If the Transformer was invented in 2017, why did it take five years for the chatbots to appear in late 2022 and 2023? There were a number of reasons for this, but it wasn’t due to inactivity. Once the Transformer concept was in place, work did continue, but it
How is it that all these different AI flavors appeared at once? Usually, when there is a new technology that is so unexpected and counterintuitive (AI? That’s just a cheap, repackaged search engine), the pioneering company has about five years before competitors catch up. The iPod was introduced in
Zombie cells: we all have them. These senescent cells are cells that have stopped dividing due to damage but refuse to die. They linger in tissues, spewing a toxic cocktail of inflammatory chemicals known as the SASP (Senescence-Associated Secretory Phenotype—I know, it’s on the tip of your
The search for immortality reminds me of the centuries-old pursuit of alchemy. Instead of turning lead into gold, we aim to turn our mortal bodies, long insulted by nature, into gleaming, immortal beings. In the eyes of the medieval alchemist, lead was not a fixed element but simply "
I read the Epic of Gilgamesh recently and was surprised that even the oldest surviving epic was about immortality, the same thing I’m writing about. Go figure. Even as writing was just beginning about 4,000 years ago, the specter of death dangled over the human consciousness. In the