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A NICE theory, but would you want to live there?

A NICE theory, but would you want to live there?

Postby Stanley Anderson » April 17th, 2007, 6:32 pm

Here is a link to an article from the Science Daily site:

The last section of the article is the part I'm interested in as far as discussion here on this forum, but read the whole article of course for context.

Thoughts? (my immediate thoughts were of the striking similarity to some of the conversations at Belbury and by the NICE people.)

--Stanley
…on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a fair green country under a swift sunrise.
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Postby JRosemary » April 17th, 2007, 7:20 pm

Immortality--in this case, somehow preserving our minds and consciousness indefinitely in this world--sounds good on the surface. But such possibilities always make me smile wryly as I remember reading Interview With A Vampire for the first time. Anne Rice made a convincing argument that such immortality would be sheer, bloody hell.
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Postby Steve » April 18th, 2007, 6:08 am

Psalm 139:17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!
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All seriousness aside

Postby Steve » April 18th, 2007, 6:19 am

My impression reading the article is I don't think its conclusions necessarily follow from its logic.

It may well be in physical evolutionary terms individuals don't matter, only the reproduction of genes. But he hasn't proved that there is an evolutionary advantage to higher mortality of the individuals after they reproduce, all he could prove is that there isn't necessarily an evolutionary advantage for long lived individuals after reproduction. And there is a statistical fact that goes against this idea. Men are able to reproduce for longer in their lives than women can. So if there was a big evolutionary advantage to maintaining life up through reproduction and then ending it after reproduction ceased, you would expect women to have shorter lifespans than men. But this isn't the case, the opposite is the case.
Psalm 139:17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!
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Postby Stanley Anderson » April 18th, 2007, 3:25 pm

…on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a fair green country under a swift sunrise.
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Postby Jservic2 » April 20th, 2007, 7:32 am

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Postby rusmeister » April 21st, 2007, 4:37 pm

"Eh? Two views? There are a dozen views about everything until you know the answer. Then there's never more than one."
Bill "The Blizzard" Hingest - That Hideous Strength
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