More on CRISPR, “the most important invention”

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

Mitchell’s laws:
•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money.
•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes..

•Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and the rest..
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..
============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

In the previous post, we discussed CRISPR-Cas9 (pronounced: crisper) and described it as the most important invention since the Internet. That well may be an understatement.

CRISPR will change the future of all mankind.

In reality, CRISPR actually was invented by nature — specifically, by bacteria — as a defense against viruses. CRISPR allows certain bacteria to slice up virus DNA to make the virus harmless.

CRISPR provides a very fast, very easy method for editing nearly any gene in any living organism. It can disable a gene, repair a gene or substitute one gene for another.

Here are some of its potential uses:

Breakthrough gene editor sparks ethics debate

Many people hope doctors will soon find a way to use the gene editor to fix mutations that cause genetic diseases, a boon for gene therapy.

Almost immediately after the technology debuted, scientists turned to CRISPR to genetically engineer organisms in the lab, including rhesus macaques, mice, zebrafish, fruit flies, yeast and some plants.

In October, researchers reported setting a record for the most genes edited at once (SN: 11/14/15, p. 6). That record — 62 genes — removed viruses embedded in pig DNA to make pig organs safer for human transplants.

Chinese researchers announced the same month that they had successfully edited dogs with CRISPR, producing a female beagle with a mutation that resulted in more muscular thighs than her unedited littermates.

CRISPR has an application to gene drives — engineered genes designed to break typical inheritance rules and get passed to nearly all of a carrier’s offspring.

In late November and early December, two teams reported the creation of gene drives that could help eradicate malaria.

Great promise comes with these developments, but there are also fears that gene drive–altered organisms could escape the lab and infect wild animals or could run amok in other ways.

Prevent and cure genetic diseases, facilitate animal-to-human transplants (assuring an unlimited supply), improve human and animal muscularity, eliminate mosquito-borne diseases — and that’s just for starters.

Not all bodies act their age

People grow old at vastly different rates.

A study, out of Duke University, analyzed the health of nearly one thousand 38-year-olds and found that some resembled people a decade older while others appeared years younger.

The finding tapped into a mystery that has long captivated scientists and the public alike — “why some people can live to 120 with no disease, and others are already in bad shape at age 70,” says molecular biologist Martin Hetzer of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif.

Molecular mayhem within cells may lie at the root of aging. Populations of proteins in the brains and livers of rats appear to become damaged over time.

In healthy young people, long stretches of DNA pack tightly together in neat bundles called heterochromatin. These bundles aren’t packaged quite so well in old people.

The molecular events identified this year add to previously discovered signs of aging — the shortening of telomeres, the protective caps on chromosomes, for example, and damage to mitochondria, the energy factories of cells.

Damaged proteins, packaging of DNA, shortened telomeres — these all might be addressed via CRISPR.

And then there’s cancer:

These animals don’t get cancer, and scientists think they could hold a cure

The root cause of cancer is a chance mutation in a group of cells, which is why it’s puzzling that elephants get cancer so rarely – they have 100 times the number of cells us humans do, yet on average only 1 in 20 elephants develop the disease compared to 1 in 5 people.

A team of researchers in the US looked closer, and found an abundance of a gene called TP53. This gene is known for its ability to repair damaged DNA and thus halt the spread of cancer, and it’s some 20 times more common in elephants than it is in human beings. It appears elephants have developed more of these genes as they’ve evolved, in part to protect calves born to older mothers.

Naked mole rats are even more miraculous – they never develop cancer, even when scientists try and induce it artificially. The mechanism involves a polymer called hyaluronan.

Eradicating this polymer in naked mole rats allows cancers to spread as they normally would – which in turn suggests that hyaluronan could be crucial in keeping the disease at bay. The underground creatures have around five times the level of hyaluronan as humans do.

CRISPR could help modify human DNA to produce more hyaluronan. Goodby cancer.

Many animals live much longer than do we humans. Some marine animals live 500+ years.

If we can discover which stretches of DNA account for any species’ longer life, we may be able to duplicate and implant those DNA stretches in humans, allowing us to live 200 years, 500 years, or even more.

Warming continues apace — “hiatus” didn’t exist

A supposed pause in global warming that has been fodder for climate change doubters never really existed.

In June, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that they had finally found the cause of the hiatus, and it wasn’t shifting winds or pint-size volcanic eruptions as some scientists proposed. Instead, small biases and gaps in temperature data had created an artificial plateau.

“What we’re doing right now to the climate is unprecedented,” says Richard Zeebe, a paleoclimatologist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Scientists now predict that the Arctic Ocean will have its first ice-free summer sometime around 2052, almost a decade sooner than previously projected. The rapid warming in the Arctic may also cause more deadly heat waves across the Northern Hemisphere.

What does CRISPR have to do with climate change? Here’s what:

Climate Change, Threats and Impacts

Rising temperatures and changing patterns of rain and snow are forcing trees and plants around the world to move toward polar regions and up mountain slopes.

As plant communities try to adjust to the changing climate by moving toward cooler areas, the animals that depend on them will be forced to move. Development and other barriers may block the migration of both plants and animals.

In the tropics, increased sea temperatures are causing more coral reefs to “bleach,” as the heat kills colorful algae that are necessary to coral health and survival.

As temperatures rise globally, droughts will become more frequent and more severe, with potentially devastating consequences for agriculture, water supply and human health.

Many plants and animals are genetically suited to warmer, drier (or wetter) conditions.

Consider the probability the CRISPER technique will allow us to implant appropriate genes into affected animals and plants: Grasses, trees, algae, etc. that will allow them to flourish under future climate conditions.

“Cool weather” animals and plants wouldn’t need to migrate to cooler climes.

We may even be able to slow or ward off climate change by increasing the CO2 depletion ability of algae, trees, grasses and other plants.

Man, the explorer, continuously yearns to “go where no man has gone before,” and the greatest untracked territory is outer space. Only the moon has felt man’s step. But to put it modestly:

Interstellar Space travel is really difficult!

Our travellers will have to spend their entire journey floating about in the weightlessness of space. This likely has adverse health effects over time.

Our travellers would need (to carry) enough food (and water).

The psychological stresses of living in space for (many years) are immense and possibly insurmountable.

There are other problems, too. Space is big. Travelling beyond our solar system would require more than a lifetime.

And then there is deadly radiation. Space is filled with it. Adequate shielding would be heavy and that extra weight would compromise the trip.

Some animals hibernate. Their need for food and water and oxygen is reduced.

Some part of their DNA allows them to hibernate, and if that part could be included in human DNA, we could hibernate too. Our need for food, water and oxygen during a space trip, would be reduced, and the problem of boredom eliminated.

In a state of hibernation, humans might live long enough to travel to the stars.

The DNA of certain extremophiles, such as the bacteria Deinococcus radiodurans and tardigrades allows them to withstand acute doses of ionizing radiation. There is strong evidence that radioresistance can be genetically determined and inherited. the proper DNA, humans might be able to withstand space radiation.

Finally, there is the effect of zero gravity on the body. Human muscles and bones weaken. Fish live in a low perceived gravity environment. It might be possible that human DNA can be adjusted so that low or absent gravity does not weaken muscles and bones.

While transplanting electric eel DNA to humans may not help us save on our electric bills, that may be one of the few things CRISPR technology doesn’t do. CRISPR technology might even help us to become smarter, so we would be better able to use the technology — in a rising helix of accomplishment.

We are entering the CRISPR Age, folks.

To paraphrase: “CRISPER, one minuscule step for a gene, one giant step for mankind.”

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually Click here
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

The Ten Steps will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
——————————————————————————————————————————————

10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK

Recessions begin an average of 2 years after the blue line first dips below zero. There was a dip in 2015. Recessions are cured by a rising red line.

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

The most important invention since the Internet

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

Mitchell’s laws:
•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money.
•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes..

•Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and the rest..
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..
============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

There have been select technological advances in human history that have “changed everything” — the use of fire, the lever, the wheel, the knife, the use of electricity, the computer, the Internet, to name a few, and now . . .

You live at a time of the most important invention since the Internet and you may not yet have heard of it.

It was invented by two women, Jennifer Doudna (UC Berkeley) and Emmanuelle Charpentier (Max Planck Institute).

The invention: CRISPR-Cas9 (pronounced: crisper).

Sound familiar? No? It soon will be all you’ll think about.

Everything You Need to Know About CRISPR, the New Tool that Edits DNA

CRISPR allows scientists to edit genomes with unprecedented precision, efficiency, and flexibility.

The past few years have seen a flurry of “firsts” with CRISPR, from creating monkeys with targeted mutations to preventing HIV infection in human cells.

Earlier this month, Chinese scientists announced they applied the technique to nonviable human embryos, hinting at CRISPR’s potential to cure any genetic disease. And yes, it might even lead to designer babies.

“Designer babies” is the pejorative used to describe human babies that have been “improved” genetically to be faster, taller, smarter, better-looking, stronger, disease-free or in some other ways, to have been changed far more quickly than what breeding by nature accomplishes slowly.

This power is threatening as all power is.

There is an irony to the fact that, for instance, assuring your baby is free of horrible genetic and communicable diseases is an anathema. A distant relation of mine is in a family containing the dreaded Huntington gene. I’m sure they and their afflicted children, would have welcomed a bit of “designing.”

But power corrupts, and CRISPR truly is powerful, so expect the corrupt to use it for corrupt purposes.

CRISPR is actually a naturally-occurring, ancient defense mechanism found in a wide range of bacteria.

CRISPR is one part of bacterias’ immune system, which keeps bits of dangerous viruses around so it can recognize and defend against those viruses next time they attack.

The second part of the defense mechanism is a set of enzymes called Cas (CRISPR-associated proteins), which can precisely snip DNA and slice the hell out of invading viruses.

There are a number Cas enzymes, but the best known is called Cas9. It comes from Streptococcus pyogenes, better known as the bacteria that causes strep throat.

In short, the whole thing is as natural as eating corn on the cob (a human-modified grain). Natural, yes. But that is not where its power lies.

All biologists have to do is feed Cas9 the right sequence, called a guide RNA, and boom, you can cut and paste bits of DNA sequence into the genome wherever you want.

All you have to do is design a target sequence using an online tool and order the guide RNA to match. It takes no longer than few days for the guide sequence to arrive by mail.

You can even repair a faulty gene by cutting out it with CRISPR/Cas9 and injecting a normal copy of it into a cell.

Fast, cheap and powerful, CRISPR will change the world. The question: Will it be a better world?

There already is work being done to apply CRISPR to genetic diseases of the blood, like sickle-cell anemia, where we can repair the mutation that causes it.

CRISPR could, for example, be used to introduce genes that slowly kill off the mosquitos spreading malaria (or the genes for harboring malaria).

Or put the brakes on invasive species like weeds. It could be the next great leap in conserving or enhancing our environment.

CRISPR has been getting a lot of coverage as a future medical treatment. But focusing on medicine alone is narrow-minded.

Precise genome engineering has the potential to alter not just us, but the entire world and all its ecosystems.

Of course, the above-mentioned use of fire, the lever, the wheel, the knife, the use of electricity, the computer, the Internet, etc. all have altered the entire world and its ecosystems. Should we have done without them?

Of course not, but power needs control, and so far, there has been little control over CRISPR.

Easy DNA Editing Will Remake the World. Buckle Up.

Using (CRISPR), researchers have already reversed mutations that cause blindness, stopped cancer cells from multiplying, and made cells impervious to the virus that causes AIDS.

Agronomists have rendered wheat invulnerable to killer fungi like powdery mildew, hinting at engineered staple crops that can feed a population of 9 billion on an ever-warmer planet.

Bioengineers have used Crispr to alter the DNA of yeast so that it consumes plant matter and excretes ethanol, promising an end to reliance on petrochemicals.

With CRISPR, we theoretically could rid the world of every single mosquito, quickly, cheaply and easily (but then, what of the bats and fish that eat mosquitoes and their larvae?)

Over time, we could rid the world of all human diseases. We could extend human life. We could grow more and better foods. We could eliminate any species.

And, of course, this being an economics blog, we should mention money, and as we spoke earlier, corruption:

Just before Doudna’s team published its discovery in Science, Feng Zhang, a molecular biologist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, applied for a federal grant to study Crispr-Cas9 as a tool for genome editing.

Doudna’s publication shifted him into hyperspeed. He knew it would prompt others to test Crispr on genomes. And Zhang wanted to be first.

Zhang had asked the Broad Institute and MIT, where he holds a joint appointment, to file for a patent on his behalf.

Doudna had filed her patent application—which was public information—seven months earlier. But the attorney filing for Zhang checked a box on the application marked “accelerate” and paid a fee, usually somewhere between $2,000 and $4,000.

A series of emails followed between agents at the US Patent and Trademark Office and the Broad’s patent attorneys, who argued that their claim was distinct.

A little more than a year after those human-cell papers came out, Doudna (learned) that Zhang, the Broad Institute, and MIT had indeed been awarded the patent on Crispr-Cas9 as a method to edit genomes. “I was quite surprised,” she says, “because we had filed our paperwork several months before he had.”

The Broad win started a firefight. The University of California amended Doudna’s original claim to overlap Zhang’s and sent the patent office an 114-page application for an interference proceeding—a hearing to determine who owns Crispr—this past April.

In Europe, several parties are contesting Zhang’s patent on the grounds that it lacks novelty. Zhang points to his grant application as proof that he independently came across the idea.

The stakes here are high. Any company that wants to work with anything other than microbes will have to license Zhang’s patent; royalties could be worth billions of dollars, and the resulting products could be worth billions more.

When the stakes are high, the corrupt move in. And as yet, we don’t even know what “corrupt” means with regard to the use of CRISPR.

This post already has grown too long, but I urge you to use the links referenced above and learn the many biological and ethical implications of CRISPR.

You should make it your mission to learn about the most important invention since the Internet.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually Click here
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

The Ten Steps will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
——————————————————————————————————————————————

10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK

Recessions begin an average of 2 years after the blue line first dips below zero. There was a dip in 2015.

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

When will the next recession arrive?

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

Mitchell’s laws:
•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money.
•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes..

•Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and the rest..
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..
============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

If you believe the federal debt and deficit are too high, “unsustainable” and otherwise negative for the economy, here are a few graphs you may find interesting:

Monetary Sovereignty
After rebounding from a previous recession, the blue line drops below “0” in 1972. The next recession follows two years later.

monetary sovereignty
The blue line drops below “0” in 1978. The next recession follows two years later.

monetary sovereignty
The blue line drops below “0” in the 2nd quarter of 1981. The next recession follows one quarter later.

monetary sovereignty
After the blue line first drops below “0” in 1988, the next recession follows two years later.

monetary sovereignty
After the blue line first drops below “0” in 1994, the next recession follows six years later.

monetary sovereignty
After the blue line drops below “0” in 2006, the next recession follows two years later.

monetary sovereignty
The blue line fell below “0” in 2015.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Summary: After the Federal Debt Held by the Public as Percent of Gross Domestic Product fell, year-to-year, recessions came:
— Two years later,
— Two years later,
— One quarter later,
— Two years later,
— Six years later, and
— Two years later.

Here is a summary graph, from when the U.S. abandoned all gold standards and became Monetarily Sovereign:
monetary sovereignty
Since the U.S. became Monetarily Sovereign, every recession has been preceeded by a year-to-year reduction in the GDP/Debt ratio.

Cutting the GDP/Debt ratio has been a precursor to recessions. The average length of time between a reduction in the GDP/Debt ratio and a recession: Two years.

Anyone for Debt reduction, please raise your hand.

Then explain why you like recessions.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually Click here
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

The Ten Steps will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
——————————————————————————————————————————————

10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK

Recessions begin an average of 2 years after the blue line first dips below zero. There was a dip in 2015. Recessions are cured by a rising red line.

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit drops, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth rises. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

Are we the Interim Species?

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

Mitchell’s laws:
•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money.
•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes..

•Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and the rest..
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..
============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

The universe is not static. Every living species evolved from an earlier species. All species are “interim.” Either a species evolves or it dies. No species remains permanent.

To what are we humans interim? Are we those dinosaurs, whose fate was a dead end, or are we those dinosaurs, whose fate was to continue as birds?

Or both?

Despite Buck Rogers, despite Star Trek, despite Star Wars, homo sapiens may never fulfill our dream of colonizing the distant reaches of our solar system — Pluto or even the moons of Saturn — much less planets of other stars, and even much, much less, planets in other galaxies.

So when the earth is destroyed, either by our own hands, or by meteors or by a swelling sun, we will have found nowhere to hide — even if we still exist.

Our memories, our thoughts, our goals, our accomplishments — our footprints on the universe — all will disappear.

Or will they?

You may have read about the development of brain/computer interfaces (BCI)

By Antonio Regalado on January 14, 2015
Electronic brain interfaces may give paralyzed people control over their environments.

A few paralyzed patients could soon be using a wireless brain-computer interface able to stream their thought commands as quickly as a home Internet connection.

Researchers at Brown University and a Utah company, Blackrock Microsystems, have commercialized a wireless device that can be attached to a person’s skull and transmit via radio, thought commands collected from a brain implant.

Implants in the brains of paralyzed people show that electrical signals emitted by neurons inside the cortex could be recorded, then used to steer a wheelchair or direct a robotic arm.

The new interface is attached to the skull and wired to electrodes inside the brain. Inside the device are circuits to digitize the information, and a radio to beam it to a receiver. There, the information is available to move a cursor across a computer screen.

Although the implant can transmit the equivalent of about 200 DVDs’ worth of data a day, that’s not much information compared to what the brain generates in executing even the simplest movement.

Of the billions of neurons in the human cortex, scientists have never directly measured more than 200 or so simultaneously. “You and I are using our brains as petabyte machines,” says Nurmikko. “By that standard, 100 megabits per second is going to look very modest.”

The Brown scientists have plans to try it on paralyzed patients, but haven’t yet done so.

Eventually, scientists say, all the electronics will have to be implanted completely inside the body, with no wires reaching through the skin, since that can lead to infections.

Last year, the Brown researchers reported testing a prototype of a fully implanted interface, with the electronics housed inside a titanium can that can be sealed under the scalp.

That device is not yet commercialized.

Machines are stronger and faster than we are. And can do some “thinking” processes faster and more accurately than we can. So what should we do about that?

I. We could develop better brain/computer interfaces, allowing us to control machines with our minds, while experiencing what they experience.

The machines would handle the physicality — play games, explore, work — while we direct them.

Rather than sending rudimentary “rovers” to alien planets, or trying to send people on the dangerous and costly journeys to those planets, imagine that instead, we send robot surrogates. We not only control them with our minds, but we see, feel, hear, smell and taste what they do, all in the safety and comfort of our living rooms.

Would our brains and bodies naturally evolve, to better accommodate brain/computer interfaces? Would we intentionally evolve our brain and body genetics to do that?

Will, over time, our frail, illness and accident-prone bodies become unnecessary, even a liability, as the merger of our brains and machines evolves?

Consider that devices like today’s incredible “smart” phones and mind control over prostheses surely would have seemed unlikely science fiction a mere 100 years ago.

So, if you visualize our future being rows upon rows of glass jars, each containing a living human brain, tended by machines, as the evolutionary future of humankind — well, why not?

Or:

II. We can continue improving machines to mirror our thinking processes. Watson, the computer that answers questions posed in natural language and which beat human contestants in the show, “Jeopardy,” is a step in that direction.

Rather than evolving our brains and bodies to accommodate brain/computer interfaces, will we simply evolve machines to match and then exceed our brains?

Currently, we head in both directions — creating better brain/machine interfaces and creating better “thinking” machines — both of which have the potential to end the homo sapiens line, while continuing the memories, thoughts, goals and accomplishments that make us human.

Humanity would continue, but not as a species — only in surrogate form.

At what point does our morality become an important consideration?

Today, we strive to prevent the eradication of species, and we lament our failures. Many species disappear each year, and we mourn their passing. We speak of “endangered species” and try to save them.

We view the eradication of species (except for certain viruses and mosquitos) as not only being uneconomic, but immoral (according to the morality we ourselves have invented).

What right, we ask, do we have to play God by ending a species line?

Yet, we endanger our own species, not only with pollution, climate change and wars, but with scientific advances in computer and biological technology that will end the homo sapiens species.

If we are making our species obsolete, is this an immoral thing or a necessary and inevitable result of the brains we have been given?

What are the economic and moral considerations?

All species are interim, thus we are interim, thus our morality is interim. Are we, on this “pale, blue dot,” here by some greater design, to be one in a long line of Interim Species that eventually colonizes and unites the universe?

Is that our purpose?

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually Click here
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

The Ten Steps will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
——————————————————————————————————————————————

10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK

Recessions begin an average of 2 years after the blue line first dips below zero. There was a dip in 2015. 

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY