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Hal's Extropians Digest      Mon, 15 Jun 1992       Volume 92 : Issue   0006

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    Hal Finney
    Extropians Digest Moderator

Today's Topics:
		   Protection agencies (3 messages)
	  Future training for distance runners (2 messages)
			  The Edison Project
	Brainwashing, Coversion, Persuasion, NLP and the like
			  The Agorics Papers
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Date: Sun, 14 Jun 92 14:03:28 EST
From: Ian Woolf <uunet!ips.oz.au!ian>
To: Extropians@gnu.ai.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Protection agencies

Sounds okay, but what stops either monopolies or regular war between
monopolies? What is the difference between a Protection Agency applying
its laws to you and a State applying its laws to you? It seems that the
free market doesn't protect against the formation of virtual government. Isn't
that how many States were founded?
--

Ian Woolf                 ian@ips.oz.au
IPS Solar Observatory    Phone: +61 67 959 211 or +61 67 924 537
PO Box 372                 FAX: +61 67 959 266
Narrabri NSW 2390
Australia

As soon as you can say what you think and not what some other person has
  thought for you, you are on the way to being a remarkable man.
      -- James M. Barrie

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Date: Sun, 14 Jun 92 01:25:05 PDT
From: uunet!xanadu.com!tribble (E. Dean Tribble)
To: Extropians@gnu.ai.mit.edu
Subject: Protection agencies

   Sounds okay, but what stops either monopolies or regular war between
   monopolies? What is the difference between a Protection Agency applying

What stops insurance companies from suing each other?  It's damned
expensive.  In all cases where they can, insurance companies settle
out of court, because it's cheaper for both sides.  War is expensive.

dean

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Date: Sun, 14 Jun 1992 19:20:41 +1200
From: uunet!bio.aukuni.ac.nz!Tim_Bates
To: Extropians@gnu.ai.mit.edu
Subject: Re: >Protection agencies

        Reply to:   RE>>Protection agencies
Ian Woolf  wants to know:
>1/ what stops monopolies [in Extropia].
Answer: Nothing in principle, in practice - competition.
>2/ or regular war between monopolies?
Answer: Same thing that stops any kind of war - low perceived
probability of war improving the aggressors lot.
>3/ What is the difference between a Protection Agency
>applying its laws to you and a State applying its laws to you?
Answer: Nothing. This is, however, the wrong question (or at least
it is poorly worded). The difference is that you sign up with the
protection agency of your choice. I might be happy to sign up
with the LAPD as my protection agency rather than the
New Zealand government but I don't have the choice
(representation without representation?).
>4/ It seems that the free market doesn't protect against the formation of
virtual >government.
Answer (to a retorical question) That, Ian, is why it is called free -
people can choose how to live their lives.

Tim Bates

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Date: Fri, 12 Jun 92 01:20:51 EST
From: hal
To: uunet!extropians@gnu.ai.mit.edu
Subject: Future training for distance runners

My wife, Fran, got a copy of Running Research News, the May-June 1992
issue, and it had some interesting futuristic ideas about training for
distance runners.

The article described some ideas of Igor Gamow, son of Big Bang
astrophysicist George Gamow.  Igor is a professor of Chemical
Engineering at the U of Colorado.

Apparently research has shown that the most effective training system
is to live at a high altitude, but to train at a lower altitude.  By
living at high altitude the body produces more erythropoietin (EPO), a
hormone which stimulates the production of red blood cells, which
carry oxygen.  But exercising at high altitude is a problem - the
thinner air can't support as long or as strenuous a workout.  Lower
altitudes allow for harder workouts, hence more conditioning.

Gamow has invented a "high altitude bed (TM)", which is a sealed
chamber that lets you set the pressure to the equivalent of whatever
altitude you like.  By sleeping at the equivalent of a higher altitude
your body is stimulated to produce more EPO.  Over a period of time
your blood will become "as viscous as a high-altitude native's."
Studies have shown that EPO levels in sea-level residents have tripled
after only four hours of exposure to about 13,000 feet of altitude.

Gamow advocates a program of "sleep high, train low".  Along with the
high altitude bed, he has pioneered what he calls "Hydrobaric Aerobic"
training.  This involves putting an exercise bike or a rowing machine
at the bottom of a swimming pool.  The athlete works out with a "fish
bowl" over his head continually supplied with fresh air from the
surface.

Being under nine feet of water is like being 4000 feet below sea
level.  Some Swedish studies of sea-level residents exercising
extremely strenuously at 1.4 atmospheres showed their VO2max rose by
11 percent and performance time climbed by 20 percent compared to sea
level workouts.  Basically, the higher air pressure lets you work out
harder than you could at sea level.

Gamow's high altitude beds will be sold commercially this fall, at
$8,000 to $10,000 each.

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Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1992 19:14:50 -0400 (EDT)
From: uunet!TITAN.KSC.NASA.GOV!RUSHING (Sam Rushing)
To: Extropians@gnu.ai.mit.edu
Subject: Future training for distance runners


re. EPO hormone, live high, train low...

A few months ago there was a story on National Public Radio about some
obscure village in (I think Northern) Africa, at a high altitude.  n
years ago a catholic priest/missionary moved there, got interested in
training runners, and now produces some incredibly high ratio of
olympic class runners.  I remember the program attempting to explain
this by saying that in this area, people run everywhere they go,
including schoolchildren...  perhaps the terrain had something to do
with their success?

Another thing: I spent five days at Phantom Ranch, in the bottom of
the Grand Canyon, last December.  On one 7 mile hike, I was passed on
the trail (both ways) by some guy wearing running shorts and
sunglasses, going about 50 miles an hour :^).  Talking to him later, I
think he said he was a professional runner of some sort, maybe
Olympic.  Stays up top, runs down inside.

The altitude difference in that area of the GC is something like
(7200ft - 2600ft) = 4600ft.

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Date: Mon, 15 Jun 1992 12:40 MST
From: "James J. Lippard" <uunet!CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU!LIPPARD>
To: Extropians@gnu.ai.mit.edu
Subject: The Edison Project

Thanks to everyone who responded to my request for information.
I have contacted the Edison Project and they are sending me a packet
of information, which I will summarize here when it arrives.

Meanwhile, in case anyone else wants to contact them, they are in
the Knoxville, Tennessee office of Whittle Communications, telephone
number (615) 595-3000.  (They'll answer "Edison Project.")

Jim Lippard            Lippard@CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU
Dept. of Philosophy    Lippard@ARIZVMS.BITNET
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721

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Date: Sat, 13 Jun 1992 14:47-EDT
From: Clay Bridges <uunet!cs.cmu.edu!clay+>
To: Extropians@gnu.ai.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Brainwashing, Coversion, Persuasion, NLP and the like (long)

About the post that Mark forwarded: I'm not sure about the material that
the speaker was relating, but if he believes his subliminal tapes are
doing folks any good, his knowledge of psychology is lacking.

The most recent issue of the _Skeptical Inquirer_ debunks subliminal
tapes, and even the (in)famous "Buy Coke/Eat Popcorn" subliminal
advertising success story. This is the journal of the Committee for
Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. Their mission is
to scientifically investigate paranormal claims without prejudice. I've
only gotten one issue, but so far it looks good. They have an extensive
list of back issues if you want to bone up on a specific subject for an
argument with e.g. your flakey uncle.

You can reach the SI @ +1.800.634.1610

CB

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Date: Mon, 15 Jun 92 17:05:10 PDT
From: uunet!xanadu.com!tribble (E. Dean Tribble)
To: Extropians@gnu.ai.mit.edu
Subject: the Agorics Papers

For those not familiar with the Agorics Papers, I cannot recommend
them too strongly.  As well as creating a new field of computer
science, they introduce an amazing amount of free-market economics in
a way that doesn't hit all the emotional hot-buttons people have built
up.  These were the papers that sufficiently impressed the Center for
the Study of Market Processes at GMU to start the Agorics Project
(which is continually blossoming over there), etc.

They are in the book "Ecology of Computation" edited by Bernardo
Huberman.  Copyright 1988.  North Holland publisher.

The papers to which I refer are by Mark Miller and Eric Drexler:

Comparative Ecology: a Computation Perspective.
Markets and Computation: Agoric Open Systems
Incentive Engineering for Computational Resource Management

Also in the volume is a paper by Ken Kahn and Mark Miller
aount building open systems...

Language Design and Open systems

dean

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End of Hal's Extropians Digest Volume 92 Issue #0006
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