People,
My background is:
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I did a Genetics / Zoology degree in the 70s.
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I did 5 years of Biomedical Research (Haemophilia) but then
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got into IT and stayed there for 30+ years.
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I almost finished a PhD in Population Genetics Simulations of Threatened Species (UNSW again) but I abandoned writing up the thesis because I feel that wasting time on maybe saving a few individual species is like asking the captain of the Titanic to convene a special meeting of interested persons re having a formal debate about whether or not we should shuffle the deck chairs on the ship . . while the ship is going down . .
As I have been getting older and more decrepit, particularly for the last 20 years, I have been interested in Radical Life Extension (RLE ie Cryonics and Neural Archives) but unlike when I was 10 and read Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” and thought that our civilisation might still last a couple of hundred years, I am now convinced it might be as little as a few years. So while some form of RLE might have been a long-shot even with a continuing, advanced technological civilisation, it is impossible if civilisation collapses and our species goes extinct . . along with most other species . .
See here for more info:
I am the Ex Off of the Cryonics Association of Australasia:
http://cryonics.org.au
I am an Ex Dir of the Neural Archives Foundation:
I am a member of the LifeBoat Foundation.
I was a long-time member of the Australian Labor Party but was expelled once when I was an Alderman on the Sydney City Council (1980-84) - for opposing a deal between the ALP and the Libs and breaking a deal between the ALP and the progressive Independents. I was a long-time organiser for the Nuclear Free Zones Secretariat coalition of Councils and the founder of the “Anti-Nuclear Sydney City Aldermen” group.
I am still seriously considering a last minute NSW Senate candidacy for the upcoming Federal Election on a basically RLE platform:
but I need some feedback ASAP from Ben or someone else appropriate about how I can enhance my chatbot (and the costs of doing so - I particularly want to make use of Sing Net) with some minimal AI in the next month or so.
Phil.