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

Had a very in depth conversation with my son on holiday last week, sitting watching the sun set over the Canary Isles, my boy remarks,
" You do know the sun is dying Dad?" This leads obviously to questions about Zombie Apocalypses, robots with implanted memories and cloned bodies awaiting for your demise to be resurrected as the new 'you'!

On refection I would love to see what the next millenium will hold for the human race, but would I really, and I mean really, want to outlive the Sun?

A few hundred years in an unaging body (synthetic or otherwise) would suit me. True immortality, in my humble opinion , would be just too monotonous, been there , done that, got the holographic implant...

So, who would actually want to live forever ( MacLeod family need not answer!)

FWR

It would be nice to have the option

The brain decays ... eventually you would hardly be aware you were living ... like trees and lettuces.

but what if you could preserve you wits?

... and what about the body ... bones get brittle, nerves decay, connective tissue loses its elasticity, the hearing goes ... didn't Bladerunner have something to say about this? If we start talking about what ifs we could consider Pascal's wager.

religious dogma, terminal illness, dementia and decay apart then...everlasting, healthy, life?

one time offer,bob has the option here, would you accept and watch the stars blink out?

Yep there will be other universes to visit the stars may never blink out. What explorer would/could resist the opportunity but scary as it is

I wouldn't want to be stuck in a rut, I would like to explore different minds and bodies. So give me the opportunity for a form of reincarnation then I guess I would take up the offer ... hmmm sounds a bit like a regeneration ...

maybe I'mjust a cowardly homeworld kinda dude!

well said Bob

I am moving towards the ideas arising from "string" theory ... that we live in an nth dimension space and that there are many "bubble" universes (not all of which support life - in fact the majority shouldn't).

re-incarnation scares the poop out of me! would love to skip through time but Orson Scott Card put paid to that too!

The problem with re-incarnation is that you would probably spend much of your time being eaten up before you get the opportunity to be one of those that does the eating.

But you have to give it a go its not like time travel you pass gently from ere to era learning as you go. Oh and avoiding armed conflict piece of

Fluke put the dampers on that one many years ago

....if the Goddess exists does she get bored, bet there's an awful loy of celestial knitting,crosswords etc out there or do gods like to pass the eons by putting airport shuttle coach drivers in our way and see the chaos that follows?

The capacity to learn greatly diminishes with age there is also a great setting of the brain (like blancmanche) when adulthood is approached ... but recent studies suggest that process might be reversible:
http://scitechdaily.com/suppressing-ngr1-returns-brain-to-adolescent-levels-of-plasticity/

just need to be re-incarnated as an older Harvard mouse now!

my humble apologies ..an older Yale type mouse. Forgive my Englishness

The only thing to fear is fear itself .... but wait along comes mouse without fear:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/video/2007/dec/12/mouse

and nearby is supermouse:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/nov/02/genetics

Wonders to self whether mice believe in God(s).

"The souped-up rodent consumes 60% more food than other mice, but remains fitter and leaner. Surprisingly, the species also lives longer and is able to breed until a later age."

Can I add mouse ears to my motorbike helmet, sounds soooo familiar!

Have you listened to this week's Infinite Monkey Cage? Brian Cox, Robin Ince and guests have much to say on the subject of death and the reasons why a physical immortality is undesirable.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b02ykcwh/The_Infinite_Monkey_Cage_Series_8_What_Is_Death/


Geggs