Ideas: December 2024 Release
THE MOTIVATION
The ideas section is a place to offload and share various ideas I’ve come up. Although these are only the ideas that have already been implemented, tested, something I’m not interested in doing, or technically incomplete (meaning there’s various technical progress that needs to be accomplished before it’s applicable), however, it has definitely been conceived by me independently. It serves to share the kind of practical imagination I have but also to share the journey into the future:
Epigenetically dissimilar organisms
Most people have probably heard that we share a lot of DNA with animals like monkeys, mice, etc. In fact, humans share 97.5% of working DNA with mice. However, is that last 2.5% the cause of all the differences we see between mice and men? I don’t think so, in fact when I dug deeper into the epigenome (the part of the cell that determines how DNA is wrapped and therefore turned on) the differences can be much greater, in a nutshell a whole 65% different. The number comes from these parts in the DNA called DNase I hypersensitive sites that are preferentially cut by DNase, because they’re less condensed/wrapped portions of the genome. These hypersensitive sites represent a part of the epigenome, and mice and men only share 35% of these sites. And I know this doesn’t compare the whole epigenome just a part of it, but it’s a start till there’s more research. This could explain why Most clinical trials fail even with lab testing on mice, not from the 2.5% difference in our genome but from a potentially vaster differences in epigenome. Anyways, this is where I think the bulk of differences lie, in the control code of the cell that determines what genes are turned on and off and when. Because if you think about another fact, it’s that organisms aren’t born from naked DNA. They come from whole cells and these cells already have their DNA pre-wrapped by the epigenome, which is inherited by their children. Therefore just comparing genetic DNA similarity without the epigenetic similarity is an oversimplification. And this paints a very different picture not only in terms of how we compare organisms, but also how we even think about what’s “genetic” when the epigenome controls so much but is also inherited.
Automatically Supporting youtube creators
Youtube should allow a more expensive premium plan that pays out more to youtube creators for viewing time. Because currently youtube ad revenue and watch time isn’t enough to support creators, and often they have to resort to sponsors, merchandise, or users to join the channel similar to Patreon or Patreon itself. But these are not automatic in terms of supporting channels, there’s friction, and there’s probably a lot of lost revenue if the system was made simpler. I mean think about all the videos that you love, but just watch once from a particular creator. This is where a more expensive premium plan would come into play, automatically dolling out money for the videos you watched. In fact, I think the premium plan should be any dollar amount above a fixed number, so that users can be as generous as they want.
Human embedded airtag
Basically surgically embedding a wireless chargeable air tag for kidnapping insurance. Could be in a deep location like inside the rib cage, so that without surgery they’ll kill you trying to remove it. The only downside is that it’d make you incredibly trackable, unless you’re away from civilization, which is a big privacy concern as well.
Bioweapon
There’s actually a very clever way to use a bioweapon that makes it much safer for those deploying it. Although I will not share it just to keep people from getting too many ideas.
child Malnutrition
Two thirds of the world’s kids are at risk for malnutrition. While one-fifth of the food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally, that’s $1 trillion dollars lost, and 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions; 60% of food waste happens at the household level. Clearly, the solution will involve plugging these two things together solving both problems. I’ve done some basic research into why so much food is wasted and the answers are: 1. Logistical challenges of collection, storage, and transportation require significant resources. 2. Issue with food safety, because people are concerned if they donate food and someone gets sick, they’ll be liable for it. 3. Economic considerations because people could just sell surplus food at discounted prices (although clearly even with discounts not all of it gets sold). But there’s hope, there’s charities like Food Donation Connection that assists businesses in establishing donation programs, and helping them navigate logistical and legal challenges.
Graphyte Improvement
Thinking about what Graphyte is doing, burying agricultural waste as individually packaged dried bricks. I realized something. The bags have air in them. If you were to instead suck the air out, you can stack the pallets of bricks on top of each other, allowing for much greater density per surface area of land. Also if you just roll over the bags with something heavy like a truck, it doesn’t pop all of them open like bubble wrap.
E-cigarette regulation
E-cigarettes should be regulated so that the amount of nicotine in milligram per e-cig is shown along with a list of ingredients. In regards to the potential ingredients that could be toxic when inhaled or the potential compounds created from burning it and then inhaled, it’s not much different than a scented candle or air fresheners. Although the nicotine (technically if used) is carcinogenic and addictive, overall, I believe vaporizers provide a healthier alternative to smoking.
3D scanning for optimization
Straightforward idea, basically if you 3D scan your home, you can use the scan to figure out optimal placements for things like wifi, speakers, smart home devices, and etc.
Publishing through Github
So I use Github to provide a backup of my website just in case something happens to it, but also to provide a timestamp of when I published these ideas so I can retain credit for them. And then I thought using Github to publish papers might not be a bad idea, it handles timestamps, large files, code, websites, comments, issues, collaboration, etc while also providing things like a clear change log for updates/edits/revisions. Something to think about.
Strategy game innovation
I love strategy games, especially some of the more competitive ones like Starcraft. However, one thing I noticed is that the UI for strategy games hasn’t changed and it leaves you handling a lot of stuff using just a point and click interface with some hotkeys. I propose bringing AI into the mix. Basically you have say a voice assistant that takes in orders like setup a base here, scout there, execute a particular build order, etc, which are then passed to multiple AI agents that execute the task. This allows you to execute higher level grand strategy. This isn’t a total pipe dream either, games already provide computer AIs to play against, this would just expose those AIs to the user to utilize.
Sustainable aviation fuel distribution
Planes could buy sustainable aviation fuel even if it’s not available to them at their particular airport. When you buy sustainable aviation fuel in this model it just ensures another aircraft is using sustainable aviation fuel to provide the same amount of offset.