📄 Extracted Text (813 words)
From: Caleb Harper
To: "jeffrey E." <[email protected]>
Subject: Nature Article
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2018 02:54:41 +0000
Attachments: Chamovitz_2018_Plants_are_intelligent now_what.pdf
Just published in nature (attached)
On Thu, Sep 6, 2018 at 2:57 PM Caleb Harper
wrote:
sorry for late response -just got back from eastern europe.
I. Follow up On John De La Parra - Got John on board as
a temp to perm hire (he is perfect for the team - brilliant)
and we are working on a white paper to send out shortly.
He is willing/able to leave his positions at North Eastern
and Tufts and go full time with us starting in Nov. So until
then I have him committed to 50% time.
2. Next steps - Setting up mtgs with Ed B and Martin to
discuss the draft white paper and our approach. In general
I think developing a quantified "turing test" for plants
would be a great first step to proving sentience. lye also
started working with Lazlo Barabasi on the next round of
the flavor experiments, and from a network science
perspective, I think he would be a great collaborator on
this work. With advisory from Ed, Martin and Lazlo and
building up my team here - I think we are in great shape.
We might need a reputable thinker on consciousness,
maybe a philosopher? Know anyone that could collaborate
from that perspective?
3. Funding - I cant hire John full time and start spending
money on other staff/prototype development/experiment
costs until Joi signals to me that the budget we talked
about has landed at ML. Is it possible to move forward
with that?
4. Things to read - attached - OpenPharm : a white paper
John started in the last week or so geared towards using
our tools for drug discovery --- Cyber+Agriculture
_Paper_Harper - a flavor paper we just sent to PLOS , its
pretty basic but has some good underpinnings that we will
expand on with further experiments.
In Boston anytime soon? Id really like for you to see the lab out in
Middleton, MA (40 mins north boston) next time
the real question....what are these plants thinking in my lab today
and what language are they speaking...
Best,
Caleb
Previous email breaking down funding:
To do this id need to add depth to my bio team, that's by far my
weakest team in the lab currently. I recently let contracts lapse on
Arielle and my molecular biologist as it wasn't working out..
EFTA01023259
want to add the following team and would need to do a search to
get the best. MIT won't let me hire PhD Research Scientists, and
likely quality people wouldn't accept, without secure multiyear
funding.. propose 500k a yr for 3 yrs with the expectation we
evaluate progress after year one as to year 2 and 3. The
transparent cost break down is:
PhD plant physiologist - 80k base salary +56% mit research OH
(none goes to my lab or ML) + 20% benefits = 149, 760 k total
cost
PhD plant biochemist - 100k base salary + 56% mit research OH +
20% benefits = 187k total cost
Plant science tech (JR) - 40k • 20% administrative OH - 48k total
cost
100k prototyping budget + 20% material & services OH = 120k
total cost
= 500k a year / 3yrs
On my side I'll dedicate 2 out of our 4 shipping containers for 3
years (target paid for install / dev etc but with stock price decline
is stopping support for non essential research) and my salary is
covered in other sponsored accounts plus my team of engineers on
staff (backend /front end software, data science , electrical.
embedded systems and mechanical engineers)
I know it's a big ask, and would understand if it's out of ball park,
but I think that's what it would take to make meaningful and
rigorous progress on figuring out if plants can think and
communicate
Thoughts?
On Fri, Aug 31, 2018 at 1:03 PM, jeffrey
E. <jeevacation®gmail.com> wrote:
nexzt step?
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Principal Investigator / Director
Open Agriculture Initiative
MIT Media Lab
*Please contact Mr.David Zack for scheduling
[email protected]
Caleb Harper TED Talk
OpenAG Community Forum
Sent from my iPhone
Principal Investigator / Director
Open Agriculture Initiative
MIT Media Lab
*Please contact Mr.David Zack for scheduling
[email protected]
Caleb Harper TED Talk
OpenAG Community Forum
EFTA01023261
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