More about how it can affect the Voyager probes would be cool to know. Push it out into that beyond we don’t know how it will react to yet, or screw with its readings if its getting there?
Keep on it, scientists. Don’t rest until we’re beaming each other all over the place. And it had better come with samples of all the Star Trek captains saying “Energize.”
And in the meantime, build the damned space elevator already.
The idea of your teleported self being a borderline braindead fleshy automaton still doesn’t disturb you?
Giant viruses are cool. I think scientist have to widen their spectrum of what life is, because viruses have a clear objective and have evolved a myriad of ways to carry them out efficiently. Even if they’re inert most of the time, there are many organisms like tardigrades that essentially shut down all metabolic functions until the conditions suit their needs. Conversely, there are a few bacteria species that can only reproduce with the help of a host, and yet are considered alive.
If they can get past the hump of replicating the information necessary to keep your personality and memories intact, the idea that the original body is disincorporated and the new body is essentially an organic replicant doesn’t really bother me. It’s an arbitrary distinction considering that the cells in our bodies are constantly being shed and refreshed anyway. You’ve already turned in your old self for a new self multiple times already–you just didn’t notice because of how gradual it was. Nothing we’re carrying around is really “us” in the sense that we’ve always had it and always will.
Again, when you get right down to it, kind of an arbitrary distinction. We can make all the rules we want, but in the end they’re just a system we use to simplify a complex universe down to our level of understanding. Perhaps instead of expanding our definition, we should consider “alive” and “not alive” as poles of a spectrum rather than discrete categories.
Actually it does matter because even though your body is in a cyclical molecular renewal, it’s kept in homeostasis because the rate is relatively slow. Secondly, our consciousness and memories are retained via complex and continuous firings of electrical impulses. So if one was cloned via teleportation it’s highly unlikely that you would still be you. Your brains autonomic systems might still work, but your mind = tabula rasa
easy as hell to setup also. the hardest thing is finding a container large enough to completely submerge whatever you want. if you have that, then it’s just finding out the correct ratios of borax to water. once enough borax has dissolved in the water, you drop your paint in and the paint will remain on the surface of the water. dunk your piece in the mixture and then you’re done.
The second article seems to suggest that tribal violence among hunter-gatherers was a survival tool to keep the population density down–and that its ultimate failure is what led to the switchover to agriculture. What a choice to make: either a healthy, leisurely, idyllic hunter-gather lifestyle under constant threat of being murdered, or removing the threat of murder in favor of shittier health and much lengthier, harder, less rewarding work as a serf under the boot of some prosperous overlord.
The dental stuff was known to me for a while and it’s still pretty fascinating just how much starches destroy our enamel. If you ever look at people from tribal African cultures, they have the whitest teeth I’ve ever seen, even more impressive than movie star teeth.
There’s a whole book written about it: Nutrition and Physical Degeneration: A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets and Their Effects by Weston A. Price http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html
Fixed for you.
People were stronger back then. People also had more developed dental arches and facial bones whose teeth were straight and very rarely had dental carries or had the need of orthodontic treatment. I have found the same results from two different accounts. blah blah blah blah
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