“Authority charisma is primarily based on a perception of power: the belief that this person has the power to affect our world.”
~Olivia Fox Cabane
Unexpected Articles from this Week
The multiverse debate has been raging for decades, with both sides offering compelling arguments. In recent years, the controversy has been further inflamed by an even more provocative suggestion: that we actually live in a computer simulation. This idea has been kicked around for centuries, with the philosopher René Descartes pondering what he called “the deceiving God” — the notion that the universe we inhabit is a construct, a fabricated dream world. But it was physicist and science fiction writer Nick Bostrom who gave the concept a more scientific formulation, in a 2003 paper. Read more here.
Scientists have reported a breakthrough discovery that a $3-per-pill epilepsy drug, lamotrigine, may be able to “switch off” autism symptoms in mice. Clinical trials studying lamotrigine’s impact on the protein MYT1L are being planned, and while the research is currently limited to mice, the results are promising. This could potentially lead to treatments and cures for autism in humans. Read more here.
A team of scientists has discovered the oldest known Oldowan stone tools used by early human ancestors 2.9 million years ago in Kenya. The tools were used to butcher hippos as well as to pound plant material. The finding expands the area associated with Oldowan technology’s earliest origins, and suggests that Paranthropus, an evolutionary relative of Homo, may have been capable of making stone tools. Analysis of the tools and animal bones found at the site suggest that the tools were used to process a variety of materials and foods, giving early human ancestors a new set of teeth to access different types of food. Read more here.
Microsoft recently released a new chatbot, powered by the technology behind startup OpenAI’s ChatGPT, for their Bing search engine. The chatbot can synthesize information from across the web, allowing users to quickly access information, such as creating a vacation itinerary or suggesting the best and most budget-friendly pet vacuum. Microsoft is hoping that with more testing, the chatbot can become more accurate and provide better services to the user. Read more here.
What I am reading
•NAC, Metformin Positively Impacts Long Covid (Article)
•How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market (Book)
•Trade Like a Stock Market Wizard (Book)
•Entrusted (Book)
If you are looking for an investment in your startup, please tell me about your project.
As always – I would enjoy hearing from you (what you found interesting, the format of this email, notes from your own explorations, etc.), feel free to just respond to this email.
Until next week,
Ian Eliason