Magic Man

Many years ago, someone posted to an Extropian or Transhumanist mailing list something like "Check out our new online banking site, X.com!"  I was suspicious.  The domain name sounded like something you would use for a porn site and the homepage design looked a bit too simple to be legitimate.  Was this a website created to steal personal financial information?

Later when I was at an Extropian or Foresight conference, I wandered over to a cluster of folks in the main hallway to introduce myself.  I was turned away, however, as I was informed that this was a group of PayPal employees having an impromptu private meeting.  If I recall correctly, PayPal was one of the conference sponsors.

Now that SpaceX.com has successfully launched a spacecraft that has docked with the International Space Station, I have finally connected the dots back to X.com, the website which eventually became PayPal.com.  I had already known that the PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel was swimming in Transhumanist circles.  More recently I have been intrigued by his Thiel Fellowship in which Peter offers students money to drop out of college to create a startup.  Now my attention was directed to another PayPal co-founder, Elon Musk.

In this 2012 Caltech commencement speech video, Elon Musk describes how at an early age he decided to tackle some of the greatest problems facing the future of humanity and how he used his initial profits as a serial entrepreneur to fund those endeavors:

http://www.ustream.tv/caltech?utm_source=eNews+2012-06&utm_campaign=eNews+2012-06&utm_medium=archive

There are many gems in his speech.  I have listened to it many times and I have shared it with family and friends for discussion.  Here is the video timeline:

• 29:30  Mr. Elon Musk is introduced.
   
• 31:30  Elon starts his speech.  He jokingly thanks the introducer for leaving "crazy person" out of the description of his career.

• 34:22  Elon talks about dropping out of graduate school in 1995 to jump on the Internet bandwagon.  He jokes, "Fortunately, we're past graduation so I cannot be accused of recommending that to you."
   
• 47:00  Elon ends his commencement speech with "Go out there and create some magic."

• 48:00  The introducer thanks Elon and describes him as a "21st Century Magic Man".

• 48:30  The Caltech glee club sings.

• 52:35  The President of Caltech is called to confer the degrees upon the graduates.  The President jokes, "Before we start, if any one of you wants to follow in the footsteps of the Magic Man and drop out, now is the time.  It's the last time.  It will be too late in five minutes.  No takers?"

Seventeen years ago, I was on that same lawn to receive my first Masters degree.  This was the same year that Elon Musk was dropping out to become an Internet startup co-founder.  A year later, I was sucked up into the Internet whirlwind along with many other research-oriented individuals.  While in Silicon Valley, I randomly bumped into of two of my former Caltech teaching assistants, one in a startup I was interviewing at and another at a restaurant while he was interviewing a candidate.  They had earned their doctorates studying the visual system or neuronal networks and now they were building e-commerce websites.

Here are some other entrepreneurs I have noted, all of them based around Dallas where I live:

• James R. Von Ehr II:  Used his early successes in the software business to fund the nanotechnology startup Zyvex.

• Anousheh Ansari:  As the first female space tourist, she paid for her trip to the International Space Station with the proceeds from her successes as a serial entrepreneur in telecom. She and her family sponsored the Ansari X Prize.

• John D. Carmack II: Co-founder of id Software, maker of 3D games such as Doom.  Launched the spacecraft company Armadillo Aerospace.

• Will Rosellini:  Founded and sold Texas Onsite Dental.  Launched MicroTransponder, a neurotechology company.

What do these entrepreneurs have in common?  They did not just join a startup; they founded a startup.  When the startups grew, their equity gave them the resources they needed to fund new startups targeting their loftier and financially riskier goals.

Additional links to the commencement speech by Elon Musk:

• http://commencement.caltech.edu/
• http://commencement.caltech.edu/speaker
• http://commencement.caltech.edu/archive/2012_address
• http://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/caltech-commencement-address/id445943719?i=116929046
  

Rat Bites

Some years ago when I was a graduate student in the Cauller NeuroEngineering Lab, I noticed that something seemed to be amiss. There was a broken flask on the floor and I thought I might have possibly heard something even though I was alone. I put it out of my mind and left.

I returned to the lab a day or two later and I was working quietly when suddenly an escaped lab rat started moving about on the lab bench. The poor thing must have been running around loose in the lab for at least a couple of days as the lab had been mostly absent recently due to a school holiday or break. As a part-time student in the lab focusing primarily on software, I had no previous experience with handling lab rats but I thought I might put this one back in its cage by myself.

Figuring that it was probably hungry, I put some pellets out on the lab bench and when it started to nibble at them I grabbed it with my hand from behind. The rat twisted its head around and gave me a severe bite to one of my fingers. Instantly I thought of at least three key mistakes that I had just made.

I did not release the rat immediately because the damage was already done and I thought I could finish my objective quickly. I transferred the rat from my wounded right hand to the left as I quickly walked to the cage, careful to hold the rat firmly without putting too much pressure on its small body. I then received an even more severe bite to the tip of my left forefinger.

I held on and was able to get the rat into the cage. A student in the adjacent lab treated my wounds and I was reassured by the other students that lab rats are extremely clean animals so I had nothing to fear. They were, of course, quite right as the only long-term consequence was a small scar which is barely perceptible today.

When I reported the incident to Dr. Cauller, he was somewhat surprised as lab rats tended to be docile based on his many years of experience in handling them. He put his hand in the cage and the rat lunged to bite at it. He had only exposed the flat of his hand toward the rat so the teeth could not get a grip.

Dr. Cauller then stated to me that lab rats can sometimes turn feral if on their own for awhile without human supervision. Furthermore, this one appeared to have some bruising on its tail, suggesting a possible explanation for its unusual behavior. He told me he would have to put this animal down as it was now too aggressive to be around students.

I think there are several lessons to be learned from this. To bring out one in particular, I want to emphasize the part of my story in which I optimistically transferred the rat from one hand to the other after receiving the first painful bite. I think that this says something about me, both good and bad, which I will have to consider.

Science Sunday

Today my wife Shannon hosted a Science Sunday event. She wanted to do something for the older children in the Dallas Brights Family Meetup. She set up eight stations throughout the house with hands-on projects:

• Attractive Ballons
• Bending Light
• Changing Solid to Liquid
• Coffee Can Magic
• Let's Make a Polymer
• Raise the Raisins
• Sink the Orange
• Tornado Tube

Some of the parents in attendance volunteered to host future Science Sundays or create science stations so hopefully we can keep this going as a regular event.

While the children were engaged with experiments, I pulled the parents aside to show them my latest discovery, the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2011 National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates. I have the first seven pages of this taped to the side of our refrigerator with the entries sorted by annual mean wage. The lesson of this station is clear: it pays to have a medical degree.

If you have a child who is interested in becoming an academic research scientist, you might warn them that after many years of graduate school at poverty level wages only about half successfully earn their doctorate and only about one in eight eventually finds a faculty position. For an equivalent number of years in medical school, a Medicinae Doctor (M.D.) graduate is looking at guaranteed employment at three or more times the wages of the Philosophiae Doctor (Ph.D.) graduate lucky enough to land a research position.

And that is not to say that M.D. graduates cannot do research. If you compare the salaries of M.D. research faculty to Ph.D. research faculty at the same medical research institution, it quickly becomes clear that although both groups are doing science, one group is being paid substantially more than the other. If you have a budding scientist in your family, you might want to nudge them in the direction of a Medical Scientist Training Program.

Specialize or Generalize?

There is some question as to whether you should live your life as a specialist or a generalist. When I was in high school, I was advised to model the Renaissance Man. Likewise, one of my favorite authors from when I was growing up, Robert A. Heinlein, wrote in the voice of the immortal Lazarus Long:

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

But consider this from the viewpoint of a customer. When you hire someone to do a job for you, you want a specialist. Preferably it is someone who does the same thing repeatedly and has completely mastered it. Not only do they keep up with the latest techniques in their field, they are leading it. Whether it is bone setting or computer programming, a client wants the best.

As Matt Ridley points out in his book The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves, specialization and exchange makes everyone better off. This assumes, of course, that what you specialize in is a career and not a hobby. You can be the world's leading expert in something, but if no one is willing to pay you for it, you will be poor. Possibly widely appreciated, but still poor. Keep in mind the advice of Aristotle:

Where your talents and the needs of the world cross, therein lies your vocation.

The needs of the world tend to change over time, however, and that is where being a generalist can keep you alive. Environmental changes determine whether the generalist or specialist species go extinct. Us humans, however, are fast adapters. We can maximize the profit in a specialty for all its worth for as long as we can and then move on when the cheese is gone.

Having said that, however, I would like to point out that moving on can be a lot easier if you have some experience with what you are moving on to. This is where your hobbies come in. For the sheer love of learning, you play at things that do not have any immediate pay-off. Bouncing from one hobby to the next makes you the jack-of-all-trades and the master of none but a little knowledge is a start and might become your foot in the door for a new career someday.  It also makes you a big picture person who can relate to others.

So here is my conclusion:

Specialize in your career; generalize in your hobbies.

Preppers

I was listening to a radio story about Preppers recently. These are folks who are learning to be self-reliant so that they can survive a future societal collapse. If you are going to be prepared, you have to have plans. Currently the plans that are consuming my resources are the 401k, 529, HDHP/HSA/LEX, ESPP, FICA/FUTA, and multiple forms of insurance including cryonics.

While I am not a Prepper, I am obsessed with stories about the forthcoming zombie apocalypse. I have been listening to a horde of audio books on the subject. I eagerly pay $2 an episode to watch the television series Walking Dead. I read the Center for Disease Control's zombie comic book. Although technically about "vamps", I classify the infectious undead in the movie Stake Land as being close enough to be in the same genre.

I know that there are a lot of theories about why people are fantasizing about the end of civilization right now and I suppose I fit into at least one of those descriptions. Perhaps it is because of all of those aforementioned plans.

The radio story made me think about why we are so interdependent. When we specialize and trade, the efficiencies make everyone better off. Subsistence farming is what it sounds like.

The specialist optimizes on one particular method of making a living right now. The generalist diversifies in anticipation of sudden environmental transitions. Which is correct depends on being able to accurately predict the future.

And the future could go either way. Collapse or Singularity? It seems to me that prepping should include the possibility that things could go very right. Rational optimists might want to join me in reading the recently published book Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think.

One Change

For my most recent New Year's Resolution, I was inspired by this question:

What is the one change in your behavior that you can make now that will have the greatest impact on your life?

I am not sure where I first heard or read this recently but I was able to IxQuick it just now and find at least one hit so I know that it is not completely new. If you know of the original source, please post the reference in a comment.

My resolution for 2012 was to stop watching television after 8:30 PM. This decision was partially based on reports that screen time before bed can impede sleep. It was also based on my hope that it would increase my reading to viewing ratio.

I was a little reluctant to commit to this as I do enjoy my Roku. So far, though, it has been working out as I am usually able to read myself to sleep with a little help from diphenhydramine. I am hoping this new habit has all sorts of direct and indirect benefits for my health and productivity.

Optihumanist Principles 2011

For the 2011 annual revision of my Optihumanist Principles, I added a new section entitled "Work is Life". In writing this, I wanted to communicate that the Idea of Progress implies that work both improves and increases life.

I just finished reading Gilgamesh: A Graphic Novel by Andrew Winegarner. This illustrated book for adults is based on the prebiblical Epic of Gilgamesh. Although the hero Gilgamesh comes tantalizingly close in his quest for physical immortality, the story concludes with his acceptance of a more limited immortality through enduring achievements. We are now at the point in our own Epic of Humanity where our work toward physical immortality could soon vindicate the original hero.

Brain Machine Interfaces

I recently finished watching the science fiction television series Caprica, a spin-off of the new Battlestar Galactica. It shows a society transitioning to the adoption of new technologies such as exploring virtual realities for entertainment using brain machine interfaces (BMIs). The story transitions to uploading minds into those same virtual realities for continued existence after physical death.

I also finished listening to the non-fiction audio book Beyond Boundaries: The new neuroscience of connecting brains with machines -- and how it will change our lives (2011) by neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis, M.D, Ph.D. Dr. Nicolelis is building BMIs both to understand how the brain works and to enable the completely paralyzed to interact with their environments. He concludes with speculations about the future that would appeal to any fan of "Caprica".

I think BMIs implanted in the body will gain rapid public acceptance as medical devices initially and then later as entertainment devices. The fact that they also give us what could be considered as enhanced super-human powers will be as welcome as wireless smartphone technology is today. I think the adoption of other transhumanist technologies will follow a similar course.

Under my former research advisor Larry Cauller, Ph.D., now retired, I did some research on implantable wireless peripheral nerve interfaces (PNIs). That led to me to new research on what I called Spike Interface Embodied Virtual Environments (SIEVEs).

Optihumanist Music

I created an Optihumanist Music webpage. It features links to the music by my friend Scott Badger.

Periodic Table Song

I uploaded my Periodic Table Song. I did most of my creative work on this while I was in the shower.

Healthcare Spending

Being bedridden today reminded me that your health is second in priority only to your children. When you are too sick to function, your life stops.

It also occurred to me that it makes sense that healthcare spending keeps rising. I think modern industrialized society is at the point now where the costs of other needs such as food, clothing, shelter, and entertainment will continue to drop. I am amazed at how little nutritious food costs now in dollars per calorie. Likewise, it is somewhat stunning how many hours of electronic entertainment you can now access for a flat monthly fee in the form of music, videos, and games. Once we fully transition to delivering education electronically, I expect that we will see further price drops in that realm as well. Except for cases of conspicuous consumption, it appears that consumers can easily become satiated to the point of saturation with regard to our non-medical needs.

With regard to healthcare, however, there appears to be no limit to our requirements. As our healthcare increases, we live longer; as we live longer, our healthcare needs increase.  As expected, and as it should be, healthcare spending will continue to rise as a percentage of our personal and national income.

I think this trend will continue until we finally figure out how to cure aging. After that, I do not know what we will spend our money on.  In the meantime, check out the financial benefits of a Health Savings Account.  And if you are choosing a new career field, consider the outlook for healthcare.

NE = Quit Signal?

I uploaded a slideshow that I presented recently to the Atzori Lab on the role of norepinephrine (NE) as a neuromodulator:

NE = Quit Signal?