Author Topic: Very Brief Observations (Read 45755 times)

ClintMemo · **Reply #50 on:** February 22, 2007, 11:23:28 PM

Quote from: Startrekwiki on February 22, 2007, 10:11:41 PM

See! Good source for a story! I speculate that the "Mind Control" idea is still a bit far from reality, but "basic principles" is a good idea.. A national source could ispell anti-war thoughts into individuals who later pass them on to the next generation. Or the other way around. See how this could get to be a very complicated matter? Great for a story.

Mind control was not the right term. "Thought Control" would be better, or how about "preemptive brainwashing" ? Now it would need a "Patriot Act" kind of name so something like "Value Installation" or "Morality Acquisition." The right phrase would be crucial.

SFEley · **Reply #51 on:** February 23, 2007, 12:01:45 AM

Quote from: ClintMemo on February 22, 2007, 10:06:42 PM

Quote from: Startrekwiki on February 22, 2007, 09:49:41 PM
It's more realistic than living forever: having a continence forever. A constant memory...

So whose memories would you get, mom's or Dad's? What if they don't agree on things? What if they get divorced?
"Your honor, I want her memories expunged from our child."

Very cool. Here's another spin:

Let's say the "constant memory" works. Any time you want, you can have all your memories transferred to your fresh young clone. Poof, new young you.

Let's say that for strong reasons (probably technical, maybe legal), once you've done this the old you can't hang around any more.

Would anyone voluntarily live past, say, age 40? How old would you permit yourself to be if you could become young again (a kid, a teenager, whatever) at only moderate cost and inconvenience?

How different would the world be? And what sorts of new problems could we get from that?

ClintMemo · **Reply #52 on:** February 23, 2007, 12:14:27 AM

Quote from: SFEley on February 23, 2007, 12:01:45 AM

Quote from: ClintMemo on February 22, 2007, 10:06:42 PM
Quote from: Startrekwiki on February 22, 2007, 09:49:41 PM
It's more realistic than living forever: having a continence forever. A constant memory...

So whose memories would you get, mom's or Dad's? What if they don't agree on things? What if they get divorced?
"Your honor, I want her memories expunged from our child."

Very cool. Here's another spin:

Let's say the "constant memory" works. Any time you want, you can have all your memories transferred to your fresh young clone. Poof, new young you.

Let's say that for strong reasons (probably technical, maybe legal), once you've done this the old you can't hang around any more.

Would anyone voluntarily live past, say, age 40? How old would you permit yourself to be if you could become young again (a kid, a teenager, whatever) at only moderate cost and inconvenience?

How different would the world be? And what sorts of new problems could we get from that?

Somewhere in one of my classic sci-fi collections, there is a short story with exactly that premise.
Which means you think just like a sci-fi master!

Startrekwiki · **Reply #53 on:** February 23, 2007, 01:11:45 AM

[*In a Vulcan-like tone*] That is most certainly the case. [*Drops the tone*].

My Eley picks out the stories for EP, after all! He has to, at least think like a Sci-FI master, I suppose...

I hope that's not offensive in any way... I wonder which story has inspired people most. Would that be a good topic? I think so...

Thaurismunths · **Reply #54 on:** February 23, 2007, 12:09:27 PM

Quote from: SFEley on February 23, 2007, 12:01:45 AM

Let's say the "constant memory" works. Any time you want, you can have all your memories transferred to your fresh young clone. Poof, new young you.
Let's say that for strong reasons (probably technical, maybe legal), once you've done this the old you can't hang around any more.
Would anyone voluntarily live past, say, age 40? How old would you permit yourself to be if you could become young again (a kid, a teenager, whatever) at only moderate cost and inconvenience?
How different would the world be? And what sorts of new problems could we get from that?

What if it isn't a clone of you that you have to be transferred in to?
Celebrity body of the week?
Prisoners sentenced to paralyzed bodies on life support?
Custom grown bodies?
Gender swapping?
What about animal forms?
Clone of the Month Club?

ClintMemo · **Reply #55 on:** February 23, 2007, 12:36:57 PM

Quote from: Thaurismunths on February 23, 2007, 12:09:27 PM

Clone of the Month Club?

lol - now that's funny!

Startrekwiki · **Reply #56 on:** February 23, 2007, 12:40:04 PM

But seriously. It could be the perfect method of infiltration. Switch a body with a mind, and a President is now a fool. Or vice versa. A fool is now President.

Thaurismunths · **Reply #57 on:** February 23, 2007, 12:46:32 PM

Quote from: Startrekwiki on February 23, 2007, 12:40:04 PM

Switch a body with a mind, and a President is now a fool. Or vice versa. A fool is now President.

Yeah, but how could we tell? ;P

Startrekwiki · **Reply #58 on:** February 23, 2007, 12:48:29 PM

If it was a chemical thing, there could be traces...
But that's the thing. There would be no traces.

ClintMemo · **Reply #59 on:** February 23, 2007, 12:52:48 PM

Quote from: Startrekwiki on February 23, 2007, 12:40:04 PM

But seriously. It could be the perfect method of infiltration. Switch a body with a mind, and a President is now a fool. Or vice versa. A fool is now President.

With the person not being your clone, you could write in a possibility of the body "rejecting" the swap, just to add tension. Or, you could say that the body is guaranteed to reject the swap after some unknown amount of time, thereby giving the her (or villain, depending) a time limit to complete whatever task they are trying to complete.

Startrekwiki · **Reply #60 on:** February 23, 2007, 02:10:36 PM

Interesting. But, then, if the body was to reject the transplant, it would be the perfect assassination attempt. I see what could become a low-budget film:

The President is "assassinated" but no-one can prove it because of a very revolutionizing procedure that takes the mind and allows you to change bodies for a period of time before the procedure kills you. The movie could be about the assassination, and the attempt to discover what is going on... Before the President's time runs out.
It could also be a book.

Thaurismunths · **Reply #61 on:** February 23, 2007, 03:06:26 PM

Quote from: ClintMemo on February 23, 2007, 12:52:48 PM

With the person not being your clone, you could write in a possibility of the body "rejecting" the swap, just to add tension. Or, you could say that the body is guaranteed to reject the swap after some unknown amount of time, thereby giving the her (or villain, depending) a time limit to complete whatever task they are trying to complete.

"Come on! It isn't my fault I'm late. The other guy's hovercar swerved in to my trajectory." whines the Sacker Employee Archetype
"I don't care what your excuse is, this is the fifteenth time you've been late this quarter and we have to let you go." Says the Unsympathetic Boss Archetype
"Please. Can you give me 'till the end of the week? My daughter's turning 16 and she has to have an implant for school, and rent's already overdue on my clone. I… I just need a few more days."

Startrekwiki · **Reply #62 on:** February 23, 2007, 05:36:10 PM

"to pay off your clone's rent?"
"Yes".

This would be a great if there was a way of policing clonage. Right now, there is none. But there are are no clones, either.

SFEley · **Reply #63 on:** February 24, 2007, 02:43:28 AM

Best single-panel comic ever:

(From xkcd.)

Startrekwiki · **Reply #64 on:** February 26, 2007, 08:08:30 PM

That's pretty good

. A picture tells a thousand words. Escape Pod usually tells about a million. A month.

Bdoomed · **Reply #65 on:** February 28, 2007, 02:44:51 AM

Quote from: Startrekwiki on February 26, 2007, 08:08:30 PM

That's pretty good . A picture tells a thousand words. Escape Pod usually tells about a million. A month.

! Thats like... *calculates* 1000 pictures a month!
But Escape Pod is fun, while 1000 pictures is tiring after a while
Escape Pod>1000 pictures
and that is my brief observation for today.

Startrekwiki · **Reply #66 on:** February 28, 2007, 02:57:27 AM

My brief observation is that that's a brief observation. No, really, my brief observation is that Toronto has finally been struck with winter - after a few months without -, and it's pretty good. Not for roads, but for... I don't know. I like it. But it does show the effect of global warming (or something else. Alien heat rays, that burned out about in January come to mind). Does that count as a brief observation?

ClintMemo · **Reply #67 on:** February 28, 2007, 03:22:59 AM

If you encountered a were-possum and killed it, how could you really be sure?

Startrekwiki · **Reply #68 on:** February 28, 2007, 03:28:23 AM

Good question. That brings stuff up like "If my sister were suddenly replaced by aliens, would I notice?" there was an EP Flash with that as a subject.

wakela · **Reply #69 on:** February 28, 2007, 04:02:07 AM

Quote

Let's say the "constant memory" works. Any time you want, you can have all your memories transferred to your fresh young clone. Poof, new young you.
Let's say that for strong reasons (probably technical, maybe legal), once you've done this the old you can't hang around any more.
Would anyone voluntarily live past, say, age 40? How old would you permit yourself to be if you could become young again (a kid, a teenager, whatever) at only moderate cost and inconvenience?
How different would the world be? And what sorts of new problems could we get from that?

Well, OldYou would still die. From his point of view nothing would have changed. YoungYou, though would feel just like OldYou, but be young. So the benefit is all YoungYou's. Would you still do this procedure, knowing how much YoungYou would enjoy it? Or would YoungYou suddenly start worrying about paying the mortgage, and health insurange, and oh shit, I have to go to college again and I have to pay for it this time.

I'm young again. Now I can put off writing my novel another 20 years.

madjo · **Reply #70 on:** February 28, 2007, 10:32:15 AM

Quote from: SFEley on February 24, 2007, 02:43:28 AM

Best single-panel comic ever:

(From xkcd.)

XKCD is great. Especially the mouse-over texts that every comic has.

wakela · **Reply #71 on:** March 01, 2007, 07:19:17 AM

Quote

Quote
Quote from: SFEley on February 23, 2007, 09:43:28 PM
Best single-panel comic ever:

(From xkcd.)
XKCD is great. Especially the mouse-over texts that every comic has. Smiley

Thanks guys. I had to go and read every single one. Look! Almost time to go home!

Startrekwiki · **Reply #72 on:** March 01, 2007, 09:24:03 PM

Quote from: wakela on February 28, 2007, 04:02:07 AM

Quote
Let's say the "constant memory" works. Any time you want, you can have all your memories transferred to your fresh young clone. Poof, new young you.
Let's say that for strong reasons (probably technical, maybe legal), once you've done this the old you can't hang around any more.
Would anyone voluntarily live past, say, age 40? How old would you permit yourself to be if you could become young again (a kid, a teenager, whatever) at only moderate cost and inconvenience?
How different would the world be? And what sorts of new problems could we get from that?
Well, OldYou would still die. From his point of view nothing would have changed. YoungYou, though would feel just like OldYou, but be young. So the benefit is all YoungYou's. Would you still do this procedure, knowing how much YoungYou would enjoy it? Or would YoungYou suddenly start worrying about paying the mortgage, and health insurange, and oh shit, I have to go to college again and I have to pay for it this time.

I'm young again. Now I can put off writing my novel another 20 years.

YoungYou would not have to go to collage. He could have DNA testing done on him to make sure that he's OldYou's clone - who is considered dead - and he could be tested on weather he has all of OldYou's knowledge.

ClintMemo · **Reply #73 on:** March 02, 2007, 02:11:07 PM

Ok, I'm only going to say this one more time....

A woodchuck would chuck all the wood that a woodchuck could chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood.

now stop asking.

fiveyearwinter · **Reply #74 on:** March 02, 2007, 02:53:33 PM

Well, I mean, that's really under 100% optimal conditions. We need to take into account things like forest growth rates, diet of aforementioned woodchuck, etc. There may be economic ramifications to the chucking of all this wood - perhaps a woodchuck COULD be chucking more wood than it would make sense for it to do so.

I suppose the woodchuck would be willing to chuck as much wood as it could, but whether or not it would actually do so is far too complex a question.