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Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

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Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#241

Post by magicalhippo »

jfengel wrote: post #216
magicalhippo wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A family member needed a kidney transplant in the early 60s. This was in the UK where the first successful transplant was in 1959, so just a few years earlier. Thanks to a kid on a motorcycle she got a kidney just in the nick of time. She was in her early 20s and was told she could expect a few years. Because of that she never had kids. Her donated kidney served her well and she lived a quite normal life. She passed…

Maybe what we need is more motorcycles.

They do help a lot[1], especially without helmets[2].

[1]: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/motorcycle-rallies-and-o...

[2]: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33334475/

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#242

Post by proactivesvcs »

latexr wrote: post #178
Waterluvian wrote: post #2

“Xenotransplantation” is pretty #%^*ing metal. It’s pretty wild being alive these days. Lots of big stuff the species is struggling to adapt to and figure out how to exist with. But also… we got the tablets from Star Trek. And now we have the ship’s computer from Star Trek, and the early makings of the holodeck. And we’re making pigmen senior citizens who would otherwise be dead. It’s quite something to stop and thin…

> But also… we got the tablets from Star Trek. They regularly used multiple tablets at a time, stacked like papers. What we have is presumably superior from a technological standpoint. Except their tablets weren’t filled with time-wasting features designed to keep you addicted and distracted. > And now we have the ship’s computer from Star Trek No, we definitely do not. If every time they spoke to the ship’s computer…

> And you’re ignoring we’re also in the stages of getting the surveillance from 1984 and the social class divide from Brave New World. Those are not good tradeoffs.

Not disagreeing with you at all, but the surveillance on Starfleet vessels and facilities is almost complete and all-encompassing. Real-time location, bodily attributes, eavesdropping, access to all communication and computer data, personal and otherwise, I don't think there's anything that is private in their world! Remember that time The Doctor started a two-way video call with (I think) B'Elanna while she was in the shower? That being said, Starfleet is a paramilitary organisation, perhaps it's less awful in civilian life when one isn't wearing a Comm badge.

I wonder if you and I would consider this degree of invasiveness an acceptable compromise with a life almost completely without illness, any form of capitalism and the opportunity to pursue pretty much any life path we wish, in a society which is largely at peace with itself.

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#243

Post by proactivesvcs »

cogogo wrote: post #186
latexr wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But also… we got the tablets from Star Trek. They regularly used multiple tablets at a time, stacked like papers. What we have is presumably superior from a technological standpoint. Except their tablets weren’t filled with time-wasting features designed to keep you addicted and distracted. > And now we have the ship’s computer from Star Trek No, we definitely do not. If every time they spoke to the ship’s computer…

It wasn’t a tablet but there was a TNG episode about a time wasting game that nearly took over the minds of the entire crew.

They foresaw tiktok and their ilk way in advance.

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#244

Post by ants_everywhere »

CaptainOfCoit wrote: post #236
ants_everywhere wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People keep forgetting that the surveillance of 1984 was just the surveillance of socialist countries in the 1940s.

Not "just", the inspiration came from many angles: Stalinist USSR, Nazi Germany, Spanish repression of POUM, Wartime Britain (where the shape of the TVs come from) and multiple other dystopian novels. People seems to forget that Orwell was a anti-Stalinist socialist.

I don't know too much about POUM, but my understanding was that in Homage to Catalonia he's concerned with the Spanish Communist Party's suppression of POUM. So I think that is consistent with what I said above.

I haven't forgotten that Orwell was an anti-Stalinist socialist. But there weren't any anti-Stalinist socialist states at the time.

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#245

Post by cogman10 »

quasarj wrote: post #101
CommenterPerson wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My thoughts with you wish you the best. Curious why you aren't already on a waiting list for a transplant?

The rules are very strict, primarily with respect to weight. That is, was (and still am) fat, and that's a no-no. I've lost 120 pounds so far, with at least 10 more to go before I will finally be (possibly) approved!

And this is why this is so exciting. The rules are so strict because kidney supply is extremely limited and they want to maximize the life of the kidney as much as possible.

Having a ready supply of pig kidneys would be fantastic. All the sudden it wouldn't matter as much that you are a bad candidate, you might end up simply cycling through pig kidneys more frequently.

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#246

Post by paulryanrogers »

jfengel wrote: post #216
magicalhippo wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A family member needed a kidney transplant in the early 60s. This was in the UK where the first successful transplant was in 1959, so just a few years earlier. Thanks to a kid on a motorcycle she got a kidney just in the nick of time. She was in her early 20s and was told she could expect a few years. Because of that she never had kids. Her donated kidney served her well and she lived a quite normal life. She passed…

Maybe what we need is more motorcycles.

Maybe organ donation should be an opt out process.

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#248

Post by kartoffelsaft »

goku12 wrote: post #190
Arch-TK wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the person you replied to was objecting to the fact that the wording makes it sound like we're using humans as vessels for extending the life of pig organs outside of pigs. Not necessarily that 6 months is a short period of time.

That's an interesting way to interpret it! I see what you mean, but I still can't see myself interpreting that headline in that way. Does it really give that vibe?

Seeing as the subject of the sentence is the pig organ, it's saying the organ is the one doing the surviving and only tangentionally mentions the person surviving by calling then living. I (and presumably we) only come to a different interperetation because I have the context that the latter is the important bit. If I give some other similarly structured sentences but without context, how would you interperet these?

- This is the fastest Alice had driven since Bob broke the speed limit.

- This is the oldest tree still standing in the burnt forest.

- This is the most stable chemical additive to our long-lasting concrete.

Without context, to me these examples sound primarily about Alice going fast, the tree being old, and the chemical being stable. But if those appeared in articles about traffic law, natural disasters, and sidewalk design, then these phrasings might be less ambiguous if flipped (as another commentor pointed out).

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#249

Post by mulmen »

latexr wrote: post #178
Waterluvian wrote: post #2

“Xenotransplantation” is pretty #%^*ing metal. It’s pretty wild being alive these days. Lots of big stuff the species is struggling to adapt to and figure out how to exist with. But also… we got the tablets from Star Trek. And now we have the ship’s computer from Star Trek, and the early makings of the holodeck. And we’re making pigmen senior citizens who would otherwise be dead. It’s quite something to stop and thin…

> But also… we got the tablets from Star Trek. They regularly used multiple tablets at a time, stacked like papers. What we have is presumably superior from a technological standpoint. Except their tablets weren’t filled with time-wasting features designed to keep you addicted and distracted. > And now we have the ship’s computer from Star Trek No, we definitely do not. If every time they spoke to the ship’s computer…

> No, we definitely do not. If every time they spoke to the ship’s computer it made up answers at the rate LLMs do, they would have either stopped using it or would all be dead.

“The computer is malfunctioning” has been a plot device in Star Trek since the beginning.

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#250

Post by paulryanrogers »

tpxl wrote: post #130
nenenejej wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can be sort of both. What you need is more housing built at affordable prices. But dont oberbuild. In that situation housing should act as store of value to avoid inflation loss, but not something that you get rich buy borrowing and buying up dozens. You need socialism to do this efficiently. There isn't room for a profiteer. You need the government to invest (in the for people sense) in allocating land and buildi…

> housing should act as store of value Why? Housing should act as a means to live decently. If my house depreciated to 0 once I'd built it, I wouldn't mind at all. > You need socialism to do this efficiently No you don't, you need to heavily tax empty and secondary residences and the issue solves itself in capitalism just fine.

> heavily tax ... in capitalism

Many of us are taught that heavy taxation is socialism, or at least incompatible with capitalism.

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