On Wed, 10 Nov 2004 18:22:11 -0800 (PST), David Brin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- Warren Ockrassa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote some > cool kiln speculations. I already did deal with > religious conservative opposition to kilning and with > sexual variations. > > The alien idea though is one that I was intending to > deal With. I mean, how could you tell? > > Pregnancy. Interesting.
It's been a while since I read KP, (and I don't have it handy to recheck things), so excuse me if I get some things wrong, but here's some thoughts/questions: - Likely no sport or activity would be too extreme... "0.5% chance of survival down that slope? Sure, lets go for it!" Thrill seekers today already push limits to find new thrills. In a world where (ditto) death has no consequence, thrill seekers will need to go to unprecedented extremes. Also, with dittos removal the possibility of serious injury or death to the main person, might that result in people becoming extremely risk-adverse with their real body? (ie: only dittos do serious mountain/rock climbing any more) Or might thrill seekers take on a macho culture where you're a wimp if you don't use your real body? - It could be much more easy for humans to survive and exploit resources in places that they could not easily do so now, by creating custom bodies that could survive. For example, ultra deep-sea underwater mining/drilling or perhaps lunar or asteroid mining. Also, exploring the solar system might be a lot easier if it's possible to pack a "sleeper" ship with "frozen" dittos. - You mentioned religious conservative opposition - but about those who would see the soul as proof of at least some level of religion? (Sorry, I can't remember if that was already dealt with in KP). The word "soul" is loaded with religious connotations and baggage, but IIRC in KP it seems mostly to be thought of as a secular thing. Do religions make a distinction between their concept of an immortal but undetectable religious soul and a secular, detectable non-religious one? I see two reactions: "how dare they claim they discovered and can manipulate the human soul!" and "at last - concrete proof of our religion!". I also would have though that a corporation would shy away from using a word like "soul" in the first place becase of the religious connotations, and instead push a term that captured a similar secular meaning without the baggage, thus perhaps avoiding some controversy. Perhaps "anima", or "psyche", or maybe something from the Zen world perspective. - What if technology was found that enabled analog "recording" a soul (and later restoration to a ditto or the main) to some % level of fidelity? That seems like near-immortality. What if certain parts of a soul could be digitized, (manipulated!), and stored/restored - say just (certain) memories or knowledge? This could enable things like instant learning (languages, expert skills), or give virtual experiences a la Arnold's promised Mars adventure in The Running Man. - Lastly, a question: Would the bad guy's experiment have actually worked and propelled him to near-godhood if everything had gone off as planned, mass-deaths and all? Cheers, -Bryon _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
