I heard an anecdote about a university lecturer remarking that a double negative can result in a positive statement, but a double positive can never result in a negative statement, to which someone in the back of the room replied, "Yeah, yeah."
We will be immortal by the year 2050, according to a scientist quoted in an article I read at breakfast this morning. Or our children will. By then, PlayStations will be roughly as smart as people, and we will be able to upload our minds, and live forever, except for virii, spam attacks and denial-of-service hijinks; I suppose the BSOD will take on new significance, too.
Eternal life in a PlayStation, cool.
How, exactly? And what do you mean by eternal? And what happens to me? And what do I mean by me?
It's 2050 and we have Mig-in-a-box now, writing, you know, the usual stuff. I saw a deer, no I saw a dozen deer. In the fog. It was so cool. Or, cello is hard. Or, hold your mouth real close to the microphone and say, "Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy." Say, "Alessandro Marcello, Antonio Vivaldi, Accademia Bizantina, Tiziano Bagnati." So for everyone else, I'm immortal. But how do I see that? Ask the box, and it says, "yeah, sure, I'm immortal pal, WTF, ROTFL, heh." So who's rotting in the ground, then? And how does he see all of this?
Posted at June 8, 2005 08:50 AM"Consider that two wrongs do not make a right, but three lefts do."
also, one word: TRON.
Posted by: anne at June 8, 2005 10:00 AMbut now I think of something from a book I didn't even like, The Electric Koolaid Acid Test, that the Merry Pranksters altered a sign near their house to read: No Left Turn Unstoned.
We were already immortal--'we', not 'i' or 'you.' Good question: why would 'i' want to be immortal, what do 'i' want when 'i' want to just go on being 'i' ... looked at just right, every desires has an aspect of the ridiculous, but that one is definitely one of the semi-finalists for Miss Most Ridiculous Desire in the Universe.
Posted by: jilbur at June 8, 2005 04:21 PM*I heard an anecdote about a university lecturer remarking that a double negative can result in a positive statement, but a double positive can never result in a negative statement, to which someone in the back of the room replied, "Yeah, yeah."*
That supposedly happened at Columbia University, and the student was this guy who went on to become a scholar himself. Of course, I read that in a profile of said guy in the alumni magazine, so I wonder if it's really true or just wishful thinking.
Posted by: wildsoda at June 8, 2005 06:04 PMAhhh. The idea of immortality in one form or other has been a theme of fiction and science fiction in particular for some time. I believe the scenario you mention was well covered in the old TV show Max Headroom.
I wonder about physical immortality also. I'm dead sure that it will be invented just as I am 90 years old and I will be doomed to be a cranky old man for centuries. At least until the aliens attack and blow up our sun.
Posted by: Paul at June 8, 2005 07:53 PMi never wanted to be immortal in the first place!
Posted by: j-a at June 9, 2005 06:20 AM