Guest Thinkers — August 19, 2011

Evolution made Self-Aware

BY JASON SILVA

Physicist Freeman Dyson has spoken of a new “Age of Wonder” centered on computers and biology. He has artfully articulated that in the near future “a new generation of artists will be writing genomes with the fluency that Blake and Byron wrote verses.”

What I find the most astonishing about this statement is the implication that biology itself is now seen as a canvas subject to aesthetic design- it implies that mankind will apply the intentions of his mind to influence the unfolding of biological processes. Think about this for a second. Evolution itself has just evolved and become self-aware.

The following video offers my take on stem-cell research, which I believe is a hugely important step towards mastering the information processes of our biology:

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Jason Silva is a Fellow of the Hybrid Reality Institute.

a computer generated image of a human brain.

Thinking

The great free will debate featuring Michio Kaku and Steven Pinker

Who — or what — really controls your mind?

Building destroyed by the Halifax Explosion. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

The Past

The largest accidental explosion of all time

More than a century ago, Halifax suffered an accidental blast one-fifth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

a collage of photos of a man with a hat and a book.

High Culture

6 great books with wildly unreliable narrators

Dive into the twisted truths and concealed realities told by literature’s most unreliable narrators.

a group of five matches on a pink background.

The Well

Signs you’re burned out — and how to bounce back

If you don’t feel better after the weekend, the “burnout paradox” could explain why.

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7 min

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with

Laurie Santos

Starts With A Bang

The trick to instantly identifying JWST images

If you can identify a foreground star, the spike patterns are a dead giveaway as to whether it’s a JWST image or any other observatory.

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