Acknowledgments |
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xii | |
Preface: The Edge Question |
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xiii | |
Introduction |
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xvii | |
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1 | (3) |
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The Rejection of the Soul |
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4 | (3) |
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7 | (3) |
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The Differences Between Humans and Nonhumans Are Quantitative, Not Qualitative |
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10 | (3) |
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Groups of People May Differ Genetically in Their Average Talents and Temperaments |
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13 | (4) |
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The Genetic Basis of Human Behavior |
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17 | (2) |
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Marionettes on Genetic Strings |
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19 | (3) |
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Francis Crick's Dangerous Idea |
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22 | (5) |
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Being Alone in the Universe |
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27 | (2) |
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Life As an Agent of Energy Dispersal |
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29 | (4) |
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33 | (2) |
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Science May Be Running Out of Control |
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35 | (3) |
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Why I Hope the Standard Model Is Wrong About Why There Is More Matter Than Antimatter |
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38 | (2) |
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The Idea That We Understand Plutonium |
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40 | (1) |
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The Idea That We Should All Share Our Most Dangerous Ideas |
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41 | (1) |
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The Idea That Ideas Can Be Dangerous |
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42 | (1) |
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The Fight Against Global Warming Is Lost |
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43 | (2) |
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Think Outside the Kyoto Box |
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45 | (5) |
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Our Planet Is Not in Peril |
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50 | (5) |
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The Effect of Art Can't Be Controlled or Anticipated |
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55 | (1) |
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56 | (4) |
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Our Universal Moral Grammar's Immunity to Religion |
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60 | (3) |
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Bertrand Russell's Dangerous Idea |
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63 | (1) |
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64 | (2) |
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We Will Understand the Origin of Life Within the Next Five Years |
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66 | (4) |
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Understanding Molecular Biology Without Discovering the Origins of Life |
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70 | (1) |
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The Problem with Super Mirrors |
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71 | (3) |
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74 | (3) |
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Brains Cannot Become Minds Without Bodies |
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77 | (4) |
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What Are People Well Informed About in the Information Age? |
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81 | (2) |
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83 | (2) |
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A New Golden Age of Medicine |
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85 | (7) |
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Using Medications to Change Personality |
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92 | (2) |
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Drugs May Change the Patterns of Human Love |
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94 | (3) |
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A Marriage Option for All |
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97 | (2) |
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Choosing the Sex of One's Child |
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99 | (4) |
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103 | (1) |
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The Human Brain Will Never Understand the Universe |
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104 | (3) |
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The World May Be Fundamentally Inexplicable |
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107 | (3) |
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110 | (4) |
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Seeing Darwin in the Light of Einstein; Seeing Einstein in the Light of Darwin |
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114 | (5) |
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119 | (3) |
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What Twentieth-Century Physics Says About the World Might Be True |
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122 | (2) |
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124 | (4) |
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A Radical Re-evaluation of the Character of Time |
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128 | (2) |
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It's OK Not to Know Everything |
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130 | (2) |
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132 | (2) |
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When Will the Internet Become Aware of Itself? |
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134 | (5) |
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Democratizing Access to the Means of Invention |
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139 | (2) |
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Mind Is a Universally Distributed Quality |
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141 | (4) |
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The Forbidden Fruit Intuition |
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145 | (3) |
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The Posterior Probability of Any Particular God Is Pretty Small |
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148 | (2) |
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Science Must Destroy Religion |
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150 | (4) |
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The Self Is a Conceptual Chimera |
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154 | (1) |
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The Greatest Story Ever Told |
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155 | (3) |
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Science As Just Another Religion |
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158 | (3) |
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161 | (3) |
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164 | (5) |
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Science Will Never Silence God |
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169 | (2) |
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Religion Is the Hope That Is Missing in Science |
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171 | (4) |
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Myths and Fairy Tales Are Not True |
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175 | (2) |
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177 | (2) |
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179 | (4) |
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The Focus on Emotional Intelligence |
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183 | (1) |
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A Cacophony of `Controversy' |
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184 | (2) |
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186 | (2) |
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Tribal Peoples Often Damage Their Environments and Make War |
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188 | (1) |
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189 | (1) |
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190 | (1) |
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There Aren't Enough Minds to House the Population Explosion of Memes |
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191 | (5) |
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196 | (4) |
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Anty Gravity: Chaos Theory in an All-Too-Practical Sense |
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200 | (5) |
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Navigating by New Scientific Principles |
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205 | (3) |
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A Political System Based on Empathy |
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208 | (3) |
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211 | (2) |
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There Is Something New Under the Sun -- Us |
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213 | (2) |
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A Spoon Is Like a Headache |
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215 | (3) |
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Projection of the Longevity Curve |
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218 | (2) |
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The Near-Term Inevitability of Radical Life Extension and Expansion |
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220 | (3) |
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The Domestication of Biotechnology |
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223 | (2) |
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Public Engagement in Science and Technology |
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225 | (1) |
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Suppose Faulkner Was Right? |
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226 | (4) |
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What If the Unknown Becomes Known and Is Not Replaced with a New Unknown? |
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230 | (2) |
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Where Goods Cross Frontiers, Armies Won't |
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232 | (2) |
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Government Is the Problem, Not the Solution |
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234 | (3) |
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237 | (2) |
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Modern Science Is a Product of Biology |
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239 | (1) |
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No More Teacher's Dirty Looks |
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240 | (3) |
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243 | (2) |
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Runaway Consumerism Explains the Fermi Paradox |
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245 | (5) |
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Simulation Versus Authenticity |
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250 | (4) |
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254 | (4) |
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The Human Brain Is a Cultural Artifact |
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258 | (5) |
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Free Will Is Exercised Unconsciously |
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263 | (3) |
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266 | (4) |
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The Limits of Introspection |
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270 | (3) |
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What We Know May Not Change Us |
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273 | (3) |
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Telling More Than We Can Know |
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276 | (4) |
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The Quick-Thinking Zombies Inside Us |
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280 | (2) |
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The Banality of Evil, the Banality of Heroism |
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282 | (2) |
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284 | (2) |
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Is the West Already on a Downhill Course? |
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286 | (3) |
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Technology Can Untie the United States |
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289 | (4) |
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Democracy May Be On Its Way Out |
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293 | (3) |
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Marx Was Right: The State Will Evaporate |
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296 | (2) |
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298 | (2) |
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How Can I Trust, in the Face of So Many Unknowables? |
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300 | (2) |
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A Twenty-Four-Hour Period of Absolute Solitude |
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302 | (3) |
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Afterword |
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305 | (6) |
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Index |
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311 | |