Not the first hint of fatty arteries in young people
From Stephen Scarfe, North Ferriby, East Riding of Yorkshire, UK
Christa Lest茅-Lasserre’s article on the relatively high proportion of young people with fatty arteries highlights a crucial shift in medical awareness regarding early-onset cardiovascular disease. While modern CT angiography provides invaluable data on asymptomatic plaque in today’s younger adults, the fundamental revelation that atherosclerosis is “not a disease of old age” actually stretches back several decades (17 October, p 14).
Medical history tells us that this was starkly demonstrated during the mid-20th century through military autopsies. Landmark post-mortem studies conducted on young US service members killed during the Korean and Vietnam conflicts shockingly revealed that a substantial proportion 鈥� of combat casualties in Vietnam 鈥� already exhibited clear signs of coronary artery disease, despite being in their early twenties.
While diagnostic tools have fortunately advanced from the autopsy table to non-invasive 3D imaging, these historical findings remind us that the silent progression of heart disease has long been an early-life reality. Modern research serves as a vital reminder that preventive cardiovascular screening should start far earlier than standard practice dictates.
Another sci-fi universe with no need for money
From John Davies, Lancaster, UK
Bryn Glover is reassured that in Star Trek, there is no money or want, and attributes this to a Marxist philosophy of “From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs”. He forgets that, on a Federation vessel, there is no money and all needs are served, or ought to be (Letters, 10 October).
But should we be equally reassured by The Culture, the society dreamed up by Iain M. Banks? There, autonomous AIs known as Minds have taken over all administration, industry and production, freeing the human race to follow whatever hobbies, pastimes and philosophies they wish, also without money or want.
On whether AIs show signs of consciousness
From Michael Syms, Rattery, Devon, UK
I read your article on the debate over whether the AI chatbot Claude displays signs of a form of consciousness with interest, but was struck by what was missing. One would think that the earliest forms of life needed to be conscious of their environment because it would be crucial for their survival, and because it would provide the required sustenance (17 October, p 32).
An electronic device, however sophisticated, that has all the energy it needs and is in no danger has no need to be conscious! Need has driven evolution from the very beginning because there has always been a need to evolve.
From Andrew Smyth, Los Angeles, California, US
Your report left me thinking about one small word. Anthropic’s researchers told Claude not to think about the Golden Gate Bridge. The bridge kept appearing in its “J-space” anyway, along with the word “damn”.
Most of the J-space appears to be about access: information being selected, held and used for reasoning. I see no reason why a machine can’t do that. Human introspection is largely a matter of retrieving memories and impressions, then weighing them against the present.
“Damn” points at something else, which, in us, we would call feeling. When we fail or are injured, we don’t just register it. It hurts. I can understand my own pain as electrochemical signalling, yet I cannot decide to find it neutral. Its unpleasantness seems built in, and no theory explains why. We could build a machine that treats damage as an urgent threat and lets that threat take over its attention and drive it to avoid the cause. It would behave exactly as if it were in pain. But would it hurt?
Until we can explain why pain hurts in us, we cannot say whether a machine’s “damn” is felt or merely said.
There are still more secrets of the microbiome to learn
From Patrick Hockey, Clunes, Victoria, Australia
Your piece on avoiding sugary foods while taking antibiotics highlights the centrality of the microbiome to overall health. But we remain unable to understand its complex dynamics, in which many genera and species interact and achieve a symbiotic balance that somehow leads to overall harmony and benefits for the host (10 October, p 6).
Often, aspects of reports on the microbiome have something of the metaphysical about them, as though a type of magic is in play and our intestines are a teeming jungle of wild beasts. Ultimately, though, the benefits must surely lie in some anti-inflammatory action derived either from a stabilising influence on pH or hormonal responses to the collective output of this biomass. I suspect the answer is simpler than we have ever imagined.
Vowels are easier for humans to hear too
From Georgina Seaman, Newbury, Berkshire, UK
With respect to James Woodford’s article on the finding that dogs pay more attention to consonants than vowels when we speak, the same is true in people. I have been deaf for 50 years and have observed in myself and others who are deaf, or going deaf, that when a word or phrase is misheard, the pattern of the vowels is correct, but the consonants are misheard or not heard at all (3 October, p 12).
Not hearing the boundaries provided by consonants removes clarity and turns speech into a meowing or burbling jumble. If only hearing aids could be designed to focus on amplifying the specific frequencies of consonants instead of across the whole range of hearing loss, perhaps life would be a little less muffled for us. In this era of AI, predictive texting and subtitles, surely something could be done?
Geoengineering is going to be necessary to fix climate
From Mark Pickin, Easingwold, North Yorkshire, UK
Your leader asks if we can fix our climate after overshooting the 1.5掳C warming target. Reducing carbon emissions must be part of the cure, but we also need to think seriously about geophysical engineering. It is indisputable that volcanic eruptions can reduce global temperatures. We need to research ways of emulating this in a safe and economical fashion (Leader, 24 October).
My suggestion would be titanium dioxide launched into low Earth orbit, although we would need to prove that it doesn’t have its own greenhouse effect.
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