Friday, May 30, 2008
Quick note....
If the Mars Phoenix Rover can send radio signals 36 million miles to NASA and they can communicate back, why the HELL does my cell phone not get reception in so many areas?
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Cogito ergo sum
An article at the NY Times online:
Over the years I have thought a lot about this kind of sci-fi medical engineering. After shows and movies like the Six Million Dollar Man, Robocop, The Terminator, and Star Wars; I have always believed that, in my lifetime, I would see bionics and cloning to help further life expectancy and/or help people with disabilities. Scientists are constantly making improvements in our everyday lives, from prosthetics to medicine, and people are living longer, more productive lives.
Then you have your religious zealots out there ruining all the fun. Let's not take into account that I am a non-religious man, that is another post all together (collect some plutonium to generate 1.21 gigawatts of electricity to power a flux capacitor in a Delorean traveling 88 mph and set the date to next year to read it). These people worship a God that they believe wants us all to do well, however, most religions frown upon things like cloning, contraception, or death penalties. For thousands of years, mankind has been making strides to lengthen life (burying people 6 feet under to prevent plague, using plants and stuff to make medicines to cure disease, banishing evil-doers in jail cells) and the life expectancy of man has increased dramatically. People 2000 years ago lived to about 25, now they live to between 80 and 110 because of all the collective knowledge of scientists and shaman that developed ways of living better.
As a man with management experience, I was very open to new ideas and suggestions to help make work a better place, be it a time saving method or a safer way to do something. I was open to try anything as long as it was not counter-productive, so when the idea passed muster and worked, we went with it. Why not make work better? Everyone looks for ways to make life better. Otherwise, there would not be coffee or Red Bull. Or Chocolate. Or cars. Or the Internet. So what I worry about is the ethical line that people will not cross because of what the Pope or Jerry Fallwell say. Life will be better if we only have sex for pro-creation? That homicidal maniac in prison that killed his wife and 5 children then ate them deserves to live? Seedless watermelons are the devils fruit?
If you told me that you could clone me, creating a new little Harry that would be kept under tight observation and preserved to be completely healthy, I would say "do it". You could take little Harry and store him on a research farm in Idaho where his life would be that of purity and perfection, then, when my liver rots from the tequila and whiskey, we harvest it and give it to me. It would be a perfect match. Or, when I am 80 and my bones hurt and my eyes don't work, transplant my brain into little Harry's young body. Then clone him again. Every 20 years I could reclone and live forever so I could see space travel.
Unethical? Maybe. It is hard for me to grasp the idea that there is the technology to create tissues and organs from pig fetuses or placentas or unused cellular organism to help save lives, cure disease, undo retardation, make people walk, and reverse aging, but we don't do it because of religion. Cloning me for organ farming might not be right because an actual person is made, but if you can clone my organs, do it.
Does your God hate you? Does your God not care about what you life becomes? Does your God want you to suffer? If your God created cows and brussel sprouts for food, water to drink, and man to better his life, then what man discovers should not be in question. If it is then God hates you.
Two monkeys with tiny sensors in their brains have learned to control a
mechanical arm with just their thoughts, using it to reach for and grab food and
even to adjust for the size and stickiness of morsels when necessary, scientists
reported on Wednesday.
Over the years I have thought a lot about this kind of sci-fi medical engineering. After shows and movies like the Six Million Dollar Man, Robocop, The Terminator, and Star Wars; I have always believed that, in my lifetime, I would see bionics and cloning to help further life expectancy and/or help people with disabilities. Scientists are constantly making improvements in our everyday lives, from prosthetics to medicine, and people are living longer, more productive lives.
Then you have your religious zealots out there ruining all the fun. Let's not take into account that I am a non-religious man, that is another post all together (collect some plutonium to generate 1.21 gigawatts of electricity to power a flux capacitor in a Delorean traveling 88 mph and set the date to next year to read it). These people worship a God that they believe wants us all to do well, however, most religions frown upon things like cloning, contraception, or death penalties. For thousands of years, mankind has been making strides to lengthen life (burying people 6 feet under to prevent plague, using plants and stuff to make medicines to cure disease, banishing evil-doers in jail cells) and the life expectancy of man has increased dramatically. People 2000 years ago lived to about 25, now they live to between 80 and 110 because of all the collective knowledge of scientists and shaman that developed ways of living better.
As a man with management experience, I was very open to new ideas and suggestions to help make work a better place, be it a time saving method or a safer way to do something. I was open to try anything as long as it was not counter-productive, so when the idea passed muster and worked, we went with it. Why not make work better? Everyone looks for ways to make life better. Otherwise, there would not be coffee or Red Bull. Or Chocolate. Or cars. Or the Internet. So what I worry about is the ethical line that people will not cross because of what the Pope or Jerry Fallwell say. Life will be better if we only have sex for pro-creation? That homicidal maniac in prison that killed his wife and 5 children then ate them deserves to live? Seedless watermelons are the devils fruit?
If you told me that you could clone me, creating a new little Harry that would be kept under tight observation and preserved to be completely healthy, I would say "do it". You could take little Harry and store him on a research farm in Idaho where his life would be that of purity and perfection, then, when my liver rots from the tequila and whiskey, we harvest it and give it to me. It would be a perfect match. Or, when I am 80 and my bones hurt and my eyes don't work, transplant my brain into little Harry's young body. Then clone him again. Every 20 years I could reclone and live forever so I could see space travel.
Unethical? Maybe. It is hard for me to grasp the idea that there is the technology to create tissues and organs from pig fetuses or placentas or unused cellular organism to help save lives, cure disease, undo retardation, make people walk, and reverse aging, but we don't do it because of religion. Cloning me for organ farming might not be right because an actual person is made, but if you can clone my organs, do it.
Does your God hate you? Does your God not care about what you life becomes? Does your God want you to suffer? If your God created cows and brussel sprouts for food, water to drink, and man to better his life, then what man discovers should not be in question. If it is then God hates you.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Me gots to right
When I was in school, we took classes called English. It was a class full of exercises that involved reading books, writing essays, and learning vocabulary. I guess that they no longer offer this class.
Speaking with people is even worse. I spend most of my day obsessing about what people say and how they are saying it. Then, unfortunately, I begin hearing myself saying these things as if I am slowly slipping into this world of idiocy.
Have you seen the movie Idiocracy? It's very funny. That is how the world is going. Haven't seen the movie? Too bad. You should.
There was a scientific study done that concluded that humanity is slowly dividing into two separate classes. One is the beautiful "normal" people, and the other is a "elfish hillpeople". If you have ever spent time in Glen Burnie, you will see that Maryland is quickly headed for the hills. Listening to these people talk, they consitantly mispronounce words and make horrible grammatical errors and its driving me nuts:
Speaking with people is even worse. I spend most of my day obsessing about what people say and how they are saying it. Then, unfortunately, I begin hearing myself saying these things as if I am slowly slipping into this world of idiocy.
Have you seen the movie Idiocracy? It's very funny. That is how the world is going. Haven't seen the movie? Too bad. You should.
There was a scientific study done that concluded that humanity is slowly dividing into two separate classes. One is the beautiful "normal" people, and the other is a "elfish hillpeople". If you have ever spent time in Glen Burnie, you will see that Maryland is quickly headed for the hills. Listening to these people talk, they consitantly mispronounce words and make horrible grammatical errors and its driving me nuts:
- Pacific: meaning "Specific". Favorite use: "They are not specifically asking for a pacific one..."
- Clamamari: meaning "Calamari".
- Question: what you say before asking a question.
- Lieberry: meaning "Library", not a new type of fruit.
- In other words: A gentleman I speak with on a regular basis ends almost every sentence with this phrase. "I went to the bank, in other words. Got some cash out of the ATM, in other words".
- You know, You know what I'm sayin', Know what I mean: I watched a show about prisons on MSNBC and where there was a pause in a sentence, there was one of these phrases. I think I heard one of them 200 times in 3 minutes. It seems the more educated one is the less they care if the person they speak with understands what is being said. One guy I work with ends every sentence with "You know, you know".
You know, I know I am not perfect, you know what I'm saying. I may have made spelling mistake or grammatical errors in this post. I sometimes catching myself blending in and speaking a little hillbilly myself. What concerns me is that young children are learning to speak this way, compounded with text messaging and internet forums, they are becoming stupid. There, I said it. You know what I'm saying?
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