals probably three days out of five. I try to get my cows and eggs from local […]
Elizabeth Bear replied to the topic Banning Agriculture in the Conversation Big Ideas 10 years, 1 month ago

Because my brain inevitably works this way when confronted with a cool idea… what’s the failure mode of 60-story vertical farms*? (The failure mode of orbital potato chips re-entry cooked is probably a pretty […]
Elizabeth Bear joined the group But what will we eat? 10 years, 1 month ago
Elizabeth Bear started the topic 3D printing your diet in the forum But what will we eat? 10 years, 1 month ago

What do you think of the possibility of 3D printing food? Food that was never grown nor raised, essentially, but assembled from molecules? A steak from HP!

I admit, I’m a little leery of its (healthful) […]
Elizabeth Bear started the topic Let's talk about brains! in the Conversation Big Ideas 10 years, 1 month ago

I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately into neuroplasticity and neurobiology, and some of the cool, freaky things that brains can do–and some of the tragic ones.

Favorite weird brain facts/research angles/brain hacks, anyone?
Elizabeth Bear changed their profile picture 10 years, 1 month ago
Elizabeth Bear started the topic Hacking the human mind in the Conversation Big Ideas 10 years, 6 months ago

It seems to me that one of the great technological revolutions ongoing around us right now involved practical neurobiology–we’re getting more and more adept at understanding how brains work, in other words, and how to hack them.

Perhaps it would be more precise to say that we’re learning just how much of what we have often (in a sloppy…[Read more]