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DeSci: what’s top of mind today?
Recorded: April 30, 2025 Duration: 0:29:28Space Recording
Short Summary
The latest discussions in the DSI ecosystem reveal critical trends and project launches, including concerns over NIH-funded research integrity, the need for more diverse participation in conferences, and innovative health-focused blockchain projects like Asterisk DAO and Reflex DAO. Symbiont Labs is also set to unveil new technologies in a pop-up studio, highlighting the intersection of health and blockchain.
Full Transcription
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. . Thank you. All right, welcome back to the DSi mic.
This is Erin McGinnis on the count.
And there's been a lot of conversation happening in the broader scientific sphere
and DSI, both raising valid critique as well as kind of exploring different topics or ideas
that should be discussed within these ecosystems. So the space today will just be touching briefly on a few of these different
topics. And if you have any topics as well that you'd like to add into the conversation,
please either reply down below if there's some story you might want to reference or request
the mic and you can come up on here as well to be part of the discussion or raise another
one of these conversations.
Kicking it off is a thread I found recently talking about the Alzheimer's mafia, basically.
Yeah, basically. And so I'll pin a tweet up here that has a nice thread tagged in it just about an email that was recently sent and then also released or found. kind of a request for another researcher to maybe reevaluate their stance or positioning on
on some different Alzheimer's work that they they are supporting and and is doing a bit of harm. And it kind of goes into,
they claimed it as the dark side of NIH-funded science.
And one of the most kind of appalling or impressive stats
within this thread is how there are hundreds of papers
along this whole amyloid situation and Alzheimer's, and those papers were cited nearly 80,000 times.
And within science, if we're thinking about what is regarded as being valuable or kind of the best signal of what is good science or how to gauge different scientists as well as
that research, those citations are a commonly used metric within the scientific sphere,
gauging people's reputation and basically whether they should get funding. And so if 80,000 citations have been attributed to different researchers or down the pathway of, like, basically leading back to fraudulent, manipulated research, it really brings into question kind of the entire scientific system and whether those reputation assignments are really
the best mechanism. And not that that's going to change overnight, but is at least something
to be evaluating and exploring. So I definitely recommend checking out this whole thread.
exploring. So I definitely recommend checking out this whole thread. It goes on to have a couple
good clips of folks from the NIH. It has RFK Jr. having some commentary, a 60-minute feature on like how this affects individuals' lives. And then goes on to quote the new NIH director
and where he talks about how NIH-funded research
really should be reproducible
and kind of that standard of what science should be.
So definitely recommend checking out that thread a bit.
And as I mentioned at the beginning,
kicks off with an email of a scientist at UCL
just kind of asking someone else within their ecosystem to stand by science in a more kind of rigorous type of way.
And so I found this commentary interesting.
I'll pause there for a moment.
For anyone that's joined, this space is just time to talk about whatever
is on your mind, whether it's an upcoming event, different news stories being circulated around,
or different conversations you're having right now. Pinned a story about the amyloid mafia up above.
about the amyloid mafia up above.
Another conversation that is going on at the moment
is a post that Dr. Mikey or Michael Fisher
made just about the recent DSI event in Dubai,
the DSI summit there.
And just quoting him, he says,
if a conference has more speakers than attendees,
that is not a conference,
that is a group therapy session for thought leaders.
And this conversation has been going on for a long time
within the DSI ecosystem,
just about are we just talking to ourselves?
And let's get some more scientists into the conversation let's get some more technologists and I think we've made a ton of really good
progress across the board whether that's virtually whether that's in person but definitely a lot more more progress to be made and also more progress just getting more people in the room.
I will say I was at DCI London a couple of weeks ago and the room was packed there with
traditional scientists with a really diverse wide range of different people.
And I've talked to a few folks who are either just on the crypto side
or just on the scientist side as well as the DSI side
and heard multiple times that this is like the most diverse type of room
in terms of those different backgrounds that they've been in basically.
So there's definitely progress being made, but a lot more I think should
be had in terms of just getting more people into the room and making sure we're not just talking
to ourselves. And I think a lot of that comes from like individual conversations that we might all be having as well.
Cool.
Also have been having a few conversations with folks who aren't in DSi.
They might be more in the network state, pop-up city type circles.
network state, pop-up city type circles. Maybe they previously were in D-Side, now they're doing
something more in research broadly or governance, tokenomics, but not quite as connected like on a
daily basis into the D-Side community. And a lot of them have very kind of strong criticism of desai things that we might
have heard before of like okay we need real products coming out of the space and i was
talking someone who's building uh one of the top uh most usable DSI products that's available right now.
And even he was saying how, like, it's not even that usable, even though it's one of, if not the best option available for people to actually engage with today.
And so that's also a conversation we're going to try and push at Switzerland, the pop-up city in Switzerland, starting later this week.
And so that's also a conversation.
Just talking with different people outside of the ecosystem, but have some knowledge or some tie into DSI.
But maybe more expertise in governance or other sides of things and just getting their perspective as well as if they have any ideas of different things that maybe should be experimented on or tested out within the DSAI space.
So I'll pause there.
DSAI Ghana, welcome up to stage.
I saw you reacting to a couple different comments I was making.
So I would love to hear your thoughts or have you chime in.
GM, GM, GM, everyone.
And thank you so much for the opportunity.
I do understand what you've said.
And I just have a little suggestion to make.
I think it's not a suggestion but it's a request so this I
Ghana in the upcoming months would be having a workshop in one of the
universities in Ghana and we'll like this I might to speak to the students
true it might be online definitely is going to be online so we would like to
know once you use this medium to
know whether you would be interested in doing that.
Yeah, that sounds awesome. What age students are they?
So basically they are of the age of from 18 to let's say 25. Cool.
Yeah.
Is it like all different like majors or concentrations or.
Yes. In focus.
Yes.
Yeah.
Different majors.
Yeah.
Different majors.
Well,
yeah,
that sounds awesome.
If you send me a message on my personal profile, just under Aaron, one of the other speakers up here, we can coordinate more on that.
Okay. Okay. Well noted. Well noted. Thank you.
Things like this, I think, are really what get more people to know about DSI.
And I think especially when students hear about it, they seem to be a lot more receptive and open-minded and exploratory.
next generations of people building and coming through science as well as
technology to really create those invitations and onboarding into DSI.
Whereas the approach with like more established or seasoned folks,
especially on the science side of things,
it just is a bit more of a different conversation I found.
So yeah, that's super cool.
If there is a public link,
we can also add that to like a DSI calendar,
but totally understand if it's more just for those students to sign up for.
Okay. Okay. We'll work on that and keep you in touch.
Thank you so much.
Perfect.
Yeah, that sounds great.
I saw a reply down below from Symbian Labs,
Robot Exoskeletons DIY with MakeDIY.
This is super cool.
Do you have any pictures with this yet?
I'm just scrolling through some of the recent messages.
You guys look super engaged on X.
Otherwise, feel free to come up and speak if you're able to as well.
Yeah, I've had a lot of conversations of people interested in the robotics side of things.
So that seems to be a growing kind of just field of excitement and people also looking for crossovers of robotics and
design just kind of uh more physical stuff for people to get their hands on and and start playing
with um and so hopefully we'll see some more of that within the DSi ecosystem. I know at DSi London, we were able to show off some of the bioreactor stuff we're building at Causality.
And people were just super excited about that and looking for more things like that.
So hopefully we'll keep seeing more of that within the DSi space too.
Cool. One of the third bullet points I had for the conversation today was just around
more NIH commentary on reproducibility and some of that was in the thread that I had pinned up above first.
And that just coming from the new NIH director, as well as RFK Jr.
has spoken out on it many times of just like, let's actually find the real truth in science and make sure that's what's being pushed forward and pushed out to the people.
And so I think that's going to be a growing conversation, especially as, at least in the U.S., there are different funding cuts.
I'm currently in London, and last night was at an event with a bunch of different people leading different science, innovation networks
and communities, basically, whether that's accelerators or funding groups or whatever
it might be.
And a lot of the conversation there was just about how there's now a growing opportunity
to create some of these different hubs in other regions.
And there is a growing appetite in some of these different places to coordinate and kind of create the next era of innovation and some of this different progress.
We're seeing that with the pop-up cities as well.
the pop-up cities as well, and just also different cities kind of bouncing back, such as SF.
So I think we'll see a lot more exciting things coming out in the near future too.
I would love to pose a question out to anyone tuning in just about any critiques or things that you might be thinking about or thinking should be addressed within the DSI space, whether it's from a coordination perspective, development, leadership.
development, leadership, and you don't necessarily have to have the answers, but even those prompts,
feel free to DM as well if that's more comfortable. But we'll be driving some of these conversations
at Switzerland with different people who have expertise in the governance or community or legal sides of things. So I would love for those prompts of different conversations there
if you have any things that you might even like to see built out.
These were a lot of the main conversations or themes that have come up in my sphere over the past week or so, and different topics that just wanted to kind of amplify into the larger sphere too.
crypto folks lately on just the opportunities for data as well as more D-PIN type plays in D-Sci.
So we might be seeing some more of that. I know there are a handful of different DAOs that are
working on developing hardware and devices of their own or white labeling some of those.
devices of their own or white labeling some of those.
And we're doing some of that manufacturing with the bioreactors
and then beginning some of the next steps with wearables and EEGs for causality right now.
So I think we'll start to see a lot more things on kind of the hardware hands-on perspective too,
in addition to the data fronts.
I guess a few other updates of different projects and progress
that I know I've been seeing over the past week.
Asterisk DAO, their app is in beta right now,
so definitely looking for women to engage there.
They're focused on women's non-reproductive health.
Axon DAOs, Ring is ready, Reflex DAOs, Heart Rate Variability, and Sleep Tracker.
It's risk-based is also available.
We'll be doing a verified experiment with them at Switzerland too.
as every night you'll just put a piece of tape either over your mouth or right above it
and tracking to see how that affects your sleep,
as well as facial positioning, like jaw positioning,
with your just changes in your breathing while sleeping.
So I know she's looking for participants.
So there's a ton of different ways to engage in the DeSight ecosystem right now. in your breathing while sleeping. So I know she's looking for participants.
So there's a ton of different ways to engage
in the DeSight ecosystem right now.
Cool.
These are the main updates I have right now.
Maybe I'll keep it nice and short this week
and come back next week if you have any ideas for a topic
definitely feel free to reach out
and we can get that on the radar
whether that's next week or another upcoming week
yeah, go ahead
okay, so please, I just sent you a DM.
Kindly check it in.
Cool.
Yeah, I, my device with my personal profile is, like, across the room right now.
So I'll be able to check that in a couple minutes.
Otherwise, I have your name.
So I can send you a message too
if it didn't come through for some reason okay okay sure sure um cool welcome simian labs
who's uh behind the profile right now hey guys uh good morning um i'm Oya here behind the account of Symbiont Labs. Well, if you
don't know us, Symbiont Labs, we work on subdermal implants and we are a startup located in Prospera Special Economic Zone in Roatan, Honduras.
Right now, our founder is on Vitalist Bay, San Francisco, trying to pitch and raise money for our mission.
Also, what's on top of my mind today?
Well, first, just want to appreciate it dsai mick erin muse and and everyone
here because i love the topic i've been hearing it for the last 20 minutes and we need more of
these spaces sometimes uh we might be busy you know grinding in the lab but we're gonna try to
be out here more because we understand that we need to speak about
it and and speaking about it just want to drop more things that are on our mind if you are looking
you know into projects that are borderline can you hear me yes i, I could hear you the whole time.
Yeah, what you guys are doing is super cool.
I was able to get to know some of the team last year down at Vitalia.
Yes.
And have stayed connected there.
Was involved with the Human Augmentation summit a couple months ago too
so uh yeah definitely pushing the bounds of um full integration with some of these different
technologies and just augmentation of what uh our bodies might be able to do so super cool stuff
you guys are working on. Yeah, thank you.
Well, what's on our mind right now, just dropping information.
On June, we might do a pop-up implant studio in the Frontier Tower in San Francisco.
It is a Frontier Tower.
It's like a 17-store building.
I heard that each floor is its own lab and uh cassocks our founder will be there with a pop-up implant studio if you
want to check it out or if you want to come down into roatan and leave the network state crypto city experience and,
and check our lab.
We will be very happy to,
to guide you,
you know,
and yeah,
be your ambassador here.
Cool.
Yeah.
It was checking out frontier tower,
right.
As they got the keys.
And so that's a super cool hub
that's being built in the Bay right now.
Yeah, if anyone wants an excuse
to go to Roton, Honduras, or the Bay Area,
those are two really good places to get engaged
and definitely reach out to Symbian Labs
if you're there and check out what they're all up to.
Yeah, yep.
I just gave a follow to all the speakers and appreciate, guys.
I do have to take a meeting call, so I'll be dropping out.
But have a great day, everyone.
Thanks so much for joining in.
Awesome.
Well, thanks to everyone for joining into this convo.
We'll be back here next week at the same time.
And if you have any further thoughts on the topics
or discussion so far today, definitely reach out.
I'm here to discuss and try and
improve any of this. So yeah, hope you all have a great day and week until next time. Thanks so much.
