A question for Steven Pinker's optimism

I would love to be able to believe the message of Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature and other works that expound a worldview of progress. But it seems to me that at present those parts of the world experiencing the strongest population and GDP growth are those with characteristics I am not in favor of. The questions I would ask would be:

• What are the GDP and population growth rates of democracies versus non-democracies?
• What are the GDP and population growth rates of secular societies versus those dominated by religious fundamentalism?

And given that a classification between democracy and non-democracy, and between secular and fundamental, is somewhat arbitrary given these factors are a spectrum:

• Are countries becoming more or less democratic?
• Are countries becoming more of less secular?

Giving up your humanity

As we creep towards a post-human/trans-human future I am beginning to wonder not just what we will add to ourselves, but also what we choose to take away. Beyond the obvious elimination of disease, what else will we remove from our current selves? In a sense disease is a good place to start. We normally distinguish between physical health and mental health, but in reality there is a spectrum between the two. And it seems to be that there is a spectrum between mental health, personality, motivators/desires and intelligence.

So, would I give up or alter my personality? Or what motivates me? I am inclined to eliminate bias from my thinking in the first instance. I suspect this will have a profound change on my personality in itself. But I also inclined to meddle with my motivators. Perhaps reduce the desire I have for sugary food (perhaps it could be argued that the battle against this desire is advantageous for its willpower side effects - suggest this needs research). Perhaps increase the satisfaction I get from learning something new, or from doing exercise. These modifications seem without significant downsides. But what of changing your own sexual desire? There is no doubt that extremes of sexual desire have led people to acts of stupidity and evil. But sexual desire also seems to be something that is "human". What of changing ones own mechanism of attraction to emphasize the physical less relative to other characteristics.

If we do make such changes would we regret making them? Or would we be so different a person as not to be able to relate to our former selves? Is such a process reversible?

Scratch bed: the ultimate back scratcher

This is an idea for a spa/therapy type experience: a vibrating bed of bristles that you lie on. I would imagine that it would stimulate blood flow to the skin and would be effective to exfoliation. It might be necessary to separately vibrate each clump of bristles rather than have the bed as a whole vibrate otherwise relative movement might not be achieved. The bristles would need to be washable (e.g. nylon) so that the bed can be hosed down with warm soapy water between uses (for hygiene purposes). A hole in the table for the face like a massage table would enable people to lie face down.

Automated microscopes

A common technique in the biological sciences it to count the number of colony forming units in a sample by plating the sample, incubating, and then counting the number of colonies.

I wonder whether it might be possible to skip the incubation step and directly count the colony forming units (or potentially single cells). The process would involve plating the sample as normal (i.e. spreading over a thin area - possibly larger than a normal petri dish?). I imagine a microscope where the lens position and focus are controlled by stepper motors (with a fine thread screw). The lens is connected to a digital camera. The lens is moved over the sample, location by location, with an image collected at each location. Image recognition is then used to count the number of cells / colony forming units.

I'm also wondering if it's possible to individually manage/monitor/interact-with cells (or colony-forming units) if their location on a slide can be recorded, and hence the location re-visited.

Bumper-car style power delivery for factory/warehouse robots

I was thinking about the warehouse robots created by Amazon Robotics (formerly Kiva Systems). These robots have a battery inside of them which means that the robots have to take time-out of the process to recharge (according to the Wikipedia article, 5 mins per hour, roughly 8.3%); they need to carry the weight of the battery (reducing energy efficiency); battery charging/discharging is not electrically efficient; and the battery is likely to wear out significantly earlier than other components.

It occurs to me that power could be delivered to these robots the same way power is delivered to bumper cars: either via the floor or ceiling (or both).

Thoughts as to why this wouldn't be viable: cost of the floor; health & safety risks (i.e. electrocution, risk of sparks igniting flammable materials); lower versatility.