The Human Operating Manual

The HOM letters intertwined to form a human
Menu

The Alien’s Guide to the Human

The Alien’s Guide to the Human A non-biased view of the human being.   Every other page in this section was written by a human about humans, which means every other page is, to some degree, compromised. We cannot help flattering ourselves, or in the modern fashion, theatrically loathing ourselves, which is just flattery wearing […]

LUCA & the Energy Bubbles

LUCA & the Energy Bubbles Contents I. What Life Is II. The Ingredients III. The Competing Hypotheses IV. The Alkaline Hydrothermal Vent Theory V. Replication First, or Metabolism First? VI. LUCA: The Last Universal Common Ancestor VII. The First Glimmer of Sensing VIII. What We Do Not Know IX. The Impartial Observer’s Takeaway X. Cross-Links […]

Energy Factories

Energy Factories Contents I. The Deal of a Lifetime II. Why Energy Was the Bottleneck III. How Energy Gets Made IV. Mitochondria as Entropy Engines V. The Maternal Line VI. What We Do Not Know VII. The Impartial Observer’s Takeaway VIII. Cross-Links Mitochondria, chloroplasts, and the deal of a lifetime. The previous page named the […]

Emergence & Complexity

Emergence & Complexity Contents I. What Emergence Is II. Simple Rules, Staggering Complexity III. Self-Organisation IV. The Levels of Reality V. Weak and Strong Emergence VI. Complexity Theory and Feedback VII. Tensegrity: The Body as Emergent Structure VIII. The Free Energy Principle IX. Emergence and You X. What We Do Not Know XI. The Impartial […]

Entropy

Entropy Contents I. What Is Entropy? II. The Second Law and the Arrow of Time III. The Part Almost Everyone Gets Backwards IV. Life as a Dissipative Structure V. The Entropy Accelerator VI. The Dissipation-Driven Adaptation VII. The Micro Example: Your Metabolism VIII. Why Growth and Decay Are the Same Process IX. The Arrow of […]

The Forces

The Forces Contents I. What a “force” is II. Gravity III. Electromagnetism IV. The Strong Nuclear Force V. The Weak Nuclear Force VI. The Standard Model VII. The Unification Story VIII. The Forces and You IX. What We Don’t Know X. The Takeaway XI. Cross-links Gravity, electromagnetism, and the weak and strong nuclear forces.   […]

The Big Bang

The Big Bang Contents I. Deep History II. What “The Big Bang” Actually Means III. The First Moments IV. Inflation V. The Light Elements VI. Recombination and the First Light VII. The Dark Sector VIII. From First Light to First Life IX. What We Do Not Know X. The Takeaway XI. Cross-Links The proposed birth […]

The Universal Rabbit Hole

The Universal Rabbit Hole Contents I. The Fine-Tuning Question II. Constructor Theory III. The Fate of the Universe IV. Earth’s History and Conditions for Life V. The Simulation Hypothesis VI. Why Did the Universe Start So Ordered? VII. Quantum Weirdness at the Frontier VIII. Are We Alone? IX. Open Research Questions X. Future Topics XI. […]

Cancer as a Metabolic Disease: On the Origin, Management, and Prevention of Cancer

Cancer as a Metabolic Disease On the Origin, Management, and Prevention of Cancer Author: Thomas Seyfried Topics: Nutrition, physiology, fasting, ketogenic diet cancer, mitochondria All information is attributed to the author. Except in the case where we may have misunderstood a concept and summarized it incorrectly. These notes are only for reference, and we always […]