Safety through technology is certainly not a bad thing. But the need for safety can become pathological. Friedrich Nietzsche’s basic premise is that failure is an option. It is woven tightly into a life worth living. It is time for a personal inventory: Which of our devices and practices enable a life that experiences the world in ways and places not always engineered for our comfort?
https://bigthink.com/thinking/nietzsche-failure-comfort/
Category Archives: genetics
Data from wearable devices are changing disease surveillance and medical research
The ability to examine lots of human bodies as they go about their daily lives is also changing how clinical studies of new drugs are done. According to iqvia, a research firm, 10% of late-stage clinical trials in 2020 used connected devices to monitor people, up from 3% in 2016. A catalogue by the Digital Medicine Society, an American organisation, lists more than 300 examples of digital biomarkers that are used in trials.
https://www.economist.com/technology-quarterly/2022/05/01/data-from-wearable-devices-are-changing-disease-surveillance-and-medical-research
The Case of the Creepy Algorithm That ‘Predicted’ Teen Pregnancy
PHOTO-ILLUSTRATION: SAM WHITNEY; GETTY IMAGES
The system was based on data—including age, ethnicity, country of origin, disability, and whether the subject’s home had hot water in the bathroom—from 200,000 residents in the city of Salta, including 12,000 women and girls between the ages of 10 and 19. Though there is no official documentation, from reviewing media articles and two technical reviews, we know that “territorial agents” visited the houses of the girls and women in question, asked survey questions, took photos, and recorded GPS locations. What did those subjected to this intimate surveillance have in common? They were poor, some were migrants from Bolivia and other countries in South America, and others were from Indigenous Wichí, Qulla, and Guaraní communities.
https://www.wired.com/story/argentina-algorithms-pregnancy-prediction/
While Salta’s AI system to “predict pregnancy” was hailed as futuristic, it can only be understood in light of this long history, particularly, in Miranda’s words, the persistent eugenic impulse that always “contains a reference to the future” and assumes that reproduction “should be managed by the powerful.”
L’Oréal and Alphabet’s Verily Are Working on Extremely Personal Skincare
Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst
The Shape of Health
Sushi Singularity is a Japanese restaurant set to open in Tokyo that aims to revolutionize sushi and the restaurant experience by 3D-printing meals.
Customers who make reservations will have to submit a kit with biometric samples to determine what nutrients should be in their meal. Read more (My Modern Met)
The One (Netflix)
The One is set five minutes in the future, in a world where a DNA test can find your perfect partner – the one person you’re genetically predisposed to fall passionately in love with. No matter how good your relationship, which one of us can honestly say we haven’t thought about whether there is someone better out there? What if a hair sample is all it takes to find them? The idea is simple, but the implications are explosive. We will never think of love and relationships in the same way again.
Forget swiping. Your next date will be based on your genes
Highly individualised information will increase users’ sensitivity towards recommended matches. Over time, users will demand a stronger sense of agency in the selection process with, for example, a choice between “wildcard matches” (for example: combine my profile with any partner ethnicity) and “precisely personalised suggestions” (such as exclude all partners with green eyes). Love at first sight and active searching of Mr and Mrs Right will be passé. Partner search will be automatic, distributed and global. The psychological and microbiological entanglement that typically occurs during a long-term relationship will happen before the couples meet. Read more (Wired)
Fears about genetically modified foods are cultural not scientific
Many people strongly object to genetically modified plants, but foods like sweet potatoes and grapefruits are a reminder that that these concerns are cultural rather than based on science.
Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24833100-200-fears-about-genetically-modified-foods-are-cultural-not-scientific/#ixzz6hN9BPNKA
Can CRISPR and other genome-editing technologies address climate change by being used to repair some of the havoc wreaked on our planet?
Genome editing may be one of the solutions to address climate change. A September 2020 report by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF), Gene Editing for the Climate: Biological Solutions for Curbing Greenhouse Emissions, emphasizes that gene-editing technology could be used to develop clean energy and climate solutions that policymakers have to date under-emphasized. Read more
Analyzing Trends with Tim Stock 