Re: medicine tomorrow?

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In a message dated 9/15/2007 1:55:52 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, drumthis2001@... writes:

Shadowrun and Ghost In The Shell sound intesting. I'll have to read up on these. Childhood's end was another one of those ideas of course. I'll have to check these out before I move. I'm here at the library so, it won't be a problem.

Shadowrun is a roleplaying game that came out in the late 1980's and is now in its fourth edition. The premise is that it is in the future of our world and both magic and technology exist. Based on the Mayan calender (and interestingly several other sources from around the world and at different times) says that this world, the Fifth World, will end in 2012 and the Sixth World will begin. In SR, this is the return of magic.

So, the main elements of the game are magic, cybernetic technology and the Matrix. Cybernetics of all kinds are available, from those that simply replace damaged body parts to those that enhance performance. Sensory enhancements are very common, such as eyes with low light vision, etc. Also common is the ability to use the Matrix, which would be what the internet becomes. You can still surf it like we are now, but for real performance, you need a special computer that links the brain directly with the Matrix, so it is like actually being IN the machine. Never played one of those characters since that always seemed just too creepy. I normally play magical character for the flexibility (could be a fighter or healer or both for example) and they can do more interesting things.

As for the game, there is lots of material and can get very expensive to keep up with. However, there is trouble with the company, I haven't been following, but at any rate, several of the newer books haven't been released and they are far behind schedule. So, I wouldn't worry about getting into the game, there aren't many players around. However, there are novels based on the game. I had one in the works myself but someone else released one very close to it before I finished it and then the company was sold. Look for the older ones from written prior to fourth edition. Fourth does have a series, but it isn't very good.

Ghost in the Shell is anime based on a manga series. The main character is Major Motoko Kusanagi, a full cyborg and the others at Section 9, a security agency in Japan. It looks like the creator's intent was something like Childhood's End in that Motoko meets some kind of entity born in the net that wants to basically use her to reproduce. The second manga made very little sense, but followed that idea. At the end, it looked like the entity had infected someone who was obvserving the proceedings. There is a third to be released, but I have no intention of reading it. It looks to me like that entity is trying to take over humanity and is doing so in the guise of spiritual evolution of humanity. Its like Childhood's End and that novel disgusted me.

Anyway, many fans tend to ignore that like it didn't really happen. The Ghost in the Shell anime series, like the one airing again on Cartoon Network Saturday nights, follows the crew through different security operations, though there are a few more personal episodes. Its a lot like high level Shadowrun, minus the magic, in that they deal with all kinds of conspiracies within the government, arrest bad people and so forth. The show also looks into the nature of humanity and what it would be like to have so much cyber. Some interesting discussions and conclusions. Also a good bit of military action and some combat.

One word of warning. The original animated movie is based on the manga very closely. As such is does have a sex scene with the Major. I never watch that because she is with women. Interestingly, the creator of the story wasn't too keen on that either. However, he wanted to have Motoko in a sex scene, because sex sells, but he couldn't make himself draw a naked man. So, there was that. He "in world" rationale was that men and women aren't "compatible" on the net, if you take my meaning. Later, there are references to this in the series and perhaps later manga, but it isn't that clear. That said, Motoko did have boyfriends in the Manga and there and in the series makes references to looking for that special someone and there is a tension between her and the male lead, Batou. Still, I think she is looking for a certain boy that was the only other survivor of a plane accident that happened when she was a child. I think he's out there an is actually one of their main enemies. It will be interesting to see if that question is answered.

Also, the original movie, though it is a considered a classic, isn't as likable as the later series or even the later movie. I think part of it has to do with the Major's English voice actress. It is just something about her voice that isn't as pleasing as the actress from the series.

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L. Ron hubbard who was just as smart if not smarter was not a jew and wasn't a jew even in his dying day. L. Ron Hubbard created dianetics and everything in it makes sense. So, I hardly notice a connection between religion and Einstein's motivating force. environmental1st2003 <no_reply > wrote: "The justice of punishing the wrong but, religion has taught us not to want what's

best for ourselves but, to want what's best for our neighbors. We cannot know what's best for our neighbors because we are all individuals. Albert Einstein said that, "great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."Einstein believed in God though and was a Jew until his dying day...and presumably afterwards.TomAdministrator

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Shadowrun and Ghost In The Shell sound intesting. I'll have to read up on these. Childhood's end was another one of those ideas of course. I'll have to check these out before I move. I'm here at the library so, it won't be a problem. VISIGOTH@... wrote: In a message dated 9/9/2007 12:48:31 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, drumthis2001 writes: You know what I'm thinking? Arthur C. e's 3001 except the kids are turned into mindless bags of bones and they don't go to any other planet or matrix. Instead, with the genetically damaged brains they kill each other off or they become animals in factory farms to serve aliens or to be made a permanent lower class that has no idea. That is a concern of mine with brain/machine interface. Suppose the Matrix (meaning the network of internet, computers and human brains and not the movie) decided to optimize itself. The computers and internet would be fairly harmonious with only certain software variation. Humans would be the wildcard what with all of their diversity, changing moods, etc.. The Matrix could hypnotize the people connected to it, which indeed would probably be part of the connection process anyway to make the mind more receptive to the interface, and reprogram them to make them more efficient parts of

itself. The question then is just what happens to the people? Does it end up like the movie Matrix with people plugged into machines and living in a virtual world? Are the people still mobile but little more than biorobots serving the machines? Or, are the people "uploaded" as programs into the computer and the bodies discarded? All of these have been addressed in sci-fi, but the latter is probably the least familiar. The case of people being uploaded has been discussed in stories, a few movies and games. The issue boils down to one of continuance of soul. If you don't believe in the soul, that humans are simply a collection of experiences stored in a bio-computer, the brain, then uploading a "person" is not a problem. If you do believe in a soul, it is more complicated. What happens to the soul in such a transfer? Does it remain with the original body and die with it, or will it follow the copy, or

transplanted brain to a new body? Some old computer games decided that they were just copies, the uploads of memory and personality. Shadowrun seems to share that view, although there are a few ghosts in the machine, but those are extremely rare. Like Ghost in the Shell, it has the view that the soul will follow the brain, so that if the brain is moved to a new body, even a cybernetic one, the soul goes with it. Interestingly, Ghost in the Shell, does refer to problems with this. A person's "ghost," how they refer to souls, can get slightly disconnected from the body sometimes, such as if the body moves while sleeping. That can cause and out of body type experience. That is more or less my view as well. The soul would follow the brain, though being placed in a new body or a cybernetic one would be stressful and very strange. The best way to look at it would be Hatchetman's comments. In his diary, he said that at times the world would become

strange, a dissociative state where it was like he was watching the world on TV rather than actually being there. He mentioned that at times his body would seem like it wasn't his, the phantom limb phenomenon being common. Later, after he was taken over the line, it was much worse. See what's new at AOL.com and Make AOL Your Homepage.

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I have to agree about those yap yap dogs. I sincerely hate and would not mind killing yap yap dogs. Miniature daschounds are okay because they're not like that. Also, beagles are prone to seizures because they're gluten intolerant and possibly several other things. Beagles are naturally good dogs. I never have liked dogs much. Cheetahs have huge adrenal glands that's what helps them recover after their sprint. They indeed get killed by lions and sometimes leopards, and very often starve to death kind of like these alaskan Polar Bears not finding food because of global warming. An emaciated polar bear is a pitiful sight but, they look so stoic and that's also sad. English dairy cows were severely bred for the exact purpose of having large udders. The drinking of cows' milk is not natural to people and especially after it has been chemically altered to such severity as it is today. Goats' milk is much better but, less cost effective and less amounts per household meant

they had to find a cheaper alternative. Well, now you see their indifferent, dark-greed when you learn about cruzfeld-Jakob's disease. It's from cannibalizing restrained cows. Bears can kill lions. They had pitfights with several of the larger predators and the bear swapped the ferocious lions head off. The webpage also said that the huge Siberian tiger just laid down while it let the lions or whoever kill it although it could have swatted the lions or bears' heads off. Those siberian tigers are very territorial and they probaby just give up hope after they've been in a cage. VISIGOTH@... wrote: In a message dated 9/9/2007 1:18:12 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, no_reply writes: Some time about 10,000 years ago, Cheetahs had a massive die-off. And from those that remained stem all the cheetahs we have today. These cheetah are so genetically similar that if you take one from India (yes, there are Cheetah in India, and through Israel too), and compare its DNA to the DNA of a Cheetah from South Africa, the two would be genetically as similar as brother and sister. One feline disease could wipe them all out due to this lack of genetic diversity. Cheetah are dying out now and it has nothing to do

with disease. As you mentioned, the die off is largely to blame. The other cause is that they are super specialized. The cheetah is designed for one thing: speed. Its body is maxed out like a thoroughbred racehorse, and just like those horses, it balances on a fine line between survival and death. If it pushes itself to its limits, it is very likely to injure itself. The cheetah is also weak compared to lions, leopards and hyenas. Those animals can chase a cheetah off a kill and prevent it from scavenging. It is very likely that within a century or two, there will be no more cheetah in the wild because of these factors. This is an ancient pattern when the specialists, like the saber-toothed tiger, will lose out in the end in favor of generalists. Fertility and genetic diversity have less to do with survival sans humans than what we have done to them. Most milk cows need to be milked twice a day. Delaying the milking is painful because they

swell up with milk. I don't know if they would die from that, but it certainly would be unpleasant for them. Beef cattle, on the other hand, would not face that problem. Another factor for survival would be lack of males for breeding purposes and potential inbreeding issues if male calves grew up in a herd and began breeding within the herd itself. Most of the annoying toy breeds of dogs would probably die off. They wouldn't be able to compete for food, or probably would BE food for larger animals. Pigs tend to do quite well without people. Feral pigs sometimes are a problem down in Alabama. Pigs are also interesting in that they tend to have a variable genetic expression. That is, if a domestic pig escapes from a farm, it tends to revert to a wild state. In time, their hair becomes thicker and their teeth become more tusk-like and they often become larger than they would have been on the farm. They can also

interbreed with wild swine. Pigs wouldn't have many predators either, short of bear. See what's new at AOL.com and Make AOL Your Homepage.

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[Guest guest]

>

> L. Ron hubbard who was just as smart if not smarter was not a jew and

wasn't a jew even in his dying day. L. Ron Hubbard created dianetics

and everything in it makes sense. So, I hardly notice a connection

between religion and Einstein's motivating force.

>

I am not sure I understand this L. Ron Hub, craved power and founded

scientology. proving that with money and influence you can even create

religion. He was a mediocre sci-fi writer and a braggard. Smart is

not the same as intelligent. Intelligence does not guarentee a pure

heart. If it did we would have the ability to turn the world around,

far more easily.

Our basic rules of decency are gone

[Guest guest]

>

> L. Ron hubbard who was just as smart if not smarter was not a jew and

wasn't a jew even in his dying day. L. Ron Hubbard created dianetics

and everything in it makes sense. So, I hardly notice a connection

between religion and Einstein's motivating force.

>

I am not sure I understand this L. Ron Hub, craved power and founded

scientology. proving that with money and influence you can even create

religion. He was a mediocre sci-fi writer and a braggard. Smart is

not the same as intelligent. Intelligence does not guarentee a pure

heart. If it did we would have the ability to turn the world around,

far more easily.

Our basic rules of decency are gone

[Guest guest]

The fact remains that people do have problems with Engrams and there is a way albeit very time consuming to switch the mental games to something more interesting, to sort of reset some of the neural pathways. miminm <mnmimi@...> wrote: >> L. Ron hubbard who was just as smart if not smarter was not a jew and wasn't a jew even in his dying day. L. Ron Hubbard created dianetics and

everything in it makes sense. So, I hardly notice a connection between religion and Einstein's motivating force. > I am not sure I understand this L. Ron Hub, craved power and founded scientology. proving that with money and influence you can even create religion. He was a mediocre sci-fi writer and a braggard. Smart is not the same as intelligent. Intelligence does not guarentee a pure heart. If it did we would have the ability to turn the world around, far more easily. Our basic rules of decency are gone

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[Guest guest]

>

> The fact remains that people do have problems with Engrams and there

is a way albeit very time consuming to switch the mental games to

something more interesting, to sort of reset some of the neural

pathways.

>

I never did read dienetics, just knew about scientology and read his

sci-fi decology I do not reccomend it. got to 8 in the dec. So I

can't comment on the material just the man. Maybe he found out

something positive that would help people and he used it as a vehicle

to make money

>