tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post6429042313326889839..comments2023-11-22T01:14:54.298-08:00Comments on amor mundi: William Burroughs On Peter ThielDale Carricohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-66454221951675614982016-08-04T19:47:10.548-07:002016-08-04T19:47:10.548-07:00Somewhere a four year old thinks it would be great...Somewhere a four year old thinks it would be great to have a unicorn who farts glitter. Very Serious Thought Leader, possibly an Oxford-based bioethicist, I guess.Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-23926606332408812632016-08-04T16:15:45.687-07:002016-08-04T16:15:45.687-07:00> "many think that having magical powers, ...> "many think that having magical powers, wealth beyond the<br />> dreams of avarice, or eternal youth would be terrible,<br />> but I bravely insist these daydreams would be awesome."<br /><br />You know, one of the ironies of Peter Thiel's unabashed pursuit<br />of personal immortality is that he's purported to be an<br />evangelical Christian, at least according to<br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel .<br /><br />I would think that most doctrinal Christians would be<br />likely to take the same view of immortality "in the flesh"<br />that C. S. Lewis did:<br /><br />http://amormundi.blogspot.com/2008/03/mortality.html<br />-----------<br />Death . . . is a safety-device because, once Man<br />has fallen, natural immortality would be the one utterly<br />hopeless destiny for him. Aided to the surrender<br />that he must make by no external necessity of<br />Death, free (if you call it freedom) to rivet faster<br />and faster about himself through unending centuries<br />the chains of his own pride and lust and of the<br />nightmare civilizations which these build up in<br />ever-increasing power and complication, he<br />would progress from being merely a fallen man<br />to being a fiend, possibly beyond all modes of<br />redemption.<br /><br />C. S. Lewis, _Miracles_,<br />Chapter 14 "The Grand Miracle", p. 210<br />====<br /><br />Though Lewis certainly did recognize the attraction of<br />bodily immortality as a literary trope, in his review of<br />H. Rider Haggard's _She_:<br /><br />Loc. cit.<br />-----------<br />The story of Ayesha [in H. Rider Haggard's _She_]<br />is not an escape, but it is about escape;<br />about an attempt at the great escape,<br />daringly made and terribly frustrated. . .<br />[It]. . . externalise[s] the. . .<br />psychological force[ of] our irreconcilable reluctance<br />to die, our craving for an immortality in the flesh,<br />our empirical knowledge that this is impossible,<br />our intermittent awareness that it is not even<br />really desirable, and (octaves deeper than all<br />these) a very primitive feeling that the attempt,<br />if it could be made, would be unlawful and would<br />call down the vengeance of the gods. In. . . [the]<br />book. . . the wild, transporting, and (we feel)<br />forbidden hope is aroused. When fruition seems<br />almost in sight, horrifying disaster shatters our<br />dream. . ."<br /><br />C. S. Lewis, _On Stories (And Other Essays On Literature)_,<br />"The Mythopoeic Gift of Rider Haggard", pp. 98-100<br />====<br /><br /><br />A second irony is that Thiel allegedly considers himself<br />a Tolkien fan<br />( http://upstart.bizjournals.com/entrepreneurs/hot-shots/2015/04/16/peter-thiel-has-founded-at-least-five-lord-of-the.html ).<br /><br />One of the deepest themes running throughout all of<br />Tolkien's mythology is that the most potent temptation of<br />evil is immortality (within the "Circles of the World") for Men,<br />or the power to hold back change (perceived as decay)<br />for the Elves. That's the fundamental power of all<br />of the Rings.<br /><br />http://amormundi.blogspot.com/2012/08/are-techno-immortalist-robot-cultists.html<br />-----------<br />But if any should ask: why could not in Aman the blessing of<br />longevity be granted to him, as it was to the Eldar? This must be<br />answered. . .<br /><br />Now these things are but matters of thought, and might-have-<br />beens; for Eru and the Valar under Him have not permitted<br />Men as they are to dwell in Aman. Yet at least it may be seen<br />that Men in Aman would not escape the dread of death, but<br />would have it in greater degree and for long ages. And moreover,<br />it seems probable that death itself, either in agony or horror,<br />would with Men enter into Aman itself.<br /><br />-- J. R. R. Tolkien, an essay in _Morgoth's Ring_<br />(Vol. 10 in the _History of Middle-earth_) explaining why Men are<br />forbidden to sail West to the Undying Lands with the Elves<br />====jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-54729317443424798932016-08-04T11:50:00.878-07:002016-08-04T11:50:00.878-07:00I must say one of my favorite futurological genres...I must say one of my favorite futurological genres -- it usually fancies itself deeply philosophical or, you know, "bioethical" -- consists of extended wish-fulfillment fantasizing prefaced by stern and Very Serious admonitions of the form: "many think that having magical powers, wealth beyond the dreams of avarice, or eternal youth would be terrible, but I bravely insist these daydreams would be awesome." Needless to say, this daring adolescent day-dreaming is usually coupled with a selective skimming from some qualified and incompletely understood research result which is hyperbolized beyond recognition, re-narrativized as a stepping along the road to some techno-transcendent aspiration, and then slapped with a prediction (cheap sustainable superabundance, cures to all diseases including "aging as a disease," artificial superintelligence, total control of matter) with an arrival-time snugly close-enough-to-tap-into-greed too-distant-to-demand-accountability, say, In! Twenty! Years!Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-57333113325320695612016-08-04T11:01:19.331-07:002016-08-04T11:01:19.331-07:00Apropos of the SF trope of naturally-occurring imm...Apropos of the SF trope of naturally-occurring immortality<br />(as in that 1970 TV show _The Immortal_, in which the trope is basically<br />just alternative window dressing for a show that's structurally<br />identical to _The Fugitive_), there was a third-season _Star Trek_<br />episode (guest-starring James Daly) called "Requiem for Methuselah"),<br />about the Enterprise's encounter with a reclusive (and unfriendly)<br />exile from Earth who owns his own planet, and who is gradually<br />revealed to be a natural-born immortal from Mesopotamian days<br />who claims to be various historical and legendary figures<br />from Earth's history, and who is attempting to create a female<br />android to assuage his millennia-long loneliness.<br /><br /><br />MCCOY: Physically human but not human. These are earlier versions<br />of Rayna, Jim. She's an android.<br /><br />FLINT: Created here by my hand. Here, the centuries of loneliness<br />were to end.<br /><br />SPOCK: Your collection of Leonardo da Vinci masterpieces, Mister Flint,<br />they appear to have been recently painted on contemporary canvas with<br />contemporary materials. And on your piano, a waltz by Johannes Brahms,<br />an unknown work in manuscript, written in modern ink. Yet absolutely<br />authentic, as are your paintings.<br /><br />FLINT: I am Brahms.<br /><br />SPOCK: And da Vinci?<br /><br />FLINT: Yes.<br /><br />SPOCK: How many other names shall we call you?<br /><br />FLINT: Solomon, Alexander, Lazarus, Methuselah, Merlin, Abramson. A hundred<br />other names you do not know.<br /><br />SPOCK: You were born?<br /><br />FLINT: In that region of earth later called Mesopotamia, in the year 3834 BC,<br />as the millennia are reckoned. I was Akharin, a soldier, a bully and a fool.<br />I fell in battle, pierced to the heart and did not die.<br /><br />MCCOY: Instant tissue regeneration coupled with some perfect form of<br />biological renewal. You learned that you were immortal and. . .<br /><br />FLINT: And to conceal it. To live some portion of a life, to pretend<br />to age and then move on before my nature was suspected.<br /><br />SPOCK: Your wealth and your intellect are the product of centuries of<br />acquisition. You knew the greatest minds in history.<br /><br />FLINT: Galileo, Socrates, Moses. I have married a hundred times, Captain.<br />Selected, loved, cherished. Caressed a smoothness, inhaled a brief<br />fragrance. Then age, death, the taste of dust. Do you understand?<br /><br />SPOCK: You wanted a perfect, ultimate woman, as brilliant, as immortal<br />as yourself. Your mate for all time.<br /><br />FLINT: Designed by my heart. I could not love her more. . .<br /><br /><br />It turns out that the author of that _Star Trek_ episode, Jerome Bixby,<br />was fascinated by the idea, and wrote the screenplay of a feature-length<br />film: _The Man From Earth_ (2007), with David Lee Smith as<br />"John Oldman" a 14,000-year-old man from Neolithic days.<br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_from_Earth<br /><br />The movie is basically an extended conversation -- Oldman is a college<br />professor who is quitting his job and moving away (as he must<br />do every decade or so before the people around him start<br />getting suspicious of his remarkably persistent youth),<br />and his colleagues give him a surprise farewell party.<br />Oldman takes a chance (not well-received, as it turns out, even<br />as a "tall tale") on revealing his true nature. His<br />audience have various, in some cases extreme, reactions<br />to his tale. It's talky, but well worth watching.<br /><br />It's on YouTube, if you can stand the inaccurate (lowered)<br />pitch.<br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT_Dlg809cojimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-38360062868727564802016-08-04T09:18:18.756-07:002016-08-04T09:18:18.756-07:00Very timely:
http://singularityhub.com/2016/08/04...Very timely:<br /><br />http://singularityhub.com/2016/08/04/ray-kurzweil-explains-why-radical-life-extension-will-be-better-than-you-think/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SingularityHub+%28Singularity+Hub%29<br />--------------<br />Ray K Q&A<br />Will Living Forever Suck?<br />Singularity University<br /><br />Kurzweil suggests that by the time we've significantly extended<br />our average lifespan, we'll no longer be in a scarcity-driven<br />world competing for finite resources. Take energy, for example.<br />Kurzweil notes solar is on an exponential curve and has been <br />doubling every two years.<br /><br />> "Well within 15 years, say, we'll be able to meet all of<br />> our energy needs from solar. And at that point, we will be<br />> using one part in 10,000 of the sunlight that falls on the Earth." <br /><br />Following the disruptive trends in energy are water, food, and<br />manufacturing. Kurzweil suggests these areas are on a trajectory<br />from scarcity to abundance. Many of today's resource-related limiting<br />factors will be "solved" by the time radical life extension becomes<br />a reality. . .<br />====<br /><br /><br />Well, that's a "hard" prediction -- 15 years to 100% of energy<br />from solar. I might even be around to see if it comes true.jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-76047344357188110402016-08-03T19:44:04.691-07:002016-08-03T19:44:04.691-07:00Suddenly I have an overwhelming urge to watch this...Suddenly I have an overwhelming urge to watch this movie<br />again.<br /><br />Screw the natural law!<br /><br />Death Becomes Her (3/10) Movie CLIP - Eternal Youth (1992) HD<br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqTTejoQVXw<br /><br />Death Becomes Her (6/10) Movie CLIP - Medical Mystery (1992) HD<br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03a-vG6wHDI<br /><br />Death Becomes Her 1992 all in 5 minutes<br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXsnlzhsoS4<br /><br />Death Becomes Her ~ Best of Meryl Streep<br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAE5BJHe8n8<br />jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-86946942469232534532016-08-03T19:30:03.217-07:002016-08-03T19:30:03.217-07:00Speaking of vampires and transhumanism:
(via the ...Speaking of vampires and transhumanism:<br /><br />(via the comment thread of<br />http://amormundi.blogspot.com/2012/02/jim-hes-dead.html<br />and see also comments in<br />http://amormundi.blogspot.com/2012/05/unbearable-stasis-of-accelerating.html<br />http://amormundi.blogspot.com/2012/08/futurological-factishness.html<br />http://amormundi.blogspot.com/2012/12/entrepreneurial-scam-and-skim-artists.html )<br /><br />https://sites.google.com/site/cryonicsfactsheet/scam-8---vampires-david-styles-and-cryonics-institute<br />-------<br />[O]ther Cryoncists are Satanists also including our favourite<br />scammer David Styles. . .<br /><br />". . .He is a member of a 'vampire' cult. . . called the<br />'Temple of the Vampire'. . . a pyramid scheme that ask their<br />members to pay them loads of money in exchange for 'teachings'<br />that supposedly grant them immortality. . .<br /><br />Styles. . . has the rank of 'Adept',. . . the highest. He is also a member<br />of their 'inner council' - the Order of Prometheus. . . a<br />thought police in charge of silencing anybody who doesn't agree with them."<br /><br />. . .<br /><br />Styles is part of a Vampire Pyramid Scheme. . .<br />to sell cryonics. . . to Twilight fans. . .<br />[He] was exposed and is re-inventing himself as a transhumanist/cryonics advocate. . .<br />[A]t least Vyff and Best know of the Satanist connections<br />and even had to ask David to step down from the "board" at the Immortality Institute.<br /><br />. . .<br /><br />> Is there still a requirement to become involved in cryonics to join the<br />> vampire priesthood?"<br /><br />[W]hen I was a member. . . cryonics was an absolute requirement to get<br />into the priesthood (3rd circle).<br /><br />It was also a requirement to take the following oath (before the "undead gods"),<br />sign it, and send it in to the temple:<br /><br />". . .I swear by my life-force and the breath that<br />sustains it my loyalty and obedience to Hekal Tiamat. I shall live by the<br />force of fang and claw. I shall forever respect the one true law. I pledge<br />my blood, my will, my power. I commit myself totally from this very hour.<br />I am of and for the body of the blood. I now only serve the great dragon god.<br />If this oath be ever broken by me, may I be denied immortality."<br />====<br /><br /><br />This sort of power-worship isn't surprising, I guess. It reminds me<br />of L. Ron Hubbard's alleged brush with the occultism of Aleister Crowley:<br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_the_occult<br />(and see comments in<br />http://amormundi.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-politics-of-futurological-anti.html ).jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-56253224884526305952016-08-03T16:22:42.685-07:002016-08-03T16:22:42.685-07:00> So are Ray Kurzweil and Elon Musk (and Bill G...> So are Ray Kurzweil and Elon Musk (and Bill Gates,<br />> and Larry Ellison, and Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos,<br />> and, uh, Max & Natasha [and Durk & Sandy ;-> ], and. . .)<br />> in on this too?<br /><br />Or maybe even Donald Trump? :-0 :-0<br /><br />> Improved transplant techniques open the question whether the ego<br />> itself could be transplanted from one body to another. . .<br />> Here is Mr. Hart, a trillionaire dedicated to his personal immortality. . .<br />> "Well," he thinks, "couldn't we just scoop it out of a healthy youth,<br />> throw his in the garbage where it belongs, and slide in MEEEEEEEE?"<br /><br />Hey, wasn't this a movie last year (which I skipped)?<br /><br />Ben Kingsley and Ryan Reynolds? Ah, yes:<br /><br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self/less<br />------------<br />Self/less is a 2015 American science fiction thriller film. . .<br /><br />Business tycoon and billionaire Damian Hale (Ben Kingsley)<br />is master of his own universe, until he is diagnosed with terminal<br />cancer. Now on his deathbed, he finds a business card directing<br />him to a man named Professor Albright (Matthew Goode), who informs<br />him about a radical medical procedure called "shedding,"<br />in which one's consciousness is transferred to an artificially<br />grown healthy body. Damian decides to undergo the procedure and<br />engineers his own public death. Albright transfers him into a<br />new body (Ryan Reynolds) and prescribes medication to alleviate<br />the vivid hallucinations which he claims are side effects of<br />the procedure. . .<br /><br />Self/less has received generally negative reviews from critics.<br />The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a rating<br />of 19%, based on 129 reviews, with an average rating of 4.5/10.<br />The site's consensus reads: "Self/less boasts a potential-packed<br />premise, but does frustratingly little with it, settling for<br />lackluster action at the expense of interesting ideas.". . .<br />====<br /><br />Oh, well. Guess I didn't miss anything.<br />jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-32916859527587093782016-08-03T13:22:17.682-07:002016-08-03T13:22:17.682-07:00> I also think the piece gets to something prof...> I also think the piece gets to something profoundly true and<br />> profoundly hilarious about the evil, if one is inclined to<br />> put it that way, of Peter Thiel and the current brouhaha<br />> over plutocratic parasitic blood transfusion as a route to<br />> techno-immortality.<br /><br />Life imitates "art":<br /><br />http://amormundi.blogspot.com/2014/09/robot-cultist-martine-rothblatt-is-in.html<br />---------------<br />It seems I've been encountering this "billionaire who will do anything<br />to achieve personal immortality" trope in rapid-fire succession<br />recently; e.g., in:<br /><br />Arthur Maitland (of "Maitland Industries" and<br />the "National Research Institute")<br />in _The Immortal_ TV show (1970).<br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Immortal_%28TV_series%29<br />(a few episodes are available on YouTube).<br /><br />Josef Virek in William Gibson's _Count Zero_ (1986).<br /><br />Senator Tony Kreutzer (of "The Wild Palms Group")<br />in _Wild Palms_ (1993).<br />(Available on YouTube).<br /><br />Eldritch Palmer (of "The Stoneheart Group") in<br />Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan'a _The Strain_<br />(books and TV show) -- who, in addition to<br />handing over New York City to an old-world vampire in<br />exchange for the promise of eternal life (which he<br />doesn't get in the end, at least in the book -- you<br />just can't trust those vampires) also (at least in the<br />show; I can't remember whether it's also in<br />the book) gets an illegally-harvested liver.<br />(Season 1 episodes 1-8 are available on YouTube.)<br /><br />(Steve Jobs is also alleged to have been improperly<br />fast-tracked for a liver transplant, though I don't **think** anybody<br />has suggested another person was murdered to get it for him.)<br /><br />Of course, TV Tropes has a relevant entry:<br />http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ImmortalitySeeker<br />(Transhumanism is mentioned in the "Real Life" folder. ;-> )<br />====<br /><br />In that 1970 TV show _The Immortal_ it is indeed the poor<br />guy's blood everybody's after:<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTXFkwwO49c<br />The Immortal - TV movie (1970)<br />Test driver Ben Richards (Christopher George), discovers his blood<br />contains every immunity known to man--in effect making him immortal.<br />When an elderly billionaire named Maitland learns of Richards'<br />condition, he hires mercenary Fletcher to track Richards all over<br />the country, capture him, and bring him back to Maitland's estate<br />for periodic transfusions. The series details Richards' adventures<br />with people he meets along the way, all the while fleeing from Fletcher<br />and his goons.jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-43714275222655622552016-08-03T13:05:45.131-07:002016-08-03T13:05:45.131-07:00> William Burroughs On Peter Thiel. . .
>
&g...> William Burroughs On Peter Thiel. . .<br />><br />> This is a parable of vampirism gone berserk.<br /><br />Hey, I missed the point of this post!<br /><br />Thiel. . . Ambrosia. . . parabiosis.<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAy1_LBFMhg<br />Billionaire Vampire Wants Your Blood<br />SourceFed<br />Aug 2, 2016<br /><br />So are Ray Kurzweil and Elon Musk (and Bill Gates,<br />and Larry Ellison, and Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos,<br />and, uh, Max & Natasha [and Dirk & Sandy ;-> ], and. . .)<br />in on this too?<br /><br />Better start smearing your kids with garlic!jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-51373929078763227452016-08-03T12:43:22.381-07:002016-08-03T12:43:22.381-07:00That's GOOD. But what isn't from Burrough...That's GOOD. But what isn't from Burroughs? But this is even better shit than algebra of need and junk pyramids. This is just what we dangling from our dinner forks.Lorrainehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13567383019731167967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-90794229898096037792016-08-03T10:49:59.812-07:002016-08-03T10:49:59.812-07:00I suppose since it's right in front of me, I m...I suppose since it's right in front of me, I might<br />as well share this:<br /><br />------------<br />"The Remaking of Man"<br />Olaf Stapledon, BBC broadcast 2 April 1931<br />in _An Olaf Stapledon Reader_<br />Robert Crossley, ed.<br /><br />. . .<br /><br />That **I** should be remade, or you, is impossible. But do<br />we not desire that a race of beings far happier and more vital<br />than ourselves should some day occur? . . . We must create<br />a race gifted with the health and vitality, the beauty and<br />perennial youth, or the mythical heroes.<br /><br />This leads to the question of longevity. If only we could<br />keep young, most of us would certainly desire to live much<br />longer than the normal span. But from the point of view of<br />the race, and of the far future, would it really be good<br />that the lives of individuals should be longer? The brevity<br />of human life certainly enables the species to keep on<br />starting again with a clean slate. Think of whatever historical<br />period you most despise. How lamentable if **that**<br />generation had occupied the earth for ever! On the other<br />hand, very much of our short life-time is spent in merely<br />overtaking our seniors. And no sooner have we become properly<br />equipped for carrying on the work of the world than our<br />powers begin to fail.<br /><br />From the racial point of view, then, two complementary<br />improvements are needed. In the remote future, when the race<br />has reached its prime, the individual must live much longer<br />than is possible today, say a thousand times as long<br />[i.e., around 70,000 years; in _Last and First Men_, the<br />Fifth Men -- the final terrestrial species -- start with<br />a lifespan of 3,000 years and ultimately reach 50,000 years,<br />while the Eighteenth Men on Neptune ultimately settle<br />on an individual lifespan of around 250,000 terrestrial years];<br />but also his youthful suppleness and vigour must continue<br />till death. In fact senility, not only extreme senility,<br />but that blunting of percipience and slow dying of the mind,<br />which with us begins before middle life, must be abolished.<br /><br />It is not desirable that the individual should live for ever,<br />since that would prevent any further improvement in the inborn<br />nature of the species. It is natural that we, who are such<br />self-centered beings, should want to live for ever, either<br />here or in some heaven. It is natural that we should demand<br />some kind of immortality for those whom we love and admire.<br />But, as I see it, not only must those cravings remain unfulfilled,<br />but also it is better so. I must learn to regard myself and<br />every other individual, even my dearest, as having the kind<br />of excellence that a theme or phrase of music has. It has its<br />proper place. It must come to an end, and make way for other<br />musical forms. So also with the man and the woman.<br />====<br />jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-2633708081334714522016-08-03T10:35:27.847-07:002016-08-03T10:35:27.847-07:00> He is still subject to accidental death, and ...> He is still subject to accidental death, and the<br />> mere thought of it throws him into paroxysms of<br />> idiot terror. . . His idiotic cowardice knows no bounds. <br /><br />-------------<br />[The consciousness of the Greeks,] even<br />in Homeric times, was full to the brim of the<br />sad mortality of this sunlit world. . .<br />When. . . Achilles, about to slay Lycaon,<br />Priam's young son, hears him sue for mercy, he stops<br />to say:<br /><br />'Ah, friend, thou too must die: why thus lamentest<br />thou? Patroclos too is dead, who was better far than<br />thou.... Over me too hang death and forceful fate.<br />There cometh morn or eve or some noonday when<br />my life too some man shall take in battle, whether<br />with spear he smite, or arrow from the string.'<br /><br />Then Achilles savagely severs the poor boy's neck<br />with his sword, heaves him by the foot into the<br />Scamander, and calls to the fishes of the river to<br />eat the white fat of Lycaon. . . [T]he cruelty<br />and the sympathy each ring true, and do not mix<br />or interfere with one another. . .<br /><br />-- William James, _The Varieties of Religious<br />Experience_, Lectures IV and V, "The Religion<br />of Healthy-Mindedness"<br />====<br /><br />> "To me the only success, the only greatness, is immortality."<br />> -- James Dean, quoted in James Dean: The Mutant King,<br />> by David Dalton<br /><br />-------------<br />I don't want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to<br />achieve immortality through not dying. I don't want to live on<br />in the hearts of my countrymen; I want to live on in my apartment.<br /><br />-- Woody Allen<br />====<br />jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-24689729299563021832016-08-03T06:22:41.396-07:002016-08-03T06:22:41.396-07:00> And here is Mr. Rich Parts. He is three hundr...> And here is Mr. Rich Parts. He is three hundred years old.<br />> He is still subject to accidental death, and the mere thought<br />> of it throws him into paroxysms of idiot terror. For days<br />> he cowers in his bunker, two hundred feet down in solid rock,<br />> food for fifty years. A trip from one city to another requires<br />> months of sifting and checking computerized plans and alternate<br />> routes to avoid the possibility of an accident. His idiotic<br />> cowardice knows no bounds. . .<br /><br />http://amormundi.blogspot.com/2009/10/cryonicists-getting-cool-reception.html<br />----------------<br />The thing that makes Larry Johnson and Scott Baldyga's _Frozen_<br />worth the read, at least for me, is not so much the allegations of abuse of<br />Ted Williams' head, or even the allegations of suspension<br />personnel using paralytics such as Vecuronium to make sure their<br />clients are "not just merely dead, but really most<br />sincerely dead."<br /><br />It's the intimate portrayal of the personalities of some<br />of the principals involved. Including Mr. [Charles] Platt<br />(who apparently had a panic attack verging on a psychotic<br />break during the SARS outbreak -- "Don't you realize this<br />could be the end of the human race!" -- and wouldn't leave his<br />house until Mr. Johnson agreed to take him to Mexico<br />to lay in a supply of Ribavirin). Vignettes like these --<br />and there are a lot of them! -- were more interesting<br />to me than the Williams episode. It was scary how<br />many of the names I recognized, even if I haven't<br />actually met any of the people mentioned.<br />====jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.com