Elon Musk wants to put chips in our brains. I’d prefer to stay human

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Musk claims Neuralink will rescue humanity. But without our biological flaws, we lose an essential part of who we are

The announcement that a Chinese scientist, Dr He Jiankui, had used the gene-editing technique Crispr to engineer the world’s first genetically modified babies provoked a storm of protests. Though Dr He said he was motivated to help families struggling with genetic diseases, scientists around the world have warned that the experiment poses grave risks not only to the twins involved and their progeny but also to our entire species, and many ethicists have agreed.

On the same day the story broke, the entrepreneur Elon Musk announced that one of his companies, Neuralink, was planning to save the human race by building a hard drive to be implanted in the brain. The goal, Musk explained, was to wire a chip into your skull, giving you the digital intelligence that is poised to surge far ahead of mere biological intelligence. Without that chip – that is, without fully incorporating artificial intelligence into ourselves – our species, Musk argued, is doomed. In the robotic, algorithm-dominated universe that lies just ahead, we will be restricted, if we survive at all, to a few protected zones, comparable to the steadily shrinking territories, little more than big cages, where the last chimpanzees and mountain gorillas eke out their existence.

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Turkey masses troops near Kurdish-held town in northern Syria

Turkey can’t wait to start the Kurdish Genocide or Turk Genocide 2.0
First the Armenians and second the Kurds. 3.0 will be for anyone who opposes the leader.

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Buildup comes despite Ankara saying it would delay offensive after US pullout announced

Turkey is massing troops near a town in northern Syria held by a Kurdish-led force backed by the US, a war monitor and Turkish media have said.

The buildup comes despite Ankara saying it would delay a promised offensive in eastern Syria in the wake of Donald Trump’s surprise announcement on Wednesday to withdraw US troops from the country, which it welcomed.

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Justices asked to intervene in grand jury dispute

Justices asked to intervene in grand jury dispute

This afternoon the Supreme Court was asked to step into a clash over a grand jury subpoena that is widely believed to be related to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into interference in the 2016 election. In a filing made under seal, an unnamed corporation – owned by a foreign country identified in the lower court only as “Country A” – apparently asked the justices to block the subpoena after the lower courts refused to do so. The case had been kept under wraps when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard oral argument last week, with courthouse security officers not only closing the hearing to the public but also locking down an entire floor of the courthouse.

On Tuesday, the D.C. Circuit upheld the district court’s order holding the corporation in contempt for failing to provide the information requested by the subpoena. The D.C. Circuit agreed with the district court that, although foreign countries are ordinarily shielded by the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act from being sued in U.S. courts, the federal government (which is seeking the information) had shown that the case falls within an exception to the FSIA for commercial activities that have a direct effect in the United States. The D.C. Circuit also rejected the corporation’s argument that it should not have to comply with the subpoena because doing so would cause it to violate Country A’s laws, stressing that it was “unconvinced that Country A’s law truly prohibits the Corporation from complying with the subpoena.”

Tonight’s filing was under seal, so there is no way to know exactly what arguments are being made. However, the D.C. Circuit also rejected the corporation’s contention that the district court lacked power to hear criminal cases, such as this one, against foreign countries and the corporations that they own. In so doing, the court of appeals acknowledged that the Supreme Court’s earlier statements had not provided any “clear answer in this case” – which could also be the basis for the corporation’s plea.

Today’s filing went to Chief Justice John Roberts, who handles emergency appeals from the District of Columbia and can either act on the request himself or refer it to the full court. The next step will likely be to call for a response from the federal government, although that too will almost certainly be under seal.

The post Justices asked to intervene in grand jury dispute appeared first on SCOTUSblog.

US government shutdown: No end in sight | News | DW | 23.12.2018

US President Donald Trump canceled his holiday plans to stay in Washington as Democrats continue to reject his border wall funding demand. The US Senate will not meet until after Christmas.

Source: US government shutdown: No end in sight | News | DW | 23.12.2018

“I am proud to shut down the government…I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down. I’m not gonna blame you for it.”—Donald Trump, December 11″

The US is on the edge of the economic precipice – and Trump may push it over | Robert Reich

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Government shutdowns hurt millions. Great depressions hurt even more. History suggests real pain is round the corner

On Friday, Donald Trump said: “We are totally prepared for a very long shutdown.” It was one of his rare uses of the pronoun “we” instead of his preferred – and in this case far more appropriate – “I”.

Related: Chaos at home, fear abroad: Trump unleashed puts western world on edge

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