News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:The brain's waste clearing lymphatic system shown in peop... by khafra on Friday October 25, 2024 @04:07AM (#41943247)
This is some amazing work; and it also raises my belief that a Langford Basilisk is neurologically possible by about 25%
Re:The brain's waste clearing lymphatic system shown in peop... by reverius42 on Friday October 25, 2024 @05:14AM (#41943562)
Thanks for introducing me to the concept! Just read the short story I assume you are referring to: https://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/blit.htm
Re:The brain's waste clearing lymphatic system shown in peop... by Karellen on Friday October 25, 2024 @05:50AM (#41943708)
Looks like it, according to Wikipedia: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Langford%27s_basilisk

Just read the story, thought it was very reminiscent of one of the plot points in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash (1992) - until I noticed the publication date of 1988, 4 years earlier!

Re:The brain's waste clearing lymphatic system shown in peop... by evanjrowley on Friday October 25, 2024 @07:38AM (#41944268)
You'll also find a similar concept throughout David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest (1996).
Re:The brain's waste clearing lymphatic system shown in peop... by hobs on Friday October 25, 2024 @08:23AM (#41944546)
Charles Stross who for some reason posted on usenet about it in the wikipedia article uses a form of this to great effect in several books in The Laundry Files
Re:The brain's waste clearing lymphatic system shown in peop... by shagie on Friday October 25, 2024 @11:08AM (#41945999)
Accelerando : https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/acceler...

    Not everything is sweetness and light in the era of mature nanotechnology. Widespread intelligence amplification doesn't lead to widespread rational behavior. New religions and mystery cults explode across the planet; much of the Net is unusable, flattened by successive semiotic jihads. India and Pakistan have held their long-awaited nuclear war: external intervention by US and EU nanosats prevented most of the IRBMs from getting through, but the subsequent spate of network raids and Basilisk attacks cause havoc. Luckily, infowar turns out to be more survivable than nuclear war – especially once it is discovered that a simple anti-aliasing filter stops nine out of ten neural-wetware-crashing Langford fractals from causing anything worse than a mild headache.
Re:The brain's waste clearing lymphatic system shown in peop... by Karellen on Friday October 25, 2024 @02:29PM (#41948137)
(2005)
Re:The brain's waste clearing lymphatic system shown in peop... by rozab on Friday October 25, 2024 @06:44AM (#41943992)
I hadn't heard of this one before, it's also similar to the crucifix glitch in Peter Watts' Blindsight
Re:The brain's waste clearing lymphatic system shown in peop... by haccount on Friday October 25, 2024 @08:22AM (#41944539)
Having read both Blindsight and Echopraxia I have to say the most impressive neurological takeaway from the books was the ability of my own brain to suspend critical thinking for long enough to enjoy the books.

In retrospect the core concept can be paraphrased as: Self-awareness and consciousness in pigs is the only thing that prevents them from flapping their trotters fast enough to fly(to the moon).

Re:The brain's waste clearing lymphatic system shown in peop... by jayGlow on Friday October 25, 2024 @01:06PM (#41947219)
I'm not getting your point? the book had some out there ideas but the core concept of consciousness not being necessary for intelligence seemed fairly reasonable.
Re:The brain's waste clearing lymphatic system shown in peop... by ToDougie on Friday October 25, 2024 @05:58PM (#41950228)
Fantastic book. Really made me think in some new ways.
Re:The brain's waste clearing lymphatic system shown in peop... by shagie on Friday October 25, 2024 @11:06AM (#41945984)
https://www.nature.com/articles/44964 is also a fun read on the BLIT.

I also recommend Different Kinds of Darkness.

https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/different-kinds-o...

Re:The brain's waste clearing lymphatic system shown in peop... by shaganer on Friday October 25, 2024 @07:18AM (#41944163)
I'm interested to hear your reasons why you think it's closer to reality. I don't see why the discovery of the brain wastage system would help a brain crash from being possible. Edit: Just looked back at the post and that it involves an image causing the glymphatic system to react.
Re:The brain's waste clearing lymphatic system shown in peop... by haccount on Friday October 25, 2024 @08:11AM (#41944476)
It's possible.

But only for the brains of people with severe or undertreated epilepsy of carefully selected varieties. You can trigger a potentially fatal seizure by showing them an appropriately stimulating image. Which likely was a known concept to the author of the story.

For the rest of us the negative feedback along the optical axis puts a stop to such shenanigans.

Re:The brain's waste clearing lymphatic system shown in peop... by candiddevmike on Friday October 25, 2024 @09:07AM (#41944905)
GenAI images sometimes do this to me. Not anything scary per say, but some of the faults make my brain feel weird as it tries and fails to interpret parts of the image that were "AI smeared".
Re:The brain's waste clearing lymphatic system shown in peop... by altruios on Friday October 25, 2024 @10:25AM (#41945595)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCollough_effect is evidence to the contrary. This seems to rewire something outside the optical pathway. The effect can last for months. Works on almost all brains, no epilepsy required...
Re:The brain's waste clearing lymphatic system shown in peop... by haccount on Friday October 25, 2024 @10:54AM (#41945843)
That sounds more like a learned visual effect, something quite different from frying the brain of anyone with a basilisk.

Experiments with cats( https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1111849/ ), and the outcome of patients with strabismus/lazy eye(effective blindness on defective eye), suggests that seeing (or not seeing) is a learned trait. Which is a few steps removed from being a backdoor to epileptic seizures or remote controlling heart activity

Re:The brain's waste clearing lymphatic system shown in peop... by altruios on Friday October 25, 2024 @11:21AM (#41946134)
Exert from that same wiki page about the anti-McCollough effect, I may have the two confused.

Given that AMEs do transfer interocularly,[8] it is reasonable to suppose that they must occur in higher, binocular regions of the brain. Despite producing a less saturated illusory color, the induction of an AME may override a previously induced ME, providing additional weight to the argument that AMEs occur in the higher visual areas than MEs.[8]

Re:The brain's waste clearing lymphatic system shown in peop... by theGnuMe on Friday October 25, 2024 @09:12AM (#41944942)
Sure, we know imagery can cause fatal seizures so... yes.