Hi Maeric. Think of the last 200 years of progress and what vast changes in thought that has brought. Then think then of the next 1000 years and how differently people will see this mystery then. Who knows what will be common knowledge then. For the mean time, my personal response to this mystery is to learn as much as I'd like about whatever I want, enjoy my life, stay out of everyone else's way, try to help eliminate suffering and try to promote general education so that the human race as a whole gets smarter over time, even if I miss out on the future revelations. That sits fine with me and I enjoy tripping on the mystery.

In reply to this comment by maeric2000:
If the universe is an accident then why should I, an accidental creation of chaos, seek purpose? How is my purpose anything more than an accidental coming together of molecules into a pattern that seems to indicate design but is argued to be mere science?

>> ^Tymbrwulf:

>> ^mxxcon:
labels are too tiny to read..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battles for your viewing pleasure . Battles DID get larger as technology advanced, though!

i want it animated and with music

>> ^mxxcon:

labels are too tiny to read..


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battles for your viewing pleasure . Battles DID get larger as technology advanced, though!

It's easier to kill with a mortar shell than with a sharp stick. The Amish were right.

>> ^GeeSussFreeK:

Ya, and that bad part was as time moved forward, the size and frequency tended to get higher.

Yeah, it's one of those movies that you just know they're setting it up for a sequel.
>> ^Opus_Moderandi:

The most depressing part is the "To Be Continued..."

I have very mixed feelings about it.

First of all, I do not intend to criticize the OP(s) for being "members" of alcor.

It is a VERY cool idea and I would do it in a HEARTBEAT if I was a bit more confident in their science.

The way I understand it is that yes, there are organisms that can survive being frozen and then reanimated in either simple or complex ways. That said, I do not believe that human beings are built to make this probable.

The questions are ones of time, money, and science. Science right now CANNOT do this. The methods by which Alcor (and the other place) are "preserving" bodies has not been proven to encourage a non-existent procedure of reanimation.

This technology will not be available for a LONG time, if ever. I don't believe it is impossible, but I believe it is the sort of thing which would come FAR in advance of where our medical science is now. I believe that the science involved would have to not only have to unfreeze but reverse certain aspects of decomposition that happen WAY too fast for this to be possible. Unless you are being frozen almost instantly while still alive, which I do not believe is legal since it would be tantamount to euthanasia. So in my mind, we are talking about advanced techniques of cell manipulation and reconstruction which don't remotely exist. This brings me to

Will Alcor still exist in 300-1000 years? What provisions are being made for this?

I hate to say it, but I think the partial answer lies in Alcor's profits. I doubt they would ever release their financial statements, but you can probably tell a LOT by what their financial situation is.

If Alcor is actually legit, and not just to separate the future-minded person with expendable income from their money, they won't exist for long. The money involved in keeping these bodies in suspended animation for hundreds of years will not allow them to stay in business forever and eventually the plug will be pulled on these tubes and that will be that.

That's the best case scenario.

The worse case scenario is that this is a scam. They probably know damned well that they are banking on solutions that don't (and probably won't) exist in their own lifetimes. Therefore they charge money to people who like the idea, enjoy their Ferraris and dump the bodies in about 50 years when there are no living relatives so the inheritors of Alcor can continue the business. Another clue: their staff is volunteer based with little to no medical background... yeah.

I know I'm being a bit pessimistic, but it is very much akin to UFOs... there are lots of people that believe in UFOs and there are lots of people who make product for those who believe in UFOs. Some of them also believe in UFOs, but I suspect a vast majority see a market that is booming and money to be made. Whenever someone is trying to sell you something, you know that they know it is bullshit.

It is like all the 2012 hysteria. Why am I seeing commercials for SUVs and McDonald's tie-ins for a movie about the end of the world? Why do we have major corporations sponsoring shows on the Discovery channel "analyzing" the Mayan predictions about the last few years we have left? Money... it's always about selling me something.

But seriously, I really don't mean to be a debbie downer about this, but it is just a flash in the pan. I just really hope that you aren't spending money that could be better spent elsewhere.

Finally, I REALLY question the idea of preserving just the head. All I can think of is this scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oL7XP0ROvk

Skip to 2:12

wont matter in 3 more years.

your pondering is an exercise in pointlessness, infidel.

the poles are going to reverse in 2012, at which point, a vengeful mayan god will wake up from a long nap. All those not baptized with the power of the Melchisedech Preisthood, stripped from the earth after the crucifixion and failure of the surviving apostles, then restored to the earth by jesus and the angel moroni through the prophet Joseph Smith, shall perish.

All Mormons currently in orbit on this earthly plane will follow the zombie prophet, bringham young, to Missouri. Where the mayan god, known to those in the latter days as Jesus Christ, shall reign as king for 1000 years. Worker Ants of Zion will be busy. happily enslaved by their heavenly king, digging up the names of every soul that has ever been sent and moved on from physical existence, for the past 6000 years. tirelessly baptizing every dead mortal being in global history. preparing for the final battle between good and evil. assembling their tabernacle armies. so that Yahweh almighty can finally cast his judgement on humanity and every soul he thought to create can take their place in one of three levels of his merciful heaven.

then my parents will eventually get their own planet. and ill be a motherfucking princess.
bitches.

Word for word what I was about to post!!!!

In reply to this comment by demon_ix:
"Mouse falls into the pit of the Sarlac and is subsequently digested over the next 1000 years."

Either that or "Mice representatives demand installation of safety rails alongside pitcher plants to avoid thousands of accidental deaths per year!"

"Mouse falls into the pit of the Sarlac and is subsequently digested over the next 1000 years."

Either that or "Mice representatives demand installation of safety rails alongside pitcher plants to avoid thousands of accidental deaths per year!"

>> ^ghark:
Except that, while those problems exist (which they will for the forseeable future) having more children does make it worse - having more children while you are poor certainly doesn't make poverty disappear, that's wishful thinking. Have you looked at the birth rates in the coutries most affected by poverty, hunger, AIDS, malaria etc?
The groupthink speaking is actually the people that think that donating money for food is making any long term difference, it warms the cockles of their heart because they think they did something good, and it feeds a hungry child for a month, but in the meantime that childs mother had 5 more babies, like in the Congo for example.


Between 300-800 years ago, and further back of course; Europe was in a similar situation in the pre-industrial setting. The only way to succeed is to have children, because kids are useful, they can be used to *insert use here*(from dealing with crops/work/etc). The other flip side is, when you have a high child/infant mortality rate you need to replace them. Having children doesn't make it worse, it's the only way to survive. If you want to wipe out a population, then not having children is the way to go.

And actually, then we're getting back into the positive population checks theory that was in limited traction at the time too. Positive population checks = famine/death/war/etc keep the peons/serfs/peasants in line for those at the top. Sound familiar? Many parts of the world that you're talking about are strikingly similar to everywhere within the last 1000 years.

Now it's not bad, that people want to donate money. Actually, that's not really group thing. There's no MOI factors there. And again with your second paragraph, refer to my first two. As with the future, and current situation you look to the past to see how it unfolds.

after 1000 years, our options are still the same. 2 guys who will inevitably do the same thing.

*brief

Without the rhetoric, the whole argument goes like this:
-The question to Hitchens: Isn't the jihad fueled by the Western powers' action in Islamic land over the whole history of colonization (i.e. 1000+ years if we count the crusades)?
-Response by Hitchens: No, it is fueled by the religious content of these actions, i.e. the things jihadists are most upset about are not related to colonization per se but to the perceived desecration/irrespect of their religion's rightful place as the OTR (Only True Religion). Jihadists don't care about the atrocities committed in the name of Islam, only of those that are committed against Islam (and their definition of "atrocity" is very broad). That's why the establishment of an independent country in East Timor with a christian majority is to them worse than the genocide that islamists committed with the help of their former western allies.

Let's remember that Al-Qaeda was formed just as the Cold War stopped and the U.S. started to take action against their former Islamic allies. What the U.S. did to Iran doesn't count since they are Shi'ites, not Sunni like Al-Qaeda. Also, Al-Qaeda doesn't care about the Turkish government massacring Kurds, they care that it is a secular government in a Islamic land. Same with Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Iraqi insurgency is another matter. An insurgency is inevitable in any invaded country. This one is used by Al-Qaeda as a testing ground and as a continuation of their war against the U.S.A. They don't care about the freedom of the Iraqis since they also are Shia Muslims in majority. They only care that the Sunni minority be free to be as Islamic as they want. They also want to destroy the U.S.A. and a war of attrition is always a good way when you're overwhelmed in terms of raw power. So in brief: the Iraqi insurgency is fueled by Al-Qaeda, not by the occupation (though the invasion/occupation was the spark, so to speak).

Heres my two cent idea for healthcare:

If I was an insurance company, I wouldn't insure a whole person - I would insure specific diseases and injuries. Just like buying separate flood, fire, or earthquake insurance. Moreso, I would do it based on geographic location, not personal medical histories.

Heres a sample:

Plan A: $100 / year
Diseases with an incidence > 1:100,000
No injuries covered.

Plan B: $200 / year
Diseases with an incidence > 1:50,000
Injuries rated up to serious condition.

Plan C: $400 / year
Diseases with an incidence > 1:10,000
Injuries rated up to critical condition.

Plan D: $800 / year
Diseases with an incidence > 1:1,000
Injures rated up to life threatening.

Plan E: $1000 / year
All inclusive, full coverage of all disease and injury.

Incidence rates for all known diseases would be revised annually, and rates could be adjusted based on either a profit or non-profit paradigm. You know your medical history so you can select the coverage you need to cover whatever rare disease you may have. You can also select a plan based on how healthy you feel and the amount of risk you feel you have for rare disease. This works because for every expensive 1 in 100,000 disease they have to pay out, there's 99,999 people (x $100) who never needed a dime.

The government could do this, or a private company - doesn't matter. All that matters is it is voluntary.

This solves the problem with rare, expensive diseases, like hemophilia, (1 in 10,000) which can require $30,000 in medical supplies a month to treat. With this plan, hemophiliacs are able to get by on a $33 a month plan ($400 a year) while the insurance company makes 9,999 x $400 = $4 million...enough to cover the treatment for that rare 1 in 10,000 individual with a cool $3.5 million left over.

Well fucking said! Can I buy you a pint?

In reply to this comment by gorillaman:
It's precisely because the voters today are the same mindless bigoted scum of 50 and 100 years ago that democracy is a terrible idea. That's why people who actually know how to think like human beings should be making the decisions.

Nick Griffin and everyone who voted for the BNP should be executed. You don't just get to vote however you like; if your party of choice holds corrupt policies you are guilty of their crimes, potential and realised.

Morality and reason are not subject to time. The correct positions of today were the correct positions of 1000 years ago, will be the correct positions of 1000 years from now.

It is impossible that the BNP will be proven right. Were your multicultural cataclysm to come to pass in all its improbability, the BNP voters would still have been what they are now, which is irrational, rabid animals deserving only to be put down.

The position of an idea within or without the orthodoxy does not determine its value.

It's precisely because the voters today are the same mindless bigoted scum of 50 and 100 years ago that democracy is a terrible idea. That's why people who actually know how to think like human beings should be making the decisions.

Nick Griffin and everyone who voted for the BNP should be executed. You don't just get to vote however you like; if your party of choice holds corrupt policies you are guilty of their crimes, potential and realised.

Morality and reason are not subject to time. The correct positions of today were the correct positions of 1000 years ago, will be the correct positions of 1000 years from now.

It is impossible that the BNP will be proven right. Were your multicultural cataclysm to come to pass in all its improbability, the BNP voters would still have been what they are now, which is irrational, rabid animals deserving only to be put down.

The position of an idea within or without the orthodoxy does not determine its value.