I remember in 2015 when I first saw that go-kart wasm demo. It was exciting. But that was such a long time ago and we are only now starting to see webgpu roll out. I’m really looking forward to the new golden age of wasm and webgpu.
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wrongdonf commented on Show HN: Box2D fluid simulation in WebGL and WASM birchlabs.co.uk/box2d-was... · Posted by u/Birch-san
Recently it was shown that the chemical ISRIB can “undo” traumatic brain injury. It turns out that when you get a concussion, the mechanical stress results in a metabolic self defense mechanism being triggered. Everyone thought the neurons were dying but they were just themselves latent. ISRIB interferes with this defense mechanism, turning the neurons back on.
And it turns out that this metabolic defense mechanism is triggered in many scenarios, not just concussion.
I became involved in a group of people who were interested in taking ISRIB. We engaged in an effort to synthesize it, and along the way we dredged the internet for any information we could find about other people who had taken ISRIB — the molecule has been known about for a long time. There are a handful of plausible stories, and it appeared that ISRIB would have no effect in one person and be life changing for another, both seemingly healthy. The common pattern was increased intelligence, an insatiable appetite for new and novel information and a marked reduction in the amount of sleep needed to function.
We eventually came into contact with a group of Russians. They had already synthesized it and taken it. They reported the same effects from the accounts we had found. They also reported, surprisingly, the development of a tolerance among those who took it repeatedly. One person had an episode of very realistic hallucinations, dreams that seemed real. Another person gave it to his grandmother who was sick with dementia. She became lucid again but died a day or two later. We speculated that one of the reasons cells turn themselves off is because they are too dysfunctional to operate — so turning them back on brings the benefit of having that signal again in the case of neurons but also revives any dangerous behavior that was being suppressed. We acquired ISRIB from the Russians and the first person to get it didn’t notice an effect although he didn’t take much. At this point I fell out of contact because I was having a medical emergency from experimenting with a totally unrelated compound. It nearly killed me, I spent weeks in the asylum and still have lingering effects. After that my shulgin itch became satisfied permanently.
One interesting thing about cognitive diseases that are metabolically rooted like schizophrenia, dementia, etc is that there are simple ways to coax the cells into metabolizing carbohydrates correctly again, as this article demonstrates. There is also another kind of chemical completely that can be used for energy, beta hydroxy butyrate, totally bypassing the problem. The field of metabolic restoration is the next big thing for sure.
wrongdonf commented on OpenMW – open-source TES3 Morrowind reimplementation openmw.org/en/... · Posted by u/agluszak
I’ve been playing morrowind on openmw since 2013. It’s such a fantastic project. It’s a stable and clean way to experience morrowind, but half the enjoyment is in the community surrounding it. The video updates have been a cherished ritual for me for many years now. And the website has a very thoughtful atmosphere with the strider lurking overhead. It’s honestly been an important part of my life. And this of course was all preceded by my original fascination with morrowind, which is certainly one of the finest video games ever made despite its user-hostile qualities. The soundtrack has never been equaled. The game was made in a time when video games weren’t a billion dollar industry and where the nature of the game reflected the nature of the people who made it — and morrowind was made by a band of intellectuals, idealists and pioneers. It simply does not happen that way anymore in mainstream games.
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It really shows how everything in biology is basically a gaussian curve and you always want to be near the center, but if you steer too far towards either end things start to break down.