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Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

nature.com

231–240 of 293 posts

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#231
I wonder what the prognosis was right after the operation. The article makes it sound a bit like this outcome was totally unexpected.

Insulin from pigs can be used by humans, right? But maybe there's more to diabetes than just a new pancreas. Interesting development, in any case. Thanks for sharing.

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#232
post #178

“Xenotransplantation” is pretty #%^*ing metal. It’s pretty wild being alive these days. Lots of big stuff the species is struggling to adapt to and figure out how to exist with. But also… we got the tablets from Star Trek. And now we have the ship’s computer from Star Trek, and the early makings of the holodeck. And we’re making pigmen senior citizens who would otherwise be dead. It’s quite something to stop and thin…

> But also… we got the tablets from Star Trek. They regularly used multiple tablets at a time, stacked like papers. What we have is presumably superior from a technological standpoint. Except their tablets weren’t filled with time-wasting features designed to keep you addicted and distracted. > And now we have the ship’s computer from Star Trek No, we definitely do not. If every time they spoke to the ship’s computer…

There are a few episodes about holodeck failures due to verbal instructions interpreted incorrectly (notably the Moriarty episode). Ship in a Bottle even has prompt injection when Moriarty figures out he can summon the arch.

Plus, the captains ask tons of questions a computer would know, but only the bridge crew are trusted with.

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#233
post #178

“Xenotransplantation” is pretty #%^*ing metal. It’s pretty wild being alive these days. Lots of big stuff the species is struggling to adapt to and figure out how to exist with. But also… we got the tablets from Star Trek. And now we have the ship’s computer from Star Trek, and the early makings of the holodeck. And we’re making pigmen senior citizens who would otherwise be dead. It’s quite something to stop and thin…

> But also… we got the tablets from Star Trek. They regularly used multiple tablets at a time, stacked like papers. What we have is presumably superior from a technological standpoint. Except their tablets weren’t filled with time-wasting features designed to keep you addicted and distracted. > And now we have the ship’s computer from Star Trek No, we definitely do not. If every time they spoke to the ship’s computer…

The class divide might rather be likened to The Time Machine

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So we’re getting close in the US government is putting certain types of poor people in internment camps.

I think we already ticked that box

the school to prison pipeline is talked about a lot.

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#236
post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But also… we got the tablets from Star Trek. They regularly used multiple tablets at a time, stacked like papers. What we have is presumably superior from a technological standpoint. Except their tablets weren’t filled with time-wasting features designed to keep you addicted and distracted. > And now we have the ship’s computer from Star Trek No, we definitely do not. If every time they spoke to the ship’s computer…

People keep forgetting that the surveillance of 1984 was just the surveillance of socialist countries in the 1940s.

Not "just", the inspiration came from many angles: Stalinist USSR, Nazi Germany, Spanish repression of POUM, Wartime Britain (where the shape of the TVs come from) and multiple other dystopian novels.

People seems to forget that Orwell was a anti-Stalinist socialist.

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#237
post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If iPads were sold in every store for $1 a piece, we'd be doing that too. Considering how bad Apple is at syncing, that’s just asking for trouble. You’d never know where anything is or what iPad has what or if it’s the current version. Not to mention the charging situation and all the e-waste. > The notable, if underappreciated, part of Star Trek's computers Under appreciated by whom? It’s one of their defining fea…

> Would we? What for? Why would we need reams of iPads on our desks? To use like we'd use paper. > Which LLMs do not. They fake it really well but it’s still an illusion. No understanding is going on, they don’t really know what you mean That is very much up to debate at this point. But for practical purposes in context described here, they do. > and don’t know what the right answer is. They're not supposed to. This…

> They're not supposed to. This is LLM use 101

> (…)

> Obviously, Star Trek's computer isn't just one big LLM. That would be a stupid design.

Or, in other words, we don’t have Star Trek’s computer like originally claimed, and our current closest solution isn’t the way to get it.

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#238
post #186
post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But also… we got the tablets from Star Trek. They regularly used multiple tablets at a time, stacked like papers. What we have is presumably superior from a technological standpoint. Except their tablets weren’t filled with time-wasting features designed to keep you addicted and distracted. > And now we have the ship’s computer from Star Trek No, we definitely do not. If every time they spoke to the ship’s computer…

It wasn’t a tablet but there was a TNG episode about a time wasting game that nearly took over the minds of the entire crew.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_...

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#239
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun fact: the nerves between the brain and heart are never reattached. A heart already has all of the facilities to keep working all by itself. Even weirder is that an adult kidney transplanted into a child will actually shrink to fit.

But presumably the nerves between the brain and heart exist for a reason. What functionality do you lose by not reattaching them? Do things like "heart beating faster when nervous" depend on this nerve signaling, or is it done via other chemical signaling.

Heart rate muscle tissue is largely influenced by hormones. The sympathetic system releases noradrenaline to speed up the heart rate, while the parasympathetic system releases acetylcholine to slow it down. But the release of these hormones is controlled by nerves, which are largely severed. So you typically end up with a less "dynamic" heart rate -- resting rate higher and responsiveness to stimuli reduced. These nerve connections can regenerate to some degree but it's individual and rarely close to what they were before.

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#240

I wonder what the prognosis was right after the operation. The article makes it sound a bit like this outcome was totally unexpected. Insulin from pigs can be used by humans, right? But maybe there's more to diabetes than just a new pancreas. Interesting development, in any case. Thanks for sharing.

I think the major worry is that the body rejects the transplant. If that happens, things can turn really bad really fast. The body will attack the kidney and completely wreck it. They'd probably need surgery to remove it.

He'd probably need to go on dialysis if that were to happen. How long he'd survive IDK. I think I've read that people survive around 2 years on dialysis.

> Insulin from pigs can be used by humans, right? But maybe there's more to diabetes than just a new pancreas.

It can be. That was the first developed insulin. I believe it's completely synthetic at this point.

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