It's not that Better All the Time is a weekly feature. It's just that — here lately — we've been doing about one a week.
Sometimes a picture of a kid standing in the driveway with a wagon full of apples is just that--a good and hopeful thing in a good and hopeful place.
-- James Lileks
Item 1
Strange food for thought
"We're about to be handed a bunch of powerful new capabilities ... to refashion ourselves, improve ourselves," notes Martha Farah, a director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania[.]
Modafinil was developed to treat narcolepsy, a rare condition causing daytime sleepiness. But now it is used by those who simply want to be wakeful and alert, and recently seven American track and field athletes admitted to using it to boost their mental preparation. Transcranial magnetic stimulation, used for nearly two decades to treat depression, has also been found to enhance problem-solving abilities in normal individuals.
The good news:
We certainly like the idea of being more alert, and being able to solve problems better. Such enhancements might just help us to get out more editions of Better All the Time!
Plus, these kinds of upgrades are only the first step. Eventually, we'll be able to load knowledge directly into our heads, making life an awful lot easier for, say, grad students and would-be contestants on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
The downside:
Improved brain imaging, or mapping, is yielding new techniques such as "brain fingerprinting," which purports to be able to locate memories within the brain, raising troubling possibilities for invasion of privacy. "There's nothing more private and personal than a person's memories," says Richard Glen Boire, codirector of the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics in Davis, Calif.
In addition to privacy concerns, there are questions as to what the long-term effects of some of these enhacements will be. Such concerns will have to be addressed adequately before enhancements become widespread
Unexpected consequences...
Berlitz and Pimsleur will become pharmaceutical companies. Those SAT and GRE prep books will be available in handy, easy-to-swallow capsules available over the counter.
Item 2
Scientists Demonstrate Teleportation with Atoms
Physicists in the United States and Austria for the first time have teleported "quantum states" between separate atoms.
The breakthrough may not yet make it possible for people to disappear and reappear somewhere else, like actors in a science fiction television show. But it could help lead to "quantum computing" technology that would make superfast computers.
The good news:
Quantum computers promise to solve a number of problems and bring almost unimaginable processing speeds. Plus, it isn't just (really good) science fiction that they may eventually be used to determine whether parallel universes exist.
The downside:
As the linked article indicates, we're still a long way off from what Star Trek fans normally think of when they hear the word "teleportation."
Anyway...
Previous teleportation experiments were done with photons. That's a significant step, seeing as how we're all made of atoms.
Item 3
Clothes launder own fabric
(via FuturePundit)
In the classic 1951 film, The Man in the White Suit, Alec Guinness played a scientist who invents a fabric that never gets dirty or wears out. A chemist's pipe dream perhaps, but the prospect of self-cleaning clothes might be getting closer.
Scientists have invented an efficient way to coat cotton cloth with tiny particles of titanium dioxide. These nanoparticles are catalysts that help to break down carbon-based molecules, and require only sunlight to trigger the reaction. The inventors believe that these fabrics could be made into self-cleaning clothes that tackle dirt, environmental pollutants and harmful microorganisms.
The good news:
Where we once hung laundry out to dry, perhaps we will soon hang it out to wash.
The downside:
Let's see...less time spent doing laundry...another good reason to go outdoors...ah, jeez — can we get back to you on the "downside" thing?
Item 4
Jobless Claims Dip, Leading Indicators Up
The number of new people signing up for jobless benefits dropped last week and a closely watched gauge of future economic activity rose more than expected in May, suggesting the U.S. economy can continue a sturdy expansion through the summer.
In another sign of a broadening recovery, the Labor Department's Producer Price Index, a measure of prices before goods reach store shelves, posted the largest increase in more than a year.
The good news:
Very little explanation required, here. Fewer people are out of work, and our best available yardstick says the good times are going to be with us for quite a while.
The downside:
The uptick in the Producer Price Index, while generally an indicator of a growing economy, also raises the possibility of inflation. Yikes.
However...
The other thing that the PPI is a good indicator of is the level of business confidence. Businesses who are feeling a little weak in the knees don't tend to raise their prices. Management confidence is an excellent indicator of economic growth, if only as a self-fulfilling prophecy. (All of those confident managers are just about bound to make something good happen.)
Item 5
Programs: ChoiceMail Puts a Stranglehold on Spam
I don't need Viagra, my credit is fine, and somehow I doubt the PhD offered via e-mail with "no required tests, classes, books, or interviews!" is going to be worth much. If you're inundated and infuriated by spam, the newly released free version of DigiPortal Software's ChoiceMail may prevent you from going postal.
The good news:
A reliable cure for Spam e-mails? And it's free?
If we weren't the BATT guys, we would swear that sounds to good to be true.
The downside:
There's a bit of work involved in setting up your initial "whitelist" of allowed e-mail addresses. After that, however, the software runs interference anytime an unknown e-mail address pops up. Legitimate correspondents get the chance to request to be included on the whitelist. Everybody else gets filtered out.
Anyway...
They need to create a version of this thing to weed out unwanted blog comments. We get awfully tired of deleting junk comments from one "Enis Enlargement," or whatever the heck his name is.
Item 6
Rebel Cleric Signals End to Shiite Insurgency in Iraq
(via Instapundit)
Radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr sent his fighters home on Wednesday in what may mark the end of a 10-week revolt against U.S.-led forces that once engulfed southern Iraq and Shi'ite Islam's holiest shrines.
With the formal end of U.S.-led occupation just two weeks away, Sadr issued a statement from his base in Najaf calling on his Mehdi Army militiamen to go home.
The good news:
Even though al-Sadr was hailed as the leader of the Iraqi "minutemen" by Michael Moore, and had his newspaper endorsed as a "legitimate voice" by John Kerry, he never really got very far with his plan to take over Iraq.
Good for Iraq.
The downside:
The news from Iraq isn't all good, but this is a very encouraging development. No doubt there are some radical clerics in Iran who are pretty disappointed by this turn of events, however.
Item 7
Monogamy in Our Genes?
Imagine turning a bed-hopping lothario into a dedicated, monogamous mate with the flip of a genetic switch. A new study shows it may be possible, at least for the notoriously promiscuous meadow mole.
Accomplishing the same feat in humans may be a bit more complicated, but researchers say they've found a gene that appears to have a profound effect on the social behavior of animals.
The good news:
We've reported in the past how technology may one day threaten the institution of marriage, so we're glad to see a scientific development that might actually help marriage.
Gene therapy would certainly be an unexpected arrow to put in the marriage counselor's quiver. But, hey, anything that helps...
The downside:
A development like this could have a devastating impact on the country music recording industry.
Moreover...
It's a good thing that Las Vegas currently doesn't rely too heavily on revenues brought in by meadow moles. Or they might be in trouble, too!
Reader Kert was good enough to point out our lack of space news in this edition (see below), so we thought we should try to make up from the deficiency. Fortunately, Winds of Change has just published the second edition of Winds of Discovery, which includes a number of interesting items about space — along with a thorough and informative roundup of other science news. Check it out!
Better All The Time is compiled by Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon.
I am therefore I am.
*Sorry, but references to "beaming up" or "Scotty" would have just been too obvious. (Back)
Er, visit some of the space blogs, theres tons of very important Good Stuff today. Enough to make another 7 entries.
Posted by: kert at June 17, 2004 04:50 PMZoinks! No space item! It's like that nightmare where you go to school and you forgot to wear your pants.
Stephen is going to kill me...
Posted by: Phil at June 17, 2004 05:06 PMdon't you remember the downside in the movie The Man in the White Suit?
the downside was that millions were put out of work, the whole economy collapsing, etc.
but then again, the movie makers weren't economists and had never heard of Comparative Advantage...and apparently didn't really believe in the free market. (Communists! :) )
Oh, that would have been a godsend in the '90s. I could have kept my dress and everything!
Posted by: Monica at June 17, 2004 06:10 PMI've seen news of the "fidelity gene" making the rounds since yesterday.
Sorry to play killjoy again, but I strongly doubt that human relationships, functional or dysfunctional, can be reduced to something so simple. I think evolutionary psychologists worth their salt would be the first to state this.
All this gene does, if it has any effect at all on human brain development or brain function, is to introduce a broad and vague tendency. How this actually manifests itself as it combines with other genetic, biochemical, social and psychological factors is really anyone's guess.
Also, I have this disturbing vision of incompetent, or merely overworked, marriage counselors prescribing "happily ever after marriage pills" for people instead of trying to work their problems through and perhaps recommending a separation that might benefit them. There is already some controversy about inappropriate prescription of ritalin and prozac to schoolchildren when therapy would be sufficient. Something to think about.
Additionally, if this gene manifests as a strong and generalized tendency, say, in a manner similar to addiction--not merely love for one's spouse or children but love of leaders or love of country. Think of the possible downsides when combined with the technologies emerging from Item 1--extremely effective indoctrination. Obviously such "brain editing" technology will be out of reach of poor countries (Ones most likely to be dictatorial.) to start with, but costs might fall.
Posted by: Mr. Farlops at June 17, 2004 06:39 PMWait a second. I'm made up of carbon based molecules.
So if I go in the sun wearing the new clothes what will happen?
The good news:
Each person wearing the new clothes will lose 1/4 pound of weight per day in the sunshine.
The downside:
It's all lost in skin.
Mr. Farlops
If the gene introduces a "broad and vague" tendency to remain faithful, the placebo effect alone would probably be enough to help a lot of guys who (on one level) want to remain faithful to their wives but who believe that they "can't control themselves."
On the other hand, if it really is a "strong and generalized tenedency" that gets reversed, then there will be more than a placebo effect, but in that case those guys aren't so far off when they say they can't help it.
I would agree that having having such technology in the hands of government or incompetent practitioners is a risk. But these kinds of technologies are on their way whether we think they're risky or not. The challenge will be to see that people are empowered to improve their own lives, rather than have "improvement" defined for them or even worse forced upon them.
Posted by: Phil at June 21, 2004 07:03 AMPhil,
Well maybe a pill might help, but any therapist worth the money would be the first to tell their patients that a pill alone isn't enough to fix the problems of life and relationships. I was just objecting to the oversimplification and reductionism.
However I entirely agree that the potential to completely re-engineer our species is coming whether we want it or not. It's impossible to stop these advances. The only course open is to accept, understand and try to guide these technologies to beneficial ends.
Posted by: Mr. Farlops at June 23, 2004 12:26 AM