[ExI] The tedium

[Jason Resch]

On Mon, Jan 12, 2026, 5:22 AM Rafal Smigrodzki via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> I briefly perused recent posts to ExI and I must admit to a certain sense
> of tedium... so much talk about the one whom I will not name, and about the
> wonders of socialism, so few discussions of... interesting stuff.
>

Indeed, the everything-list ( https://groups.google.com/g/everything-list
), meant to discuss the theory that every possible thing exists, was
afflicted by similar off-topic posts, to the point where quality
discussions largely ceased and many original users stopped posting. I hope
extropy-chat will not suffer a similar fate.


> Have you heard that 75% of all so-called sporadic Alzheimer's disease is
> actually caused by mutations in just one gene (and it's not amyloid)? It's
> ApoE. That's an amazing development, really puts into perspective how
> misguided most AD research was in the past 50 years.
>

I had not heard that!

What do you think is involved in the other 25% of cases? Are there other
genes, or is the ApoE gene involved in something like healing neurons, and
mutations of these gene make one more susceptible to getting the disease?

Do we understand what this gene does?
What do you think about the finding that brains with Alzheimer's tend to
have much more aluminum in them?

I read recently that minor surgery to connect lymph drainage system of the
brain to veins in the neck can slow or even reverse a number of
neurodegenerative diseases.

The two things above suggest to me that some kind of environmental toxin or
toxins may accumulate in the brain, and those with Alzheimer's are either
more exposed to it, or are less adept at clearing it. I think if anything
the amyloid protein could be the brains attempt to quarantine away these
harmful substances, and so is a symptom of a deeper problem rather than a
cause.

Anxious to hear your perspective on these speculations.

Jason
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