Science Tidbits #4

[Lupine]

^Eh, human civilization has been around for hundreds of thousands of years*. We're OK for a while longer.


*People tend to fixate on recorded history and grand monuments, but we've probably been living the civilized life for most of the time genus Homo has been around.

[RJDiogenes]

We can deal with biological impulses if we have a social context that directs them. Unfortunately, most people can't separate biology from reason and most social customs are designed to validate biology rather than overcome it. I don't think we need to shed our corporeal forms, but I do think that cybernetics will one day fundamentally change human nature-- what form (or forms) that takes could go in many directions.

[scottydog]

My niece just had a baby. I can't help but wonder if that child will live 200 years or 1,000 years with help from technology. It's weird to even ponder.

[huggle]

Darth Vader like? Hmm, not sure if that'd be a good idea. What if someone hacks the controls for your artificial lungs or your insuline pump? Frankly, I'd rather do without any aid that's not purely mechanic.
Purely genetically, 130-140 is the limit. You can copy DNA only so many times before the typos get lethal and the stem cells that produce blood have a limited lifespan, too. On the whole, I think, life expectancy is going to fall in the next decades. Our environment is socompletely polluted that it's impossible to counteract all of the poisons medically. And it'd take centuries to eliminate all the pollutants from atmosphere, soil and water (provided that - highly unlikely - the chemical industry stops completely to create new poisons).

[scottydog]

Purely genetically, 130-140 is the limit. You can copy DNA only so many times before the typos get lethal and the stem cells that produce blood have a limited lifespan, too.

Scientific advances may soon fix those typos and reverse (or halt) the aging process. It's probably a bad idea to eliminate death -- after all, death is natural and allows for the necessary recycling of life.

[RJDiogenes]

Congratulations to your niece.

I think we're probably pretty close to being able to engineer viruses that can transcribe corrections to chromosomes and DNA. When stuff like that will be legal, approved by the FDA, or covered by insurance is another question. I'm also sure that cybernetics will-- and must-- enter the picture at some point. If you live a thousand years, you've got to be able to retain and access all those memories. There are other likely paths to immortality as well.

Personally, I'm in favor of eliminating death, especially my own. Death may be natural, but so are cancer and kidney stones.

[scottydog]

^^ It is hard to swallow that many unpleasant things are natural -- poison ivy, diarrhea, Donald Trump, and cheap waxy chocolate, among them.

[Lupine]

^

Congratulations to your niece.

I think we're probably pretty close to being able to engineer viruses that can transcribe corrections to chromosomes and DNA. When stuff like that will be legal, approved by the FDA, or covered by insurance is another question. I'm also sure that cybernetics will-- and must-- enter the picture at some point. If you live a thousand years, you've got to be able to retain and access all those memories. There are other likely paths to immortality as well.

I'm in favor of a virtual reality scenario, which I used in a couple of my books. That would stave off death, but eliminate problems like over-population and effectively having the same people around millennia after millennia.

[RJDiogenes]

^^ Agreed, and that's also a big part of the Spacious Skies universe. I'd be very happy with that for myself as long as there is contact with the physical world and some level of portability-- such as the possibility of being part of a virtual environment that travels to the stars.

^^ It is hard to swallow that many unpleasant things are natural -- poison ivy, diarrhea, Donald Trump, and cheap waxy chocolate, among them.

That's an insult to diarrhea.

[huggle]

I have the gravest doubts of DT being natural. An individual that stupid couldn't possibly survive in a natural environment and therefore he must be engineered. I suspect he's a shelless version of the Dalek Supreme. That'd also account for his permanently calling for the extermination, elimination and annihilation of people and things that stand in his way.

[Lupine]

^

[RJDiogenes]

That's actually a reasonable theory.

Actually, come to think of it, Trump could be proof of the Simulation Hypothesis. Somehow-- either because of a programming error or a mischievous programmer-- his interaction flags with the rest of the simulation have been disabled, so that the normal rules of "reality" don't apply to him. Maybe he'll just eventually freeze up and pixelate.

[RJDiogenes]

Juno's flyby of the Great Red Spot has been successfully completed. They're in the process of processing the raw images now, so we should see some great pictures in the next few days.

[Lupine]

Or sooner!

The dorky, geeky part of me wishes that they'll see some floaters.

[BBvideo 425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uakLB7Eni2E[/BBvideo]

That was the scene that helped inspire the Aeroga in Diaspora.

[RJDiogenes]

Or sooner!

Well, those are oddly shaped. I like how they're letting people do their own enhancements. Some of them are very artistic. I noticed a little Andy Warhol tribute in there.

The dorky, geeky part of me wishes that they'll see some floaters.

That was one of my favorite parts of Cosmos. Not to mention A Meeting With Medusa and 2010 I wonder what Juno's minimum resolution is and what you'd need to see one of them.