New blog address

I will henceforth be posting new articles at the following address: http://djoffe.com/blog/

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Stopping Aging

Some thoughts on aging. Aging seems to me 'unnecessary'. Imagine all the benefits if we could cure aging, and have lifespans of over 1000 years. If we had 1000-year+ lifespans, journeys to other stars that may take e.g. 'hundreds' of years would suddenly seem reachable 'within a human lifespan'. I see curing aging as ultimately "just" a (big, complex) technological problem to solve. A big complex puzzle with lots of pieces, but a solvable puzzle. A very big, complex and difficult problem to solve (to be sure) - but I feel it must be solvable. Our bodies are ultimately just machines. Really complex machines. And solvable possibly potentially within most of our lifespans, if we try. Attitudes like "Oh, we are just meant to age" seem like confounders to progress toward solving these problems - we could solve it faster if more people dedicated attention to it instead of simply assuming it's unsolvable, or adopting irrational quasi-religious v...
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The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis and the 'Wet Look'

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An Aquatic Ape I think the strongest 'circumstantial evidence' supporting a partial form of the (controversial)  aquatic ape hypothesis * is something I don't think I've seen mentioned before: The simple fact that we find  wet Homo sapiens sexually attractive. If you think about it, doesn't it seem a bit arbitrary? E.g. would gorillas find other wet gorillas sexy, or would rats find other wet rats sexy? How universal is this? If we consider the concept of sexual choice ** in evolution, then if our ancestors were once partially evolving "in that direction", then we might expect that they may have felt  a mate choice preference  for the entailed characteristics of a hypothetical "aquatic ape" (such as the 'wet look', as well as finding smooth, hairless skin comparatively more attractive, as we do). To consider this argument, look at a picture like the one above (or  this ,  this ,  this ,  this , or  this ) ... then (for...
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Open Space

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Open Space logo We already benefit from open source software, open hardware, open robotics, open datasets, even open CPUs — built through the work of many individuals. Could openness someday extend to space tech as well? Open spacecraft designs? Habitats? If openness transformed computing, could it also transform space? This is a future-looking idea, or question, may we someday be able to download, say, even open spaceship designs or other space tech the way we download open software or hardware designs now? https://djoffe.com/space/  explores this idea. Open Space github repo  
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