@mikeanissimov What if cryonics interferes with the resurrection process?
— Alex Knapp (@TheAlexKnapp) December 13, 2012
@mikeanissimov What if in the future, someone figures out a way to bring people back to life, but it doesn't work if you're frozen?
— Alex Knapp (@TheAlexKnapp) December 13, 2012
@mikeanissimov Exactly.What if you're backing the wrong horse?
— Alex Knapp (@TheAlexKnapp) December 13, 2012
@mikeanissimov How do you know?To date, there hasn't been anybody resurrected from the dead, frozen or otherwise.
— Alex Knapp (@TheAlexKnapp) December 13, 2012
@mikeanissimov Not without significant damage so far.
— Alex Knapp (@TheAlexKnapp) December 13, 2012
@mikeanissimov there's no way to recover a memory from a dead brain. There's more to neural activity than cellular structure.
— Alex Knapp (@TheAlexKnapp) December 13, 2012
@mikeanissimov On what basis? Who's working on it? How far along are they?
— Alex Knapp (@TheAlexKnapp) December 13, 2012
@mikeanissimov Yes, that's true. But who's working on recovering memories from dead animal tissue?
— Alex Knapp (@TheAlexKnapp) December 13, 2012
@thealexknapp No one.
— Michael Anissimov (@MikeAnissimov) December 13, 2012
5 comments:
(From the last Dvorsky installment, below.)
> The endless circulation and amplification of the earth-alienated
> vantage of techno-fixated futurological disdain of the earth we
> are evolved to flourish and were born responsible to as nothing but
> "a rock we need to get off or we're doomed" -- a sentiment usually
> accompanying articles making claims like this one, and almost
> inevitably appearing in their comments if not in the article
> itself, not to mention its implication in Very Serious think-tank
> position papers premised on the economic "escape hatch" of endless
> growth and advertisements promoting the existential "escape hatch"
> of heedless consumption -- is no small part of the reason why we
> collaborate in this criminal suicidal genocidal planecidal madness.
And, the quote from Anissimov:
> We will recover memories from dead animal brains within 10 years, I predict.
You know, I used to buy all this stuff wholesale. I really did.
I remember a conversation I had back in 1976 with a guy who
was (and probably still is) a serious environmentalist and
nature-lover. I was 24 at the time; he was a couple of years
older than me.
He was lamenting the disappearance of species in this human-dominated
age (though I don't think it was yet spoken of as the most recent "mass
extinction event"), but I blithely waved away his concerns
by opining "Oh, all we need to do is collect and archive genetic samples
of all the threatened species. Then, in a few years, we can
resurrect them if we want to." (This was before _Jurassic Park_, too. ;-> ).
The sheer naivete -- the fatuous smugness -- of that attitude!
I'm amazed my interlocutor refrained from punching me in my
snotty little nose! (He was a nice guy, though.)
I continued to buy this sort of nonsense all through the 1990s, having read
Moravec's _Mind Children_ in '88 and _Beyond Humanity: CyberEvolution and
Future Minds_ in '96 (I discovered Greg Egan the same year).
It took my actually interacting with (and finally, meeting) real
>Hists and Singularitarians (in the flesh! Not in Second Life or,
uh, as uploads) for me to finally realize how self-deludedly
nuts (faith-based, denialist, narcissistic, heads-up-asses) the
whole package is.
"We will recover memories from dead animal brains within 10 years,
I predict."
Well, why not. We can already make cheese from armpit bacteria.
Of course, as both Twitter discussants know (but only one will admit) there's a reason why nobody works on recovering memories from dead animal brains: degradation of the neural network removes all mind.
Oh God help us...that last "No one"..you can almost feel the sadness pouring out of him as he tapped it out...
He's like a kid being told Santa might not get past airport security this christmas.
Sorry for the off topic Dale but...ugh...look who they let post on Io9 now...
http://io9.com/5968280/why-we-should-send-uploaded-astronauts-on-interstellar-missions
Your favorite Italian :) .
Io9 used to be a nice place to visit...
In their quest to attract an audience comparable to their sister sites io9 has apparently opted for eyeballs at any cost, a long-term loser strategy if I ever heard one, since nobody with any respect for consensus science practice or interest in imaginative science fiction will read for long a site the geekdom equivalent of wingnut daily news. Spotlighting Robot Cultists as they are now -- and if you thought Dvorsky was jumping the shark, Prisco's New Age cyber-angels meets right wing talking points really is the worst of the worst -- one wonders if champions of homeopathy and defenders of Scientology are next on the menu. Annalee Newitz is a smart cookie with good politics, she knows better and that makes this all the worse -- she should hand her head in shame to be associated with these flagrant charlatans and ignoramuses.
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