If you don't have time to read this very long (albeit great) piece, the tldr version is: http://tldr.io/tldrs/50b64589bb2203997700060f
First use case for the tldr.io bookmarklet and someone typed one up.
Can a Jellyfish Unlock the Secret of Immortality?
31–40 of 45 posts
Re: Can a Jellyfish Unlock the Secret of Immortality?
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's because geeks like to back their answers with science (or almost science)
More like geeks like to prove they've already heard of the idea behind something. Dropping the name Betteridge or Dunning-Kruger or Godwin tells everyone "I heard about this phenomenon before it was cool and even know the name for it". Basically a geeky way to be a hipster.
I don't think so. Geeks like to win arguments and value facts above opinions. Scientific arguments are generally irrefutable. Of course the only scientific of the 3 is the Dunning-kruger effect.
Re: Can a Jellyfish Unlock the Secret of Immortality?
#33If you don't have time to read this very long (albeit great) piece, the tldr version is: http://tldr.io/tldrs/50b64589bb2203997700060f
Yes, thanks. As much as I love the flowery prose of the article, it was really far too long and this tl;dr was much appreciated.
Re: Can a Jellyfish Unlock the Secret of Immortality?
#34Also, this fascinates me http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeLa These are cells from a person, Henrietta Lacks, which can be grown in a dish and which keep dividing, for ever.
For the interested, I can highly recommend "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" - http://www.amazon.com/The-Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks/dp/1...
Re: Can a Jellyfish Unlock the Secret of Immortality?
#35"Increasing human longevity has no meaning, it is ecological nonsense." This is an interesting quote from the article given by another biologist Stefano Piraino, not the main focus of the article. If we did find the secret to immortality, it would be stupid to give it to everyone. In that case, who gets it?
Taking but a moment to take a peek down the sci-fi fantasy rabbit hole :
It might potentially be fair to administer "longevity" to those willing to colonize another planet. This would solve the problem of distribution while creating a bit of an incentive to expand human civilization (which might well be an eventual necessity).
Re: Can a Jellyfish Unlock the Secret of Immortality?
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Easy: if you want to be immortal you have to be sterilized too. And you can't adopt nor rent a womb. There, no overpopulation problem.
Ridiculous. There's a lot more space in this universe than just planet Earth.
Unfortunately, there is only a small push for extra-planetary life. The fat cats on top would much rather sit back, and wait for an extinction level event.
Also, if humans do go extra/multiplanetary, most religious apocalypse' are MOOT.
Re: Can a Jellyfish Unlock the Secret of Immortality?
#37[deleted]
Re: Can a Jellyfish Unlock the Secret of Immortality?
#38"Increasing human longevity has no meaning, it is ecological nonsense." This is an interesting quote from the article given by another biologist Stefano Piraino, not the main focus of the article. If we did find the secret to immortality, it would be stupid to give it to everyone. In that case, who gets it?
Easy: if you want to be immortal you have to be sterilized too. And you can't adopt nor rent a womb. There, no overpopulation problem.
Doesn't solve the problem. Suppose I have three kids, then get immortalized and sterilized. Each of my kids does the same...
Re: Can a Jellyfish Unlock the Secret of Immortality?
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
More like geeks like to prove they've already heard of the idea behind something. Dropping the name Betteridge or Dunning-Kruger or Godwin tells everyone "I heard about this phenomenon before it was cool and even know the name for it". Basically a geeky way to be a hipster.
I don't think so. Geeks like to win arguments and value facts above opinions. Scientific arguments are generally irrefutable. Of course the only scientific of the 3 is the Dunning-kruger effect.
> "Geeks like to win arguments and value facts above opinions."
I'd rephrase that to be "geeks like to win arguments and like to think they value facts above opinions"
In my experience geeks are no more objective than any other messed up human being on this planet. We just have a giant collective superiority complex about our own supposed factualness.
This is related to the many, many posts you see on HN where programmers belittle professionals of other fields as if they were economists, political scientists, biologists, medical doctors, rocket scientists, architects, structural engineers, or what have you.