h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Blinking flip!

I wade through EVERYTHING here, and then I get to the end and you're not even talking about the start-off bit any more!

Anyway, just a few comments about things you were all talking about weeks ago, if you don't mind:

The people-being-stuck-into-computers-after-death thing: check out "The Silicon Man" by Charles Platt, which is, I think, the first novel-length treatment of this idea, and quite fun.

Loops and quantum physics etc: I read a book called, er, "something to do with Archimedes, or possibly Aristotle, and something belonging to them" by, er, some Australian philosopher a year or so ago, which explained quantum processes like the two-slit experiment (which is truly mindblowing, and experimentally proven) by positing that time travelled both backwards and forwards, and actually made quite a convincing case. I'm intrigued by this again now and am going to try and find the book, so if anyone wants to know anything about this, leave a note on my page and I'll let you know when (if) I find it.

Another loop one is Nietzsche - "infinite regression", which, again, I can't remember at the mo (sorry, I just read *all* your posts!). Alas, there isn't really a satisfactory look at Nietzsche on the Guide (that I could find) - I'll have a shot if I find the time. Basically, the idea is something like reincarnation, except being eternally reincarnated into exactly the same person and doing exactly the same things again and again (I think - brain=b*****ed at the mo, I'm afraid). Yes, he was entirely barking by the time he came up with that.

Dang, I better try to think of a joke - this thread is far too light-hearted now for this post.
I can't. Poo.

J B Priestly had it that Nietzsche was completely barking by the time he came up with looping loopy lulus

For something about uploading of the mind, go to Immortalis by Peter james. My fave author. He has the same as Michael Chricton that his book are really well-researched.

weakpun welcome weakpun

The time-travels-forward-and-backward theory gets my vote every time, every time. Not just time, but also matter and energy, in a big furball of yingyang multi-dimensionality.
I sure hope you'll post your reference here, or if its too URLy, at least let us know when to look for it on your page and give us a synopsis. Even a precis.
Our attention spans are limited but humour gives us gravitas for short power blasts of conceptualisation. Your input now allows us to revisit our theories and experiences with new perpective. This is far from the end of this thread my friend. Don't wander away.
If you actually read the backlog you know that.
The Nietzschean 'groundhog day' proposal would not be the repetitive hell it might in linear terms appear. If, in every 'rotation' of our own little furball of consciousness (within the greater furball of reality) we see/saw our own lives from a slightly different perspective, then, presumably, we would eventually understand who and what we really are.
**.*
***. *
*.* *
peace through gravity
~jwf~

weakpun welcome weakpun

The time-travels-forward-and-backward theory gets my vote every time, every time. Not just time, but also matter and energy, in a big furball of yingyang multi-dimensionality.
I sure hope you'll post your reference here, or if its too URLy, at least let us know when to look for it on your page and give us a synopsis. Even a precis.
Our attention spans are limited but humour gives us gravitas for short power blasts of conceptualisation. Your input now allows us to revisit our theories and experiences with new perpective. This is far from the end of this thread my friend. Don't wander away.
If you actually read the backlog you know that.
The Nietzschean 'groundhog day' proposal would not be the repetitive hell it might in linear terms appear. If, in every 'rotation' of our own little furball of consciousness (within the greater furball of reality) we see/saw our own lives from a slightly different perspective, then, presumably, we would eventually understand who and what we really are.
**.*
***. *
*.* *
peace through gravity
~jwf~

weakpun welcome weakpun

The time-travels-forward-and-backward theory gets my vote every time, every time. Not just time, but also matter and energy, in a big furball of yingyang multi-dimensionality.
I sure hope you'll post your reference here, or if its too URLy, at least let us know when to look for it on your page and give us a synopsis. Even a precis.
Our attention spans are limited but humour gives us gravitas for short power blasts of conceptualisation. Your input now allows us to revisit our theories and experiences with new perpective. This is far from the end of this thread my friend. Don't wander away.
If you actually read the backlog you know that.
The Nietzschean 'groundhog day' proposal would not be the repetitive hell it might in linear terms appear. If, in every 'rotation' of our own little furball of consciousness (within the greater furball of reality) we see/saw our own lives from a slightly different perspective, then, presumably, we would eventually understand who and what we really are.
**.*
***. *
*.* *
peace through gravity
~jwf~

You forgot about me jwf? Me, the girl who brought you post #14 and first introduced the idea of preserving a soul/mind/spirit in cyberspace to this conversation? (Which led to our discovery of Gibson's IDORU, James IMMORTALIS and Charles Platt's SILICON MAN)

Me on whom you seem to now be founding a religion of Gravitationalism?
Me of whom you sing 'Gravity is God!'?
You have forgotten, moi?

How could you be so insensitive as to admit it?

Oh, forgive him father for he ith an idiot and he triple posts!

jwf - trinity!

agcB

Hey any Latin students out there? What's "peace thru gravity"?
How about Pax Gravitas? What would that be literally?

I like Pax Gravitas ..it doesn't have to say 'thru' or 'for' or 'because of' or 'in the name of'..

It's been so long since I declined a Latin verb! Help.

I think Pax Gravitas would be the 'peace of gravitas' wouldn't it...help... yes I know gravity and gravitas are 2 different things but that play on words based on an ancient concept is part of the meaning and portent of ..help.

All right all right all right.

Blimey jwf, you only need to ask once!

And, sadly, I must decline your invitation to decline these latin things. Not the foggiest, I'm afraid.

Anyway, you can find a link to the book "Time's Arrow and Archimedes' Point" by Huw Price here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A572609 . Ackshly, having a read of the page, I can't really remember why I thought it was relevant to a discussion on the afterlife, but it's certainly a head-scratcher.

Oh, and the Nietzsche thing isn't reincarnating and seeing your own life from lots of different angles (at least I'm pretty sure - dang yez, another thing I'm going to have to read again). My take on it is that he's trying to impart a lost significance into post-religious human experience, "actions echoing in eternity" - your life lasts eternally ("...from a certain point of view" - Ben Kenobi), so make sure your life is something which you're willing to go through again and again and again and again (reminds me of something...).

Caveat: These are the half-remembered rantings of someone who, by the time he came out with them, had been wearing his pants on his head for five or six years. No responsibility will be acknowledged for the innaccuracy or lunacy of any quotes or ideas. Mind you, as formulated above, I quite like the idea. There is an afterlife, and this is it, so make it a good one.

No wonder Groundhog Day's my (3rd-ish) favourite film.

Try 'Per gravitas ad pacem' - it's got that 'per ardua ad astra' feel to it

Heddwch trwy disgyrchu. Cymraeg (Welsh) for Peace through Gravity.

Beautiful language.

djs

omigod! The welsh know about gravity? Which word is it? The one that looks like headache or the one that looks like disgorge witha chinese sneeze at the end of it.

Well hoddam! There, further proof that gavity is universal. And while undefined it was undeniable even to the Welsh. Oh.. I'm croaking for a real linguistic literal translation. Surely it's not a modern construct but an ancient and revered word. I bet it means more than the 'pully down thingy' and that there's a mystical deification element in the word. For tis true, Gravity is god and peace will be yours with a bit of gravitas.

'Through adversity to the stars' you say, hmmm. No, I think it need not be that mythic. And 'pacem' has an odd ring to it in these gun-toting days. And besides I think the X in pax gives it a nice eternal quality. Thanks but so far I think I'll stick with Pax gravitas, the peace of gravity. (Unless someone tells me that's not what it means.)

pax gravitas
~jwf~

RE Nietzsche. Yes weakpun it was my expansion-on-the-idea of a repetitive time/life subscription which incorporates 'deja vu' glimpses on each pass through. This gives credibilty to 'deja vu' and a moral purpose to Nietzsche. I hate doing things by halves.
pax gravitas
~jwf~

Unfortunately, the peace of gravity or the gravity of peace would be 'pacis gravitas' and 'gravitatis pax', so you might lose that x. 'Pax gravitas' just means 'Peace Gravity'. On the plus side, word order doesn't matter, and you could adopt the abbreviated style: 'PAX GRAV.', 'PAX GRAVI.', etc.

On the subject of Welsh - of which I know almost nothing - I've put my dusty Welsh dictionary to use and find that 'disgyn' meaning to descend seems perilously close to 'disgyrchu' (gravitate, it says here). I've a feeling that might be something of a disappointment, but there is also 'disgyr' meaning a shout or cry, and I'm sure that with a bit of effort a suitably mystical etymological link can be established

Thank you Mycroft. My knuckles have been soundly rapped. Disgyrchiad is the actuall word for gravity, and yes jwf, is does seem to break down to 'pully down thingy'. It is an extremely difficult language for an English dude like me to learn, but it's also one of my many goals to do so.

Deja vu: No I'll leave that one for 90% of the brain.

djs

Heddwch Trwy Disgyrchiad

Just in case you missed it back at Post #3:

"He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realised there was a contradiction there and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife."
-- "Life, The Universe and Everything" - Douglas Adams

Thank you to Bernie for refreshing my memory about the afterlife.

Thank you to weakpun, ~jwf~, et al, for mentioning deja vu. Despite you discussing it three days ago, I've only just brought my wandering feet back to the modem and read the last twenty postings. And in a remarkable example of coincidence and other concerns from "90%", I posted my deja vu experiences in that thread, just minutes before reading your postings here.

x x Fenny (freakishly)

Actually I wish I had an electonic monk to do my beieving for me. Preferably one that works properly.

That should have read 'believing' rather than 'beieing'. Sorry