Immortality

[cptjohnstone]

I have had 3 friends die about the same age their fathers died

[gnadfly]

What happened to Sisyphus?

Immortality isn't what its cracked up to be. 500 years from now few people will know who Peyton Manning was.

[Fast Gunn]

If you want to quibble on the exact terminology to use, I could say it might be more correctly called "Survival of the Lucky" because it is pure luck that often determines who lives and who dies, but the larger point here is that there we are surrounded by hidden danger in this world and it takes skill (and luck!) to live a long and prosperous life.

To the individual who worries about Survival of the Fittest or most adaptive mechanism may be short-circuited because of social welfare, I would say that as a civilized society, we do well to provide a safety net.

You would do well to remember that we all have needed help at one time or another.

. . . It is already one hell of a jungle out there!

Originally Posted by JD Barleycorn

Darwin was always afraid that his theory would be used incorrectly. He was speaking of Darwinism as a microcasm of evolution and not this thing called "social darwinism". The term "survival of the fittest" is also inaccurate. It is more accurately survival of the most adaptive. An organism can be the strongest, largest, fastest thing out there but all of those functions can work against survival when being smaller is better, and freezing in place is preferrable to moving fast and giving away your position.

[I B Hankering]

Originally Posted by Fast Gunn

If you want to quibble on the exact terminology to use, I could say it might be more correctly called "Survival of the Lucky" because it is pure luck that often determines who lives and who dies, but the larger point here is that there we are surrounded by hidden danger in this world and it takes skill (and luck!) to live a long and prosperous life.

JD's point is, for example, "mammals" were "pre-adapted" to survive whatever event brought about the extinction of the dinosaur. During the time of dinosaurs, mammals were not "fit" enough to compete head-to-head with the dinosaurs, but mammals were pre-adapted to survive in an environment free of dinosaurs. Hence, it's survival of the pre-adapted and not survival of the fittest.

[Fast Gunn]

So mammals were quite lucky to be "per-adapted" and live in an environment free of dinosaurs!

. . . However, the Neanderthals were not quite so fortunate with the Cro-Magnons as their rowdy neighbors!

[I B Hankering]

Originally Posted by Fast Gunn

So mammals were quite lucky to be "per-adapted" and live in an environment free of dinosaurs!

. . . However, the Neanderthals were not quite so fortunate with the Cro-Magnons as their rowdy neighbors!

You are lucky your mother was Neanderthal:


Any human whose ancestral group developed outside Africa has a little Neanderthal in them – between 1 and 4 per cent of their genome, Pääbo's team estimates. In other words, humans and Neanderthals had sex and had hybrid offspring.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18869-neanderthal-genome-reveals-interbreeding-with-humans.html?full=true

[joe bloe]

Originally Posted by JD Barleycorn

Darwin was always afraid that his theory would be used incorrectly. He was speaking of Darwinism as a microcasm of evolution and not this thing called "social darwinism". The term "survival of the fittest" is also inaccurate. It is more accurately survival of the most adaptive. An organism can be the strongest, largest, fastest thing out there but all of those functions can work against survival when being smaller is better, and freezing in place is preferrable to moving fast and giving away your position.

Historically reality; George Bernard Shaw, the English writer, was a member of the Fabian Society. He went public in saying that every couple of years a person should be forced to justify their existence. If they fail then they will be painlessly put down like an animal. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBZsTf6oLfY He was also a supporter of the concept of the Holocaust if not the execution.
Now we have some ethicists proposing after birth abortions. They theorize that small babies (not sick babies) have no personality yet and are just a blob of flesh. http://www.slate.com/articles/health...anticide_.html

Be careful of the extreme left. They have a love affair with death.

Obama refused to support the so called born alive act when he was in the state legislature in Illinois. He believed that doctors should be allowed to kill newborn babies that survived late term abortions; that's murder.

I think atheism is what opens the door to infanticide and euthanasia. If we don't believe there is a god, then man is not made in his image; humans are just animals without a soul. Why not end life when it suits our purpose. Taking god out of the equation is similar to abandoning the Constitution, it takes away limits and boundaries which is what so called "progressives" want.

You made a reference to George Bernard Shaw; he called people that could not justify their life "useless eaters". I read recently that Orwell's book "1984" was named after the one hundredth aniversary of the Fabian Society.

[Fast Gunn]

I believe the subject was immortality.

So how did we wander into Obama bashing and degraded the conversation down to yo mama jokes?

. . . Some of you guys show faint signs of promise, but then your clutch starts to slip!

[I B Hankering]

Originally Posted by Fast Gunn

I believe the subject was immortality.

So how did we wander into Obama bashing and degraded the conversation down to yo mama jokes?

. . . Some of you guys show faint signs of promise, but then your clutch starts to slip!

It wasn't a 'joke'. If you have European ancestry, your DNA includes Neanderthal genetic material.

[CuteOldGuy]

FastGoon finally posted a funny thread, and you guys take it all so seriously. Woody Allen also said, "I'm not sure if there is an afterlife, but I am bringing a change of underwear."

[Fast Gunn]

Well, maybe it's just your old eyes growing as dim as your 15 watt mind, you old coot, but, it's Fast Gunn!

. . . Fast fucking Gunn!

[CuteOldGuy]

That's what I said. FastGoon. What's the problem, sonny boy?

[IIFFOFRDB]

Originally Posted by I B Hankering

You are lucky your mother was Neanderthal:


Any human whose ancestral group developed outside Africa has a little Neanderthal in them – between 1 and 4 per cent of their genome, Pääbo's team estimates. In other words, humans and Neanderthals had sex and had hybrid offspring.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...html?full=true

LOL. It ain't dieing we are talking about Fast Cumm, It's living....

[CuteOldGuy]

Actually, Zechariah Sitchin says that humans were a slave race genetically engineered as a hybrid between the Annunaki of Niburu, and the Neanderthal of Earth. Interesting concept. You should read his book, The Twelfth Planet. It's a fascinating read whether you agree with him or not.

[I B Hankering]

Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy

Actually, Zechariah Sitchin says that humans were a slave race genetically engineered as a hybrid between the Annunaki of Niburu, and the Neanderthal of Earth. Interesting concept. You should read his book, The Twelfth Planet. It's a fascinating read whether you agree with him or not.

On the other hand, Douglas Adams has a different explanation. The teleporter has meanwhile sent Arthur and Ford to the Golgafrinchan Ark Fleet Ship B, a ship of fools who have careers in the service sector which is purposefully marooned on prehistoric Earth by the more intellectual Golgafrinchans seeking to rid themselves of those useless dregs.

Arthur and Ford realize that the bumbling travelers are the real ancestors of modern humans, not the Neanderthals originally inhabiting the planet. Arthur attempts to determine the “Question to the Ultimate Answer of Life, the Universe and Everything” by reaching into a Scrabble bag made from Ford's towel and pulling out letters randomly, hoping Deep Thought's computational matrix in Earth would have rubbed off on his subconscious. The letters spell "What do you get when you multiply six by nine" before running out, although the Neanderthals manage to spell "forty-two" with the tiles, implying that it is they, rather than the Golgafrinchans, who were intended to be part of Earth's computer matrix. After some brief contemplation, Ford and Arthur realize that this is, in fact, a detrimental "cock-up," and that the Earth will never produce the proper “Question”, thus destroying all hope of ever finding out what it is.