Stress Causes Brain to Shrink - Report

• Subscribe to PCF Networked Blog Daily Updates 
• Subscribe to our Twitter / Google / Yahoo Daily Updates

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (CBS Connecticut) - A new study has found that living a stressful life may lead to shrinking in important parts of the brain. Researchers at Yale University saw reductions in the amount of gray matter in parts of the brain that control physiological and emotional functioning in those who endured significant amounts of stress.

According to a press release on Yale’s website, the study observed over 100 healthy participants by conducting magnetic resonance imaging scans while they  answered questions about potentially traumatic life events, including the losing of a loved one, job or home. “They found that even the brains of subjects who had only recently experienced a stressful life event showed markedly lower gray matter in portions of the area of the brain that regulates not only emotions and self-control, but physiological functions such as blood pressure and glucose levels,” the release stated.

Lead author and assistant professor of psychiatry, Emily Ansell, additionally noted in the release that an increase in the amount of stressful life events one endures could impact the individual’s ability to handle future stressful situations. Fellow Yale and Foundations Fund professor Rajita Sinha, who works in the Department of Neurobiology and the Yale Child Study Center, said the study brings to light the increased importance of finding ways to help people cope with stress properly.

“The brain is dynamic and plastic and things can improve — but only if stress is dealt with in a healthy manner,” Sinha was quoted as saying. “If not, the effects of stress can have a negative impact on both our physical and mental health.” The study was reportedly funded by the National Institutes of Health, and was published earlier this year in the journal Biological Psychiatry.

Pakistan Cyber Force

Follow PCF on Facebook

Follow PCF on Twitter

Experts to Study Whether Robots Will Exterminate Humanity

• Subscribe to PCF Networked Blog Daily Updates 
• Subscribe to our Twitter / Google / Yahoo Daily Updates

Experts at the prestigious University of Cambridge will conduct research into the “extinction-level risks” posed to humanity by artificially intelligent robots. The Cambridge Project for Existential Risk is dedicated to “ensuring that our own species has a long-term future” by studying the risks posed by AI, nanotechnology and biotechnology. “The scientists said that to dismiss concerns of a potential robot uprising would be “dangerous,” reports the BBC. The project was co-founded by Huw Price, Bertrand Russell Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge, Martin Rees, Emeritus Professor of Cosmology & Astrophysics at Cambridge, and Jaan Tallinn, the co-founder of Skype.

It also counts amongst its advisers Max Tegmark, Professor of Physics, MIT and George M Church, Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School. An article written by Tallinn and Price warns that artificially intelligent computers or robots could take over “the speed and direction of technological progress itself,” and shape the environment of planet earth to their own ends while displaying about as much concern for humanity as we do for a bug on the windscreen. Far from being resigned to works as science fiction such as in the Terminator films, the threat posed by a potential future “rise of the robots” has never been closer to reality.

The study echoes the predictions of respected author, inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil, renowned for his deadly accurate technological forecasts. In his 1999 book The Age of Spiritual Machines, Kurzweil predicted that after 2029, the elite would come closer to their goal of technological singularity – man merging with machine – and that by the end of the century, the entire planet will be run by artificially intelligent computer systems which are smarter than the entire human race combined – similar to the Skynet system fictionalized in the Terminator franchise. Amidst the debate, the fact that the US military under DARPA is already developing robots for the express purpose of of killing people has been largely overlooked by futurists.

As we have previously highlighted, the whole direction of drones and automated robot technology being developed by the likes of DARPA is all geared towards having machines take the role of police officers and soldiers in pursuing and engaging “insurgents” on American soil. Experts like Noel Sharkey, professor of artificial intelligence and robotics at the University of Sheffield, have warned that DARPA’s robots represent “an incredible technical achievement, but it’s unfortunate that it’s going to be used to kill people.” The Department of Defense recently issued a new policy directive attempting to “reassure” people that artificially intelligent cyborgs wouldn’t be used to murder people after Human Rights Watch called for an international ban on “killer robots”.

Policy directive 3000.09 states: “Semi-autonomous weapon systems that are onboard or integrated with unmanned platforms must be designed such that, in the event of degraded or lost communications, the system does not autonomously select and engage individual targets or specific target groups that have not been previously selected by an authorised human operator.”

(Paul Joseph Watson- InfoWars)

Pakistan Cyber Force

Follow PCF on Facebook

Follow PCF on Twitter