Author Topic: EP235: On the Human Plan  (Read 26041 times)

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Reply #25 on: January 28, 2010, 02:43:29 PM
But why can't you have life without death?  If there were nano-bots that swim through your blood and repair damaged DNA and organs  wouldn't you live forever barring some accident?  No, you would not live beyond the heat-death of the universe, but the existence of life does not depend on the existence of the HDotU, and by the time it happens we may have figured out how to stop it. 

The difference here is how you define "life".  Yes, your biological processes will continue, as will your consciousness.  But life itself loses much of its meaning to me if there is no resolution to it.  I'm not saying I wish to die any time soon, but the fact that I know I WILL die someday changes everything.



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Reply #26 on: January 28, 2010, 02:44:23 PM
Also, I can understand wanting immortality.  It's just not what I want.



heyes

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Reply #27 on: January 28, 2010, 04:25:28 PM
I really enjoyed the setting, and the narration.  The story didn't so much end as it stopped, and I think that this could have been a very epic novel.  That being said, this is going to make it on to the next "Best of" podcast cds for my car.

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wakela

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Reply #28 on: January 28, 2010, 11:35:51 PM
But why can't you have life without death?  If there were nano-bots that swim through your blood and repair damaged DNA and organs  wouldn't you live forever barring some accident?  No, you would not live beyond the heat-death of the universe, but the existence of life does not depend on the existence of the HDotU, and by the time it happens we may have figured out how to stop it. 

The difference here is how you define "life".  Yes, your biological processes will continue, as will your consciousness.  But life itself loses much of its meaning to me if there is no resolution to it.  I'm not saying I wish to die any time soon, but the fact that I know I WILL die someday changes everything.

I am aware of that interpretation and I would never try to talk you out of it.  But for me the phrase "without death there can me no life" is one that I nod sagely at when I first hear it, but then falls part when I scratch its surface.  It would have made perfect sense on several levels to the Buddhists who came up with it that Steve referenced.  But either our generation or the next one or the one after that will be able to move beyond it the same way modern societies have moved beyond former truisms regarding the role of women and respect for authority.  An unending life can have as much meaning or as little as one puts into it. 



Dave

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Reply #29 on: January 29, 2010, 01:37:22 AM
This was brilliantly realized stuff, a steady stream of interesting characters and ideas... but I'm afraid I have no freakin' idea what the ending was all about.

-Dave (aka Nev the Deranged)


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Reply #30 on: January 29, 2010, 04:17:53 AM
I concur with most of the replies on this. Great story, very well read, good imagery and use of language but the ending... not so much.



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Reply #31 on: January 29, 2010, 06:06:20 PM
I am aware of that interpretation and I would never try to talk you out of it.  But for me the phrase "without death there can me no life" is one that I nod sagely at when I first hear it, but then falls part when I scratch its surface.  It would have made perfect sense on several levels to the Buddhists who came up with it that Steve referenced.  But either our generation or the next one or the one after that will be able to move beyond it the same way modern societies have moved beyond former truisms regarding the role of women and respect for authority.  An unending life can have as much meaning or as little as one puts into it. 

To each his own.  I'm sticking to what I said.  Some day I'll die, and if you've achieved immortality by then, then you'll have gotten the last word.  :)



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Reply #32 on: January 29, 2010, 09:28:53 PM
unblinking:
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Some day I'll die, and if you've achieved immortality by then, then you'll have gotten the last word.   :)

Indeed he will. And good luck on that immortality thing too, wakela.  ;)



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Reply #33 on: January 30, 2010, 12:53:43 AM
Eley could have used this as a closing quote:

Quote from: Woody Allen
I don't want to achieve immortality through my work... I want to achieve it through not dying.

 ;D

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Reply #34 on: January 30, 2010, 02:41:01 AM
I don't need to be immortal.  In fact, I'm perfectly happy living just 5 more years.

It's just that the "5 more years" figure will not change as time passes.  When I'm 40, I'll want 5 more years.  When I'm 100?  5 more years.  When I'm 130?  5 more years.

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Reply #35 on: January 30, 2010, 02:50:34 AM
Quote
I don't need to be immortal.  In fact, I'm perfectly happy living just 5 more years.

It's just that the "5 more years" figure will not change as time passes.  When I'm 40, I'll want 5 more years.  When I'm 100?  5 more years.  When I'm 130?  5 more years.


Sounds like the opener to "Ziggy Stardust" to me...



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Reply #36 on: January 30, 2010, 08:56:43 PM
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Sounds like the opener to "Ziggy Stardust" to me...

 ??? Which bit?



Sgarre1

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Reply #37 on: January 30, 2010, 09:38:42 PM
The opening song - "Five Years" ("...that's all we've got" because "Earth...was really dying.")

"drinking milkshakes, cold and long...."



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Reply #38 on: January 31, 2010, 09:07:27 AM
Quote
The opening song - "Five Years" ("...that's all we've got" because "Earth...was really dying.")
"drinking milkshakes, cold and long...."

Ah.. I was thinking of the song (not album) Ziggy Stardust, "Ziggy played guitar, jamming good with Weird and Gilly,
and the spiders from Mars. He played it left hand", was wondering what I had missed there!!  ;D



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Reply #39 on: February 01, 2010, 03:54:10 AM
I was optimistic about this one but the longer I listened the more confused and uninterested I got.  It may benefit from a second listen but I'm not sure if I'll go there or not. 

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.    -  Carl Sagan


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Reply #40 on: February 01, 2010, 02:34:11 PM
Eley could have used this as a closing quote:

Quote from: Woody Allen
I don't want to achieve immortality through my work... I want to achieve it through not dying.

 ;D

Or you could manage both, like Helmut Finch!  (Check out "Hometown Horrible" on Pseudopod if you don't know what I'm talking about).



wakela

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Reply #41 on: February 02, 2010, 02:54:13 AM
I am aware of that interpretation and I would never try to talk you out of it.  But for me the phrase "without death there can me no life" is one that I nod sagely at when I first hear it, but then falls part when I scratch its surface.  It would have made perfect sense on several levels to the Buddhists who came up with it that Steve referenced.  But either our generation or the next one or the one after that will be able to move beyond it the same way modern societies have moved beyond former truisms regarding the role of women and respect for authority.  An unending life can have as much meaning or as little as one puts into it. 

To each his own.  I'm sticking to what I said.  Some day I'll die, and if you've achieved immortality by then, then you'll have gotten the last word.  :)

Actually, this is the main reason I stay with the pro-immortality argument.  You always get the last word.   ;D



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Reply #42 on: February 02, 2010, 11:43:21 PM
I truly loved the story - and went out and found the text online and read it a couple more times.  To some extent I think the various replies indicating dissatisfaction, confusion and annoyance are an indication of the strength of this episode.  As Dog says, this is not Truth, it is a story.  Ambiguity makes it more interesting.

Of course I must admit that much of what drew me to it was the imagery.  The notion of basing information transfer on the death of trees with a bit rate measured in hundreds of years made me smile.  One of my favorite Escape Pod episodes ever.



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Reply #43 on: February 05, 2010, 04:42:15 PM
Didn't get this at all.  I think this story was a bit too dense for audio consumption, at least for me. 



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Reply #44 on: February 05, 2010, 07:26:54 PM
One of my favorite Escape Pod episodes ever.
um....how did you like the narration?


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Reply #45 on: February 08, 2010, 04:13:42 AM
Well read and written piece that seemed to fly over my head. Post-singularity type stuff does that to me. The story began stongly, but seemed to take off without me about half way through.



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Reply #46 on: February 09, 2010, 09:26:22 PM
One of my favorite Escape Pod episodes ever.
um....how did you like the narration?

I'm not jmmoon, but I think it was marvelous.

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Reply #47 on: February 11, 2010, 07:13:23 PM
I thoroughly enjoyed this one, great work by all involved as far as I'm concerned :)



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Reply #48 on: February 15, 2010, 07:53:25 AM
I have NO idea what this was about. It came across as a bunch of cool ideas inexpertly stitched together, by which I mean: nice writing, but the whole didn't work. Very odd.


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Reply #49 on: February 22, 2010, 06:33:20 PM
Well read and written piece that seemed to fly over my head. Post-singularity type stuff does that to me. The story began stongly, but seemed to take off without me about half way through.

Hmmmm....  ;D ;D ;D