A Brain Implant that Automatically Detects and Kills Pain?

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It’s basically a tag-team of spy and sleeper agent. The “spy” listens to electrical chatter in a brain region that processes pain—along with dozens of other tasks—and decodes it in real time. Once it detects an electrical signal that suggests “pain found,” it sends the information to the “sleeper agent,” a computer chip implanted in the front part of the brain. The chip then automatically triggers a light beam to stimulate the region, activating neurons that can override pain signals.

Sources: https://singularityhub.com/2021/06/29/a-new-brain-implant-automatically-detects-and-kills-pain-in-real-time/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-021-00736-7

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/789517

 

 

Could CRISP eliminate the need for opioids?

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Pain can soon be genetically eradicated.

Chronic pain, which is classified as a pain that lasts for 3 months or more, affects between 19 to 50 percent of the world population. Despite its prevalence, it remains a difficult diagnosis to treat well. In a new study, researchers say there may soon be a new treatment on the market to treat this pain thanks to the famous gene-editing toolkit — CRISPR-Cas9. This technology could allow patients to side-step the need for opioids altogether.

Source

https://www.inverse.com/innovation/crispr-chronic-pain-opioid-study

 

The Challenge of Determining Whether an A.I. Is Sentient, by Carissa Véliz

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“…sentience may go unnoticed for years, as was the case with Martin Pistorious [1] … Because brain death can be misdiagnosed [2], and because we have little understanding of the necessary and sufficient causes for consciousness and therefore cannot be certain of when someone might be in pain, some experts have called for the use of anesthesia [3] for organ donation procedures.”

Read more:

https://slate.com/technology/2016/04/the-challenge-of-determining-whether-an-a-i-is-sentient.html

[1] https://www.ted.com/talks/martin_pistorius_how_my_mind_came_back_to_life_and_no_one_knew?language=en

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/books/review/the-undead-by-dick-teresi.html?_r=0

[3] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.1365-2044.2000.055002105.x

 

An overview of wagers for reducing future suffering

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“Pascal’s wager is a famous argument for why one should believe in God. If God exists, then eternal life in heaven or hell is at stake, but if God doesn’t exist, one’s belief does not matter much – so one should wager on the former. (The validity of this argument has been discussed at length.)

More generally, whenever we consider two hypotheses H1 and H2 about the world, the stakes may be higher in one of the two cases – say, if H1 is true. This is a reason to act as if H1 is true, even if it is not most likely. For instance, the precautionary principle emphasises caution towards potentially harmful innovations (e.g. a new medicine) as long as we have substantial uncertainty.

In this post, I will consider wagers that are relevant to effective altruism – that is, hypotheses that would allow us to have a particularly large impact. I’m most interested in reducing future suffering, but many of these wagers also apply to other goals.”

Researchers discover technique to alter a patient’s DNA that could cut chronic agony for sufferers

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Scientists have discovered how to switch off a key ‘pain gene’, dramatically raising hopes of a long-term treatment to relieve the agony of serious illness for millions.

The revolutionary technique alters a patient’s DNA, silencing a gene that transmits pain signals up the spine.

Preliminary studies on mice have already proven successful and US researchers plan to start human trials next year, potentially offering terminally-ill patients and those with chronic conditions the prospect of pain-free care.

So suppressing this ‘pain gene’ – called SCN9A – could be used as an alternative to morphine, helping cancer patients stay on chemotherapy longer and enabling them to live their final months more fully. Navega’s method involves placing the CRISPR-editing tool inside particles of a harmless virus, which acts like a Trojan horse.

These virus particles are injected into the spine, much like an epidural, after which they ‘infect’ neuron cells. Once inside a cell, the CRISPR tool is released and gets to work silencing the pain gene.

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Opportunities for an astronomical reduction of suffering

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This is a list of situations, projects or initiatives in which there could be an “astronomical” (huge) reduction in the amount of suffering compared to what currently exists or is expected. Many of these situations (but not necessarily all of them) involve a high risk in the sense that they are difficult projects whose probability of success is very low. In some cases, this may happen because they are projects that assume as certain some hypotheses for which there is little evidence, so we can consider them unlikely, although not impossible.

I insist that the only criterion to appear on this list is that the project or idea supposes an astronomical reduction of the suffering that we believe exists or will exist. The list can include both remote possibilities and speculative approaches as well as conventional and highly probable scenarios.

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