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Every year summer melts the locals and tourists in Manly Corso into a thick paste of thirsty beachgoers. As you sludge away from the beach and to the crowded vendors, its consistency is unremarkable — a blur of unforgiving pedestrian-traffic and a creeping haze of sweat and vaporising sunscreen. As repetition begins to define itself at the beginning of November, the workers that hold up the sides of Manly Corso descend into homogeneity. A cycle of demand fastens till it reaches constant velocity. As the arena for predictability rises, the workers let down their own guards as they take their seats for the Summer rush. No one wants to stand and get in someone’s way. Which is what a thief wants: consistency. “‘Be yourself’ is about the worst advice you can give some people” — Thomas Lansing Masson By December she knew when I finished my shift. She knew where my locker was. By January I knew she had my phone. Yesterday in Seattle, an aircrew ground worker stole a turboprop propellor plane, flew for an hour and then fatally crashed into a wooded island. It was the real-life Grand Theft Auto. The pilot even said it himself: Air-Traffic Controller: Right now he’s just flying around, and he just needs some help controlling his aircraft. Pilot: Nah, I mean, I don’t need that much help. I’ve played some video games before. When the plane’s fuel tank began to empty at 7,500 feet, the pilot opened up: I’ve got a lot of people that care about me. It’s going to disappoint them to hear I did this. I would like to apologise to each and every one of them. Just a broken guy, got a few screws loose I guess. Never really knew it, until now. You can tell a plane has crashed with a full-tank of fuel by the fireball that follows. As the kerosene burns around the passengers, their clothes and watches melt into their skin. For investigators, the wreckage is a paste of burnt steel and flesh. Amongst this mess, reasons and answers need to be found. But when a plane crashes by running out of fuel, the reason splinters out from the ground. Even without the scorched earth, there’s still a scorched mind somewhere in the crash. Some loose screws let the furnace explode. “Clean the air! Clean the sky! Wash the wind! Take the stone from the stone, take the skin from the arm, take the muscle from the bone, and wash them. Wash the stone, wash the bone, wash the brain, wash the soul, wash them wash them!” — T. S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral Why did she steal my phone? Why did he steal the plane? At this moment it’s easy to connect different characteristics and underline them as “motivations”. It wouldn’t be uncommon to hear the following: “She had a broken childhood” “His work was too much pressure” “Her friends all do it” “He was mentally ill” The majority of these comments are environmental influences. They linger in peoples’ minds, edging and scratching away at new ideas until they burst into our conscious as ‘our’ choice. But when someone’s described as ‘mentally ill’, we introduce a seismic shift into how we can ‘be’. It’s no longer ideas fighting for attention as we pass by new scenery. In this case there’s no rules — it’s a brawl in the dark. No one knows who’s fighting who. As the silhouettes grapple with each other, it’s only the ones that fall into stillness that tell us what’s lost. There’s nothing more biologically fascinating than the human brain. As we dig our way through craniums, we find the teeth marks of evolution having torn into us again, and again. The electric paste that now floats in each of our heads is like bubble-wrapped popping candy. Billions of muffled explosions showering the mind with sugar to keep it alive. Yet quiet enough that you can forget how bloody it once was. Think about how many minds have been lost to experimentation to get you here The four lobes of the brain are the Frontal (working-memory, planning, motivation), Parietal (sensory information), Occipital (vision processing) and the Temporal (derives meaning from sensory information). Neural tissue can be further divided into either grey or white matter. Grey tissue is used for information processing, where electric impulses converge into actionable opportunities. To facilitate these impulses, white matter helps propagate electric energy through the type of neurons found within. At the light microscope level (1 millimetre — 1 micrometre) we can distinguish the cytoarchitecture of nerve cells. With their soma (cell bodies) ranging in diametre from 10–50 micrometres, they can be up to twice the width of red-blood cells. The distinction between nerve cells and the rest that make up our bodies, is their ability to innervate others. Like a chain reaction in a nuclear bomb, the human brain is an infinitely recursive set of reactions being ignited from the world around you. In thanks to the pitch perfect harmony between your motor and sensory systems, you’re able to react to this world and live for another day. ‘Living’ is all evolution wants. It doesn’t care about a species’ integrity — it cares about whether there’ll be a tomorrow. Such persistence across time has allowed phylogeneticists to map the evolution of neurons from simple nerve nets to the complex domains they inherit today in the central and periphery nervous systems. When eukaroytes (plants, animal and fungi) split from the prokaroytes (bacteria) more than a billion years ago, multicellular organisms formed and separated into the five major animal groups of today: Ctenophora, Poriphera, Placozoa, Cnidaria and the more than two dozen phyla that make up Bilateria which includes chordates such as humans. From this split, brain development has uniquely emerged at least in five separate radiations of vertebrates. The kinetic energy of cephalisation that concentrated neural activity into human heads ensured that the gene was delivered a decisive strategic advantage within the animal kingdom. Homo It’s not bragging if you can back it up. But what happened within our brains that made us the dominant species? There’s approximately 100 billion neurons in a human brain but they’re outnumbered 10 : 1 by Glial cells. Neuronal function isn’t a binary matter. It’s as rich as dining experiences that are engineered by a near infinite list of parametres: the menu, the weather, the waiter, the entreé and so on. A neuron identified through Gogli staining Neurons are excited by a changing chemical gradient around their neuronal membrane. As ions permeate through sodium, calcium and potassium channels, the changing electric difference between the extracellular fluid and the cytoplasmic substance leads to a rise from the resting potential of -65 millivolts until it crosses threshold at approximately -30millivolts. At this moment, an electric signal charges from the axon hillock to the axon terminals within 1000th of a second. When this action potential reaches the axon terminals, a neurotransmitter is released from the presynaptic neuron so it can communicate to the post-synaptic neuron by connecting with its dendrites. The neurotransmitter acts as an effector molecule, enabling the propagation of the action potential across the nervous system. But what’s to guide these neurotransmitters from the presynaptic to postsynaptic neuron? Thanks to the structural support of Glial cells, the brain has limited free space. Astrocytes invest synaptic clefts to maintain the brain’s biochemistry so there’s no concentration of any particular neurotransmitter. How about the speed of these action potentials? Why do they move so fast in the first place? In the Central Nervous System, oligodendroglial cells envelop the axons of neurons to create an internode/Node of Ranvier pattern called myelination that not only improves the conducting speed of the impulse, but also reduces the leakage of ions into extracellular fluid. Similarly, in the Peripheral Nervous System, Schwann Cells myelinate the peripheral nerves that enable us to react and sense our environments. As opposed to the simple network of neurons that are usually heralded as the architects of human behaviour, there’s instead an overwhelming grasp on the brain that’s controlled by glial cells. Neurons wouldn’t be able to fire their action potentials if astroglial cells couldn’t absorb glutamate from the synaptic cleft and then create glutamine from ammonia (via glutamate synthetise), because glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter. Unfortunately, excess glutamate behaves as a excitotoxin that leads to neuronal damage. Instead of the brain being just 100 billion neurons, it’s 1 trillion glial cells and 100 billion neurons. Together, these networks have made us human. Even when we don’t know what’s going on inside someone’s head, we do know what’s there. On the course to machine intelligence there’s a branch approaching that leads to Whole Brain Emulation (WBE). It sounds as it reads. By uploading someone’s mind to a computer, it’ll be possible to model somebody’s behaviour and the derivates that come with it. For instance, prediction. Successful WBE requires an innate understanding of neural and cytoarchitecture that’s beyond our levels today. Only in the last decade or so are glial cells receiving the attention they deserve, previously thought to be just “space-fillers” in the brain. While WBE may be used to understand the minds of those that escape our logic today, they may lead to inescapable realities. For anyone that misbehaves, it’s easy to discern their behaviour as a byproduct of their environment. That’s why we hear… “She had a broken childhood” “His work was too much pressure” …after any malicious, confusing or simply inhumane act. But what if within the network of neurons and glial cells, there was a menacing set of wires that led to someone’s mind becoming entangled in a toxic worldview that strangled any sense and empathy from them. When gametes fuse together during sexual reproduction, zinc atoms burst from the egg marking a successful fertilisation. It’s easy to forget that in this moment, two individual cells have mixed together and are about to form a zygote. In that moment, all the genetic material needed to form a complete human has been processed. Life has begun. The mind floods open. Remember, “that” person came from just one cell. Classification of proteins that are found in the human genome’s 3,088,286,401 letters of DNA The comprehensive goal of computing is to emulate and improve upon, human cognition. Presently, computers demonstrate discrete abilities that are mostly inspired by either human abilities or lack of. WBE represents the pivotal moment when computers are able to emulate human brains. A technical achievement that will be perhaps one of humanity’s greatest. At long last, the inner workings of someone’s mind will finally be able to be cracked open and the paste of ‘us’ can be filtered. Each constituent, dissected and categorised so the precision of the human brain can be unveiled. For programmers that are currently working directly or indirectly towards WBE through machine-learning research and neuroscience, it’s not enough to consider the brain as a network of neurons. So why are all machine-learning algorithms obsessed about neural networks and not the glial networks that outnumber them 10 : 1? Cheers for reading, hope you’ve enjoyed it! _View Bryan Jordan's profile on LinkedIn, the world's largest professional community. Bryan has 4 jobs listed on their…_www.linkedin.com Bryan Jordan - CEO, Co-Founder - Bright | LinkedIn

Hijacking A Thief’s Mind

According to some statistics, around 20 million US citizens have an outstanding personal loan. The lending market is constantly growing because people always need money for real estate purchases, consolidating debt, handling medical expenses, etc. Thanks to cryptocurrencies, there is now finally an alternative to traditional bank loans. New lending systems have been developed, which allow users to borrow money by using digital coins as collateral. What this means for you is easier access to funds and liquidity. The Main Features of Crypto Lending Just like in traditional lending markets, crypto loans are a vast ocean of possibilities, and you need to learn how to navigate them properly. Detailed analysis, comparisons, and considerations are required to find what is best for you. I had to do this research myself because not that long ago, I needed a loan myself, and I now feel confident sharing what I discovered with my readers. For example, if you want to borrow money, you could provide cryptocurrency as collateral for your loan. That’s what crypto lending is. It's not uncommon for people to take out a loan in stablecoins or another kind of digital currency instead of in real cash and fiat money. There are a few main aspects of crypto loans worth considering: How high is the APR and LTV, and how much money can I borrow? APR is the Annual Percentage Rate. It’s the interest and profit a service provider generates to lend out its money. As a borrower, you will, of course, be interested in platforms charging low APRs. Luckily for you, a lot of the service providers in the crypto space do just that. In addition, cryptocurrency loans come with much lower interest rates than what you would get from your local bank. So instead of paying an APR of 20%, you can halve these costs, although they can be as low as a few percent in rare circumstances. Next up is the Loan-To-Value or LTV ratio. You see, your collateral’s value determines how much you can borrow. For example, you can’t expect to receive $1.000 worth of USDT for $1.000 of Bitcoin. Many borrowers could decide to default on their loans, and that way, the lending platforms aren’t making any money. To protect their business, the collateral needs to be more valuable than the borrowed asset. Going for a crypto loan with a high LTV rate is in your best interest because you are getting more value for your collateral that way. You should be aiming for an LTV of 50% or more. That would mean that for $1.000 worth of BTC collateral, for example, the lender would give you $500 of alternative coins. Some crypto lending and borrowing platforms have minimum and maximum sums that can be loaned out. There are no firm rules, and each service provider decides for themselves. If you need a small crypto loan, you should know that certain lenders require their clients to borrow at least $10.000. But luckily, some have no minimum or maximum amounts. Always try to pick services that aren’t forcing you to go above your own limits. LTV and APR rates can be fixed at a certain percentage or dynamic and changeable according to the type of asset or market conditions. Fluctuating rates provide more opportunities but greater uncertainty. Fixed rates are more reliable and less risky. They are better suited for people who prefer no surprises. Crypto lending has several other features that make it attractive: There is a variety of digital coins to select between depending on your demands. A quick onboarding process for clients. Your loan takes less than an hour or a few blockchain confirmations to be approved. Anyone with adequate collateral may get a loan without running through credit and security checks. An Overview of Crypto Loans Services Let’s now take a look at some familiar names in the crypto lending space. Aave is a non-custodial and decentralized liquidity provider. You can borrow various assets in exchange for suitable collateral. The platform has a market size of several billion dollars. It allows its customers to take out a loan instead of liquidating their assets. Aave This decentralized lender offers LTV rates from 40% to 80% and has two different interest rates: stable and variable. The client is free to select and switch between these APR rates from his profile. The stable option includes fixed interest for the entire duration of the loan. Variable rates can change depending on market conditions and the offer and demand. The interest amounts vary from coin to coin and can be between 2% and 16%. Aave has no limits in terms of minimum and maximum loaned amounts or the length of the loan contract. Pros and Cons: Pros: LTV rates of up to 80%. The ability to switch between stable and variable interest rates. Cons: High APR rates of up to 18% for some assets. Not enough liquidity for all currencies. BlockFi offers crypto-backed loans with three different types of fixed LTV and interest rates. The Loan-To-Value amounts to select from are set at 20%, 35%, and 50%. The APR percentages are 4.5, 7.9, and 9.75. This platform has a minimum loan amount of $10,000 and a maximum of $100,000,000. BlockFi However, the geographical location bears a significant effect on the rates you will receive. Customers from the United States may be offered different terms than international clients. The loaned sums are sent out the same day, and the maximum loan period is one year. Suppose the collateral value drops below a certain threshold. In that case, a partial or total liquidation can happen unless additional collateral is provided. Pros and Cons: Pros: Low-interest rates. Customizable LTV ratios. Cons: High minimum loan amounts. Maximum loan period of one year. Differences are made between US and non-US clients. Celsius supports over 40 cryptocurrencies as collateral and allows you to borrow six different stablecoins. On this platform, you can select between interest rates of 1, 6.95, and 8.95 percent, but each category has its own LTV figure. For the lowest APR, you will have to accept a 25% LTV. On the other hand, a Loan-To-Value ratio of 33% is available if you select a 6.95% RTP. To get the biggest 50% LTV rate, your only option is to pick the 8.95% RTP. The Celsius network The minimum stablecoin amount that can be borrowed is fixed at $500, and the assets can be kept for up to three years. Celsius doesn’t offer loans in all countries, and additional limits may apply depending on your location. The network has a native CEL token that can be used to pay back interest with discounts of up to 30%. Pros and Cons: Pros: Borrowing at 1% interest rates. Long loan periods. Cons: Not available worldwide. Low LTV ratios when selecting the lowest APR rates. Minimum loan periods of six months. ChangeNOW (NOWLoans) allows people to take out a loan in USDT or USDC by supplying collateral in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, or any other supported assets. Clients who need Bitcoin are welcome to deposit stablecoins to the ChangeNOW platform instead. NOWLoans You can keep the borrowed assets indefinitely because there are no time limits. In addition to the fixed APR of 10%, NOWLoans also features an LTV ratio of 50% for all currencies. There are no limits to how much you can borrow, but there is a minimum of $100 worth of crypto. Pros and Cons: Pros: No time limits or maximum loan periods. Low $100 entry loan amount. Identical ARP and LTV figures for all coins. Cons: The platform doesn’t support loans in popular alternative coins. CoinLoan CoinLoan is a custodial borrowing platform with APR rates starting at 4.95%. The site allows you to loan stablecoins as well as fiat currencies. The minimum loan period is one month, and the borrowed funds can be kept for up to three years. CoinLoan offers four Loan-To-Value rates to pick from. The interest increases the higher the LTV is. The APR figures are 4.95%, 7.95%, 9.95%, and 11.95% for the LTV rates of 20, 35, 50, and 70 percent. The platform features a professional live support team, 2FA, and Biometric authentication. Before you can borrow from CoinLoan, you will have to verify your identity, which only takes a couple of minutes. Pros and Cons: Pros: No minimum amounts. Customizable LTV figures. Cons: Necessary to undergo identity verification. The platform charges a 1% origination fee on all loans. Crypto.com is a cryptocurrency platform with over 10 million registered users. One of the services the site renders is lending cryptocurrencies. The maximum loan period is 12 months, after which the interest fees have to be paid. The APR on depends on the amount of staked CRO tokens (the native currency of the platform) and the LTV ratio. The interest rates vary from 2% to 12%. Crypto.com crypto.com In addition to that, digital coins can be borrowed with LTV figures of 25%, 33%, and 50%. Crypto.com users can loan stablecoins, Bitcoin, or Ethereum. The smallest borrowing amount is $100 worth of crypto, while the maximum is $2 million. Pros and Cons: Pros: Lower interest rates when staking the native CRO tokens. Small loan amounts. Cons: Not available in France, the USA, UK, Germany, and several other countries. Multiple loans can’t be taken out. KYC verification is required to be considered for a loan. Nexo is a crypto loans platform that offers digital coins with different interest rates from 6.9% to 13.9%. This provider has a minimum amount of only $50, while the upper limit is $2,000,000. The max loan term is 12 months, but this period can be extended if necessary. Nexo Different coins are assigned different LTV rates. Depending on several factors, you can expect to see Loan-To-Value ratios of 15%, 30%, 50%, 70%, and 90%. Discounts are possible for loyal customers who own NEXO tokens. Pros and Cons: Pros: Low borrowing amounts. Extended benefits for loyalty program customers. Cons: Only two stablecoins can be loaned out. Non-customizable APR and LTV rates. YouHodler is a crypto lending platform that provides instant loans with high Loan-To-Value rates of 90%. More than 30 of the most popular cryptocurrencies can be used as collateral for a USDT loan. When borrowing stablecoins, the loan duration is 15 days, but this can be extended at any time after paying a 1% loan fee. YouHodler The minimum loanable amount is 100 USDT for crypto-backed collateral. Ledger Vault insures $150 million worth of YouHodler assets. If you are interested in taking out a Bitcoin loan, you can do that by depositing various altcoins as collateral. Pros and Cons: Pros: High LTV rates. Long list of crypto-backed collateral. Cons: USDT loan durations are only 15 days. Each loan extension requires a 1% service fee and reopening commission. Unchained Capital is a lending platform for bitcoin-backed loans which does business mainly with US customers. All deposited collateral is held in multi-signature wallets that require the signatures of 2 out of 3 private keys before accessing the funds. The company provides personal, business, and international loans. The minimum borrowing amount for international clients is $100.000, while US citizens can loan no less than $10,000. Unchained Capital The loans can’t be shorter than three months. The maximum holding period is three years. Unchained Capital provides LTV rates of 40% and Annual Percentage Rates from 11.16% to 14.22%. Each loan requires an origination fee of 0.5% to 1% depending on the term. Pros and Cons: Pros: High-security level Cons: High borrowing amounts Each loan requires an origination fee A Comparison of Crypto Lending Platforms Name LTV APR Min. Amount Max. Amount Min. Loan Period Max. Loan Period Aave 40% - 80% 2% - 18% No limits No limits No limits No limits BlockFi 20%, 35%, and 50% 4.5%, 7.9%, and 9,75% $10,000 $100,000,000 No limits 1 year Celsius 25%, 33%, and 50% 1%, 6.95%, and 8.95% $500 No limits No limits 3 years ChangeNOW (NOWLoans) 50% 10% $100 No limits No limits No limits CoinLoan 20%, 35%, 50%, and 70% 4.95%, 7.95%, and 9.95% No limits No limits 1 month 3 years Crypto.com 25%, 33%, and 50% 2% - 12% $100 $2,000,000 No limits 12 months Nexo 15% - 90% 6.9% - 13.9% $50 $2,000,000 No limits 1 year (extendable) YouHodler 90% 1% 100 USDT No limits 15 days 15 days (extendable) Unchained Capital 40% 11.16% - 14.22% $10,000 $1.000,000 3 months 3 years Summary As we can see from the comparison table above, there are two types of crypto lending service providers: platforms with fixed and those with floating rates. Depending on what kind of person you are and how much risk you are willing to take, you will choose what seems the most attractive to you personally. Lending services with floating figures require more detailed analysis. The terms aren’t the same for all assets and deposited collateral. The customers need to perform due diligence to know what works best for them. Nexo offers the lowest loanable amounts in the industry, starting at $50. Unfortunately, their APR can be as high as almost 14%. Lending operators such as BlockFi and Unchained Capital aren’t suitable for small-time players because of their $10.000 borrowing minimums. Aave doesn’t have limitations for loanable amounts or the holding period. Still, certain digital coins have interest rates of up to 18%. No matter which of these platforms you decide to entrust your money to, ensure that you are familiar with their reputation, terms of use, and conditions of your loan.

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