[Update as of 26th April 2024: based on our internal considerations and consultations with external experts, we have decided to make adjustments to the parts of our general roadmap. We intend to start with the adaptive low-suffering genome bounty, gathering and analyzing extensive data from multiple subjects with unique resistance to psychological and physical pain, particularly those whose phenomenologies resemble that of Jo Cameron, and including some of the individuals who already contacted us. This robust step - reasonable under multiple potential future trajectories - will help us avoid single points of failure, further informing the design of the planned interventions. That being said, we continue to predict that FAAH(-OUT) mutations will constitute one of the central areas of interest, requiring further in-depth considerations. Furthermore, we decided to pause investigating the use of minicircles in the human intervention project, having identified delivery-related issues that could likely prevent the occurrence of the desired effect; we are already considering the utilization of other, more suitable methods of gene editing. We continue expressing informed optimism about the significance of our project and the tractability of the updated plan, maintaining a high degree of organizational flexibility and responsiveness to the incoming input.]

Solving suffering for the good of all

The Far Out Initiative (TFOI) is a Public Benefit Biotechnology Company focused on developing technological solutions to the problem of involuntary suffering in human and non-human animals. We endeavor to accelerate the rate at which new and old scientific discoveries are translated into scalable altruistic interventions that can be rapidly implemented and disseminated through market-based strategies.

The good news

In 2019, scientists discovered a woman with a new form of congenital pain insensitivity that left her virtually immune to physical and psychological pain. Unlike other forms of congenital pain insensitivity, her condition left her blissfully unaffected by fear, sadness, anger, anxiety, and grief. She is also free of the frequent injuries and early childhood self-mutilation behaviors that make other forms of congenital pain insensitivity so dangerous. Her pain-sensing neurons work, but she does not generate intrinsically unpleasant experiential qualities in response to the signals they send her brain. Unlike other forms of congenital pain insensitivity known immediately due to their disastrous consequences, her syndrome remained unknown to her until she was well into her sixth decade of life.

The path

On May 24th, 2023, University College London released its landmark paper investigating the molecular basis of this strange new pain insensitivity syndrome titled "Molecular Basis of FAAH-Out Associated Pain Insensitivity," in which it was revealed that this "Feel Good Syndrome" was caused by two simple genetic mutations affecting the FAAH Platform: a less active SNP of the FAAH gene and an 8KB micro-deletion at the beginning of the FAAH-OUT pseudo-gene, which lead to a drastic increase in anandamide (“the bliss molecule"). These two generic differences had a downstream impact on many genes, but only a handful of these changes were identified as relevant to physical and psychological suffering. Chief among them were the downregulation of ACKR3 - an endogenous opioid scavenger - and the upregulation of BDNF - a nerve growth factor known to impact depression and anxiety. This "Feel Good Syndrome" could be replicated in humans and livestock animals using gene editing. Moreover, it could plausibly be reproduced pharmacologically using existing inhibitors of FAAH (which substantially boost anandamide and BDNF) and ACKR3. These facts formed the basis of TFOI’s suffering abolitionist research program we are now pursuing.

The Ananda lines

The Far Out Initiative has already taken the early steps necessary to pursue our Ananda Lines research program - a plan to produce lines of gene-edited ("precision bred") livestock animals with the profound resistance to physical and psychological suffering that comes with this newly discovered pain insensitivity syndrome. Factory farming is an atrocity of inconceivable magnitude, and the suffering that it produces must be urgently addressed. The edits we are researching do not require us to introduce species-foreign genes. The lines of livestock animals produced through these edits would not be classified as GMOs according to the new and more scientifically informed regulatory paradigm emerging globally and already in place in the UK, Brazil, and several other countries. Instead, Ananda Lines livestock animals would be classified as "precision bred." With this classification difference comes the possibility of entering the meat market and replacing meat produced from tormented animals with much more consumer-friendly and ethical meat produced from animals with a profound resistance to physical and psychological suffering.

The Metta Project

The Metta Project is our human-directed research effort intended to accelerate the arrival of the post-suffering era.

We will collaborate with minicircle.io to develop a safe, inflammation-free, and reversible intervention to silence FAAH and FAAH-OUT in humans. This holds the promise of a general treatment for human physical and psychological suffering, which will have an especially high altruistic impact in treating the worst physical and psychological pain conditions, and enabling suffering-free drug withdrawal. Upon successfully completing this research program, we plan to establish an early revenue stream by offering wealthy early adopters access to a reversible anti-suffering genetic intervention in the Minicircle Gene Therapy Clinic, currently running clinical trials in a charter city on the island of Roatan in the Caribbean. The majority of this funding will go toward the development of our farmed animal research program, as well as to offering the genetic intervention free or at a drastically reduced cost to persons who suffer from chronic and acute physical and psychological pain conditions, and toward shooting a short documentary on their journey from a life of hellish pain to being beyond the reach of suffering, boosting the profile of TFOI and suffering abolitionism.

Describe why you think you're qualified to work on this

The Far Out Initiative team spans a diverse range of skills. Our Director of Bioethics, David Pearce, is a famous British transhumanist philosopher and the author of The Hedonistic Imperative. Michael Sparks, the Initiative’s Founder and leading contributor, is a self-taught polymath and a member of the International Society for Philosophical Enquiry. Marcin Kowrygo, the current Senior Advisor, expected to assume the CEO role in early 2024, has a background in biomedical and cognitive neuroscience, was involved in many projects at the science-technology-society interface, has over 8 years of experience in the rationalist and EA(-adjacent) circles, and currently serves both as a Strategic Advisor at the Qualia Research Institute and as an Independent Contractor of Emergence Benefactors. Aatu Konskensilta, TFOI’s President, is a self-taught polymath with special interests in decision theory, artificial intelligence, programming, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of mathematics. Dr. Adam Summerfield, TFOI’s CTO, earned a PhD in biogerontology, and has gained expert-level knowledge in biotechnology and genetic intervention techniques in the course of his education. Sergio Tarrero, TFOI’s Director of Media, co-founded the world’s first transhumanist party, Alianza Futurista, in Spain, and has a background in film and a BSc in physics.

We have already established our legal presence and ensured that there are no major legal roadblocks to the required research. We have also formed a collaborative partnership with minicircle.io, the inventors of the world’s first reversible plasmid-based genetic intervention technology, which will allow us to immediately pursue the development and safe human testing of techniques to silence FAAH and FAAH-OUT. This is expected to take place in their Caribbean-based clinic, staffed by three US medical doctors. Last but not least, we recognize that the existing literature indicates a high tractability of interventions at the intersection of biotechnology’s modern toolkit, Cameron Syndrome, and its potential, increasingly adaptive iterations.

Other ways I can learn about you

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kowrygo/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/faroutinitiative

https://independent.academia.edu/AatuKoskensilta

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Pearce_(philosopher)

How much money do you need?

While we would cordially welcome any support from the ACX Grants, given the funding available during this round, we would like to suggest three different tiers: Basic: $37,000, Medium: $67,000, and Advanced: $97,000. We expect each month of sustained activity to cost us ~$7,000. $3,000/month would go to Michael Sparks, working full-time on the theoretical underpinnings, content, and organizational oversight. The remaining $4,000/month would be allocated according to the team’s best judgment, covering essential maintenance expenses, such as basic accounting, legal work, software, extending the runway if absolutely necessary - and extra ones, such as the contractor work and collaborative human-directed research with minicircle.io. I (Marcin Kowrygo) have decided not to ask for any funding until Michael Sparks and TFOI can acquire, respectively, basic personal and organizational runways, meaning I will not be earning any money unless we secure, starting from this point, at least $50,000 total from various sources, including the potential ACX Grant. We are very open to feedback regarding both the research aspect and the way we allocate the available funding to realize our mission.

Links to any supporting documents or information

Orienting resources

Jo Cameron’s story:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1M2sqkB09s

Molecular basis of FAAH-OUT associated pain insensitivity:

https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/146/9/3851/7169317

The Genetic Literacy Project's global survey of the liberality of regulations concerning gene-edited livestock animals:

https://crispr-gene-editing-regs-tracker.geneticliteracyproject.org/

The recent legislation passed in the UK allowing for gene-edited or "precision bred" livestock animals to enter the meat market:

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9557/

The study that established that FAAH inhibitors prevent and reverse opioid tolerance: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7280000/

The genetic engineering platform and clinic with which we will be collaborating in our human-directed research and intervention efforts:

https://minicircle.io/

Estimate your probability of succeeding if you get the amount of money you asked for

We assign a very high probability (in the range above 90%) of delivering added value to our mission & vision through the continued literature review and content production, in line with our past track record, with the whitepaper and wiki soon to be released. While the practical implementation is inherently more challenging, we are still confident in our capacity of succeeding at the level of our early collaborative human-directed research with minicircle.io, as well as in terms of pursuing the Ananda lines research program to reduce the suffering of non-human animals.