Haven't seen Transformers 2 yet? Here's an excellent recap of the film. For the full effect, punch yourself in the stomach once it's done. [Topless Robot]

Do I need to catch more sun and vitamin D?

The western world faces three very notorious killers: heart disease, cancer, and stroke. Just this week Michael Jackson (heart attack??) and Farah Fawcett (cancer) were struck down, and the media is waiting on baited breath for another celebrity to die and fulfill the “rule of threes.” Stroke, we’re looking at you. But what if it didn’t have to be this way? What if there were just a few simple things you could eat or take that would protect you from all three killers?

That’s what the U.S. government is going to find out. The National Institute for Health (NIH) is funding a $20 million dollar study with 20,000 test subjects to explore how vitamin D and fish oil affect health. The Vitamin D and Omega-3 Trial (or VITAL) will be a five year study and will be one of the first to specifically target African Americans as test subjects. With darker skin producing less vitamin D in the body from sun exposure, scientists theorize there may be a link between a vitamin D deficiency and higher rates of stroke, heart disease, and cancer in the Af.Am. community.

Vitamin D and Fish Oil. Not quite the names for a buddy cop movie, but for the last decade, they’ve each been toted as the way to combat the killer diseases of our time. Vitamin D has been inconclusively linked to heart health and cancer prevention, not to mention bone strength. Fish Oil, with high levels of vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids is supposed to good for everything from good skin to memory loss. When it comes to preventing stroke, heart attack, or cancer, these two guys seem like the ideal dietary supplements to take.

And in five years, we’ll hopefully know for certain. In the meantime, Dr. JoAnn Manson and Dr. Julie Buring, the heads of VITAL are gearing up for the trials. Starting in January of next year, they will recruit men over the age of 65 and women over 60 to take daily supplements and report on their health. These supplements will be either placebos, vitamin D, or fish oil. While the studies will be centered at Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, the subjects will cover the entire U.S. With a relatively huge sampling (20,000 subjects) and double blind methodology, VITAL hopes to once and for all settle the long term benefits, or risks, of vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids.

If the tests can conclusively prove the health benefits for these supplements they’ll be a fixture in the diets of all those seeking longevity or immortality, such as Singularity Hub regular Ray Kurzweil. Even if vitamin D and fish-oil aren’t shown to be miracle drugs the VITAL study could still reveal important facts about our health. Terrifying or wonderful surprises come standard with studies this large. For instance, who could have predicted that chemotherapy would help with wrinkles? In five years, we may all be rushing outside to soak up more sun or eating more sushi to prevent cancer. Personally, I’ll be waiting for the day you can get vitamin D from the glow of your computer screen.

Kyle Munkittrick writes to me and sets out what it would mean for transhumanism to arrive or succeed:

...Transhumanism is definitely more of a philosophy than an objective, though it is a political philosophy like feminism or libertarianism. There are specific goals, like extending life span, creating true A.I., and animal uplift, and then broad ethical goals, like ending suffering.

If I had to come up with specific criteria, however, I'd suggest the following three:

1. Medical modifications that permanently alter or replace a function of the human body become prolific. LAZIK eye surgery, internal defibrillators, and prosthetic limbs are all examples. The key difference is that these modifications would either result in a return to initial quality (as in LAZIK) or enhance/augment the original condition. Landmark moment: When a runner with prosthetic cheetah blades competes in the traditional Olympics and wins a medal.

2. Our social understanding of aging loses the "virtue of necessity" aspect and society begins to treat aging as a disease. Concepts like "aging well" and "golden years" would be as counter-intuitive as describing someone with cancer or MS as "diseasing well." I have no idea what the consequences would be socially, but you can bet things like "mid-life crises" and "adult learning" would take on entirely new meanings or become meaningless. When we have a generation of people expected to live to 150, that'll be a good sign this is on the way to happening.

3. The recognition of an individual with citizenship and/or personhood and the criteria for that recognition would change dramatically from the status quo. Rights discourse would shift from who we include (i.e. should homosexual have marriage rights?) to a system flexible enough to easily bring in sentient non-humans. A good litmus test for flexibility is: how would we incorporate an intelligent alien race into our rights/ethics system?

Those are the three landmarks I'd look for when trying to answer that question...I'm a big fan of MR, so it prides me to see transhumanism as a topic you've enough interest in to mention.

Advocates, is that a good account?

I'm not a Luddite (at all) but I've never been taken by transhumanism as a systematic philosophy.  I'm more worried that we will fail at "humanism," namely the simple requirement that we treat other people decently.  It's worth asking whether the promotion of transhumanism makes us more or less likely to meet basic canons of decency and consideration.  I would be more likely to favor a transhumanism that made us painfully aware of our personal vulnerability in a way that would expand our circle of benevolence.  I worry that transhumanism can be used to cloak that vulnerability, assert its contingency, and instill a false sense of personal control or denial.

Was Michael Jackson a transhumanist (cut to 3:54)?

Microsoft is looking for volunteers to try out a pre-release copy of Office 2010—which drops as a Technical Preview next month—on a "loaner laptop," with daily home and office use, and with regular reports back and, potentially, being used in marketing or press opportunities. Do all that as part of Office 2010 Real Life Stories, and you'll get a free full copy, unlimited technical support and training, and maybe a shot at net legend (or notoriety). Would you guinea pig your take on Office 2010 for a free copy? [via Ars Technica]