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Living, in Limbo

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Re: Living, in Limbo

#21

Post by simplify »

maxerickson wrote: post #19
simplify wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Traditional medicine is an official term: http://www.who.int/medicines/areas/traditional/definitions/e... Vaccines are interesting, since they don't directly solve the problem, but aid your body in helping itself. I concede antibiotics and joint reconstruction. However, we've only begun to scratch the surface of what's possible. As a society, we shouldn't limit ourselves to only what is taught in a medical degree.

No, your comment is pretty clearly about modern medicine. Traditional medicine is a little more rooted in tradition (from your link): http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/66783/1/WHO_EDM_TRM... Things like herbal therapies and acupuncture and so on.

I stand corrected. Thank you.

Re: Living, in Limbo

#22

Post by girvo »

sndean wrote: post #16
simplify wrote: post #11

> Lesson is: take your medicine. It may hurt, yet the alternative will hurt more. There is something I've recently realized. Hospitals are optimized to receive patients, control the situation, prevent pain & death, and then hope for the best. In other words, traditional medicine doesn't actually heal you . It only controls the situation, and trusts that your body will heal itself. This was a strange realization to ma…

> There's currently a stigma of anything that isn't a traditional drug / pill... Just using penicillin as an example: Imagine you have an incurable infection and I told you that there's this mysterious blue mold that, when crushed up and consumed, will cure you. That sounds a lot like alternative medicine, but when you extract the active component and put it in a certain delivery system (i.e., a pill/capsule/tablet)…

You're completely correct, but we take that further in modern medicine. We synthesize, adjust and target particular drugs, even though they might have originally stemmed from "natural" sources (as if some molecules are natural and other aren't...) so that it is more effective for particular use-cases. Treating penicillin as traditional medicine is being disingenuous, considering traditional medicine also "prescribes" keratin from rhino horns as useful...

My point is that generalising both traditional medicine and "western" modern medicine misses the mark. Treat everything on balance, specific to the medicine in question, not the class it came from, in my opinion.

Re: Living, in Limbo

#23

Post by ci5er »

Memento Mori.

I want to simply declare that the iMatix state machine generator (Libero) and cross-platform library(ies) (SMT/SFL) saved my project/company from certain destruction in 1996. And I never had the opportunity to thank you/him/them for that.

I'm a C guy, so admittedly old-fashioned, but I still use that FSM generator language more than twice/year. FSMs rock (I came from circuits) and this is the best business-language-to-compiled-software-description thing I have ever met.

Thank you.

Re: Living, in Limbo

#24

Post by Retra »

simplify wrote: post #20
Retra wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your use of "we" is overly broad for the points you are trying to make. I see no reason to believe the mindset that you imagine everyone to have is one that they actually have. It looks to be merely a good straw man soap box for you to preach from.

There is reason, though. For example, there is stigma against chiropractors [1]. Some nutritional supplements have been found a scam (rightly so), but the baby got thrown out with the bathwater [2]. Have you heard of sound therapy? Laser therapy? NLP? These are therapies you probably would never hear at a traditional doctor's office. [1] https://www.quora.com/Why-are-chiropractors-not-considered-r... [2] http://www.q…

All you're saying is that people don't trust these things. You've not demonstrated any rational reason that they should trust these things. So that stigma was rightfully earned, there was no baby in the bathwater, and therapies that informed doctors do not prescribe are therapies that are not known to work. And it is not your doctor's business to experiment on you when the outcome of a treatment is not reasonably certain.

Re: Living, in Limbo

#25

Post by ci5er »

james-watson wrote: post #8

Surprisingly strong opinions on world politics, without much evidence. I have the utmost sympathy for the plight of the chronically ill, but to decree a referendum result as "madness" is slightly egotistical. Perhaps those who are outraged by world events merely don't see the full picture? Perhaps their protective shells work too well, and they are insulated from the reality with which the masses must contend? Worth…

You disagree? Then burn it down point-by-point.

Otherwise, ... do you have anything substantive to offer beyond being rude?

Re: Living, in Limbo

#27

Post by seletskiy »

sdfin wrote: post #3

The proximity of death turns many people philosophical. I like reading what people think when looking at life from that perspective. I also enjoyed reading an article which was posted in HN some years ago, about the more common regrets of people on their deathbeds: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/feb/01/top-fiv...

Personally, that behaviour strikes me most.

Why, only on the edge of dying, people suddenly becomes "philosophical" and aware of their life and surroundings? Yet, it's obvious for all of us, that everyone now living will be dead after several decades. And no one seems to be really caring.

For whatever reason people express strong grief about dead or soon-to-be-dead in the manner, that they by themselves will never ever die, and it's so tragic and unexpected, that someone dies.

I just don't get it, how it happens, that we have world based on the cult of death and yet just everyone living in the illusion, that their existence will never end?

Re: Living, in Limbo

#28

Post by PieterH »

ci5er wrote: post #23

Memento Mori. I want to simply declare that the iMatix state machine generator (Libero) and cross-platform library(ies) (SMT/SFL) saved my project/company from certain destruction in 1996. And I never had the opportunity to thank you/him/them for that. I'm a C guy, so admittedly old-fashioned, but I still use that FSM generator language more than twice/year. FSMs rock (I came from circuits) and this is the best busin…

My pleasure. Libero and SFL were my first open source projects and I'm glad they were useful.

Re: Living, in Limbo

#29

Post by gph »

seletskiy wrote: post #27
sdfin wrote: post #3

The proximity of death turns many people philosophical. I like reading what people think when looking at life from that perspective. I also enjoyed reading an article which was posted in HN some years ago, about the more common regrets of people on their deathbeds: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/feb/01/top-fiv...

Personally, that behaviour strikes me most. Why, only on the edge of dying, people suddenly becomes "philosophical" and aware of their life and surroundings? Yet, it's obvious for all of us, that everyone now living will be dead after several decades. And no one seems to be really caring. For whatever reason people express strong grief about dead or soon-to-be-dead in the manner, that they by themselves will never ev…

I think at the end of life people reflect more on themselves and their own personal beliefs on how the world works.

But when we are living in the thick of it we live much more within each other and the greater whole of society because we have to. That's how we survive. We give up some of our brainspace to ideas and systems that are built communally, both on a local/familial level and on an entire social level.

In other words, we spend a lot of our time going with the flow and allowing our opinions to be shaped by those we trust or love. Or at least I think that's part of it.

Edit: And in that sense we see individuals dying, but as we live we don't necessarily ponder ourselves dying as an individual because much of what we do and care about on a day to day basis will outlive us e.g. our families and ideals.

Re: Living, in Limbo

#30

Post by ci5er »

PieterH wrote: post #28
ci5er wrote: post #23

Memento Mori. I want to simply declare that the iMatix state machine generator (Libero) and cross-platform library(ies) (SMT/SFL) saved my project/company from certain destruction in 1996. And I never had the opportunity to thank you/him/them for that. I'm a C guy, so admittedly old-fashioned, but I still use that FSM generator language more than twice/year. FSMs rock (I came from circuits) and this is the best busin…

My pleasure. Libero and SFL were my first open source projects and I'm glad they were useful.

Sir, this is more personal than I want to get in these forums, but when I related to my mother how much you had influenced me and (frankly) saved my life and I related your situation, she cried.

She said: "Can we do nothing?".

My theory about this universe is that: we can do nothing - but that we can best serve by making sure that these pioneers are never forgotten.

That may well be wrong. But, from a little point example, out here in the universe, I and my mother, appreciate you and love you and .... I don't know what to say.

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