-Caveat Lector- -----Original Message----- From: Robert Tatman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: SKEPTICS>> Re: [[SC] Skeptic News Thursday #1] >"Ric Carter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> : Would you like to be immortalized as a ceramic miniature? What would >> they call YOU? Should some of your DNA be stashed in the ceramic, so >> researchers/dictators/aliens could reconstruct you in the future? Would >> that be a good way to travel across vast expanses of time and space? >> >Now *there* is something to conjure with! If we can't create an FTL drive, >and we can't use wormholes to go from *here* to *there*, then rather than >rely on generation ships, we could use a kind of Von Neumann machine -- a >robot which would carry human DNA protected in ceramic units, which it >would use when it arrives wherever to produce human beings... I think >there was a novel along those lines about 20 years ago (something by Fred >Pohl?), except it used frozen sperm and eggs or zygotes. That'd be a way to do it. And 10 years ago Ed Regis promulgated some ideas in GREAT MAMBO CHICKEN AND THE TRANSHUMAN CONDITION, like to encode space-hardened spores, or radioactive dust motes or some such, with a mechanism that'd recreate our consciousness wherever they landed. So you imprint your consciousness onto the spores/dust and shoot'em out, and if they enter a salutary atmosphere they build something that may not exactly be hominid, it'd have to be adapted to the local conditions, but it'd have your thoughts. A nice, easy, low-energy way to occupy the universe, eh? "Hey, I'll meet you on the far side of the local supercluster for a beer, what say?" Of course, this'd let totalitarian/sectarian assholes try to take over the universe too, sending their little Nazi/XianID/Reptilioid thought-streams to the far reaches of reality. I foresee bitter ideological spore-wars, divergent evolution of mutually incompatible mental structures, locked in combat BEYOND mere "life and death", trying to imprint their paradigms across the cosmos. Yow. Maybe flinging encapsulated DNA would be less divisive, more con- tollable - but controlled by who? What's the next conspiracy? DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
