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Bryan Johnson invests $100M in Kernel to unlock the power of the human brain

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Re: Bryan Johnson invests $100M in Kernel to unlock the power of the human brain

#51

Post by nickpsecurity »

robotresearcher wrote: post #50
nickpsecurity wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You realize that project cost billions of dollars with insanely huge teams of smart people working with established principles of physics, chemistry, and so on rather than mostly unknowns in neuroscience? No practical comparison between this and Apollo despite me wanting an Apollo-style effort put into certain problems we face. Including understanding the brain although maybe communications infrastructure, cheap comp…

> [Apollo] cost billions of dollars I looked it up - around $20.4B in 1960s dollars, so $160B today. $20B per mooon landing. Not counting Mercury or Gemini. http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1579/1

Wow. Much higher than I remembered. It's like the brute force approach to getting something done except the force is sheer dollars and labor focus on one goal.

Re: Bryan Johnson invests $100M in Kernel to unlock the power of the human brain

#52

Post by PeCaN »

the_watcher wrote: post #34
nickpsecurity wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The link from bra-ket... https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-the-human-bra... ...illustrates the problem well. Here's a nice quote: "Although researchers worldwide were publishing tens of thousands of neuroscience studies every year, neither our understanding of basic brain functions nor our ability to treat brain disorders seemed to be progressing much. " It's mostly been a failure. The successes have bee…

So we should just quit. Do you actually find the best way to get hard things done to be quitting because others failed?

Let's keep doing the same thing even though it's not working, because the only alternative is to quit!

Are you real or a markov chain

Re: Bryan Johnson invests $100M in Kernel to unlock the power of the human brain

#53

Post by voidz »

tristanho wrote: post #38

The negativity in these comments is astounding. Here's someone who's investing his own hard-earned money into a "device aimed at reducing cognitive deficiencies for sufferers of conditions like Alzheimer’s and dementia." And all anyone can do is complain that it's infeasible or that he's unqualified. I don't know about you, but I want more people working on these problems, not less. Seems very reminiscent of when Mus…

True. I blame it on a trend of the 2010s: friendly people who would otherwise write moderate and/or optimistic comments a decade ago, have increasingly lost motivation to partake. This is my theory at least, I can't back it up scientifically or any of that. The causes and/or reasons are that many of those people may have become parents (myself included), or have grown tired of the negativity, or frustrated by the Orwellian developments. We all know the most obvious example on HN: leave a well intended comment and get at least one cynical or even suffocating response that doesn't even get downvoted properly. It gets tiring really fast. Fast forward a couple of years, and most of what's left is enforced so-called constructivism, hyperextreme political correctness, cynisism and depression.

The glory days are over, I think, and I strongly doubt that future generations will keep using the Internet for social interaction.

Re: Bryan Johnson invests $100M in Kernel to unlock the power of the human brain

#54

Post by tonyhb »

nickpsecurity wrote: post #47
CaveTech wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The man doesn't owe you a goddamn thing, and doesn't have some moral obligation to save you from shitty payment processing. You act like you rose him out of the ashes to save humanity and that's simply not the case.

"The man doesn't owe you a goddamn thing, and doesn't have some moral obligation to save you from shitty payment processing." That's compatible with my comment. It proposes alternative to the path he took that other bootstrappers with utilitarian bent might find interesting. It doesn't require him personally to do anything. I even said his success was "good for him" in terms of efforts in and result achieved. "You ac…

So giving away $100M of his own money isn't in the slightest selfless? He's a selfish individual? Helping terrible diseases isn't doing something lasting for humanity?

Re: Bryan Johnson invests $100M in Kernel to unlock the power of the human brain

#55

Post by skrebbel »

cjdkcnsnd wrote: post #44
tristanho wrote: post #38

The negativity in these comments is astounding. Here's someone who's investing his own hard-earned money into a "device aimed at reducing cognitive deficiencies for sufferers of conditions like Alzheimer’s and dementia." And all anyone can do is complain that it's infeasible or that he's unqualified. I don't know about you, but I want more people working on these problems, not less. Seems very reminiscent of when Mus…

So when you other HN'ers make a formulaic "I'm shocked at all the negativity here" post, is it typically with the intention of riding the contrarian karma train to the top of every thread, or do you actually hold these positions?

I write such a comment occasionally too, so I'll be happy to answer despite how downvoted you already are: a bit of both. I mean, I can't be the only one who considers HN's karma machine a fun game. An interesting and occasionally insightful game, but still, a game.

Re: Bryan Johnson invests $100M in Kernel to unlock the power of the human brain

#56

Post by CN7R »

tristanho wrote: post #38

The negativity in these comments is astounding. Here's someone who's investing his own hard-earned money into a "device aimed at reducing cognitive deficiencies for sufferers of conditions like Alzheimer’s and dementia." And all anyone can do is complain that it's infeasible or that he's unqualified. I don't know about you, but I want more people working on these problems, not less. Seems very reminiscent of when Mus…

My only question: is it better to start a separate fund (OS fund) or company (Kernel) for biomedical research rather than joining a pre-existing one?

The article said that Pfizer annually spends $7-9bn on R&D. Maybe resources are spread too thin; people want moonshots in the biomedical industry as there were in tech, but barriers for entry in this field seem too high.

The benefits are long-term, something I think private investment won't be interested in but perhaps private innovators will be.

Re: Bryan Johnson invests $100M in Kernel to unlock the power of the human brain

#57

Post by bambax »

> a company with the sole purpose of building hardware and software to augment human intelligence

Human intelligence, while fallible and easy to turn off, is arguably our best feature. It's also very versatile.

Bryan Johnson can spend his money any way he likes of course, but one has to wonder why there aren't more initiatives to augment our senses instead of working on intelligence (our own or the intelligence of machines).

I would love to gain a permanent ability to see in the dark, hear ultrasounds, know where North is at all times, etc.

And "all" one has to do with a new sensor is plug it in: the brain is very good at making sense of any new signal, and using it, without prompting or training.

The plugin-in part is non-trivial, of course (although there are shortcuts, such as using the tongue as a crude V0); but one can imagine that once we're able to build a general API to the human brain, many gadgets could be developed for it.

Re: Bryan Johnson invests $100M in Kernel to unlock the power of the human brain

#58

Post by edanm »

bambax wrote: post #57

> a company with the sole purpose of building hardware and software to augment human intelligence Human intelligence, while fallible and easy to turn off, is arguably our best feature. It's also very versatile. Bryan Johnson can spend his money any way he likes of course, but one has to wonder why there aren't more initiatives to augment our senses instead of working on intelligence (our own or the intelligence of ma…

"And "all" one has to do with a new sensor is plug it in: the brain is very good at making sense of any new signal, and using it, without prompting or training."

That doesn't sound right. E.g. see stories of blind people who have gotten sight at a late age - I think the tendency is for them not to be able to really utilize sight the way sighted-from-birth people do.

Re: Bryan Johnson invests $100M in Kernel to unlock the power of the human brain

#59

Post by noir_lord »

voidz wrote: post #53
tristanho wrote: post #38

The negativity in these comments is astounding. Here's someone who's investing his own hard-earned money into a "device aimed at reducing cognitive deficiencies for sufferers of conditions like Alzheimer’s and dementia." And all anyone can do is complain that it's infeasible or that he's unqualified. I don't know about you, but I want more people working on these problems, not less. Seems very reminiscent of when Mus…

True. I blame it on a trend of the 2010s: friendly people who would otherwise write moderate and/or optimistic comments a decade ago, have increasingly lost motivation to partake. This is my theory at least, I can't back it up scientifically or any of that. The causes and/or reasons are that many of those people may have become parents (myself included), or have grown tired of the negativity, or frustrated by the Orw…

I'm pulling further and further back from online communication, back in the 90's I loved talking to people around the world about technology and programming but these days I often come away with negative feelings, everyone seems so cynical and jaded or siloed off, it seems almost impossible to talk about anything new without someone carpet bombing it with the absolute most negative interpretation of whatever was said.

I have reddit and HN /etc/hosts'd out on my laptops and desktops and mostly just check them occasionally from phone, if you surround yourself with that eventually it starts to soak in.

Re: Bryan Johnson invests $100M in Kernel to unlock the power of the human brain

#60

Post by zajd »

voidz wrote: post #53
tristanho wrote: post #38

The negativity in these comments is astounding. Here's someone who's investing his own hard-earned money into a "device aimed at reducing cognitive deficiencies for sufferers of conditions like Alzheimer’s and dementia." And all anyone can do is complain that it's infeasible or that he's unqualified. I don't know about you, but I want more people working on these problems, not less. Seems very reminiscent of when Mus…

True. I blame it on a trend of the 2010s: friendly people who would otherwise write moderate and/or optimistic comments a decade ago, have increasingly lost motivation to partake. This is my theory at least, I can't back it up scientifically or any of that. The causes and/or reasons are that many of those people may have become parents (myself included), or have grown tired of the negativity, or frustrated by the Orw…

It also could have something to do with the socioeconomic landscape where a vast majority of individuals simply don't have the means or ability to contribute or even participate.
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