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A Personal Statement from Iain Banks

littlebrown.co.uk

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Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks

#131

Post by Nursie »

SoftwareMaven wrote: post #123
bwhite wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting rich and improving the economy is almost certainly the best thing you can do to combat disease, pollution, poverty, etc.

Except diseases like cancer are almost exclusive to "western" society. The more affluent we become, the more cancer and other non-contagious diseases we get. We are killing ourselves and it starts with the stuff our mothers eat, is made worse by what we eat, and is topped of by the environment we live in.

Err.... no.

It's more prevalent in some societies because we live longer and we don't any longer die of preventable infections.

Our air is cleaner than it's been for a long time. Decent nutrition has never been cheaper or more widely available. Life expectancy has never been longer.

We are not killing ourselves. OK so some are by overeating and doing no exercise, but in general you're talking nonsense.

Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks

#132

Post by mikeash »

nawitus wrote: post #109
nnq wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't! If someone could freeze at least a small insect brain after it "learned something", unfreeze it and prove that it retained what it learned, I might have at least a grain of faith in this. Even getting an insect ganglia out on a feeder plate with electrodes, training it to respond in a way to a certain sequence of input electrical impulses and proving that after thawing and reanimation it still preserves t…

So your argument is that until it's "proven" that we can cryopreserve and then restore brains, the probability of success is zero? If you agree that the probability is non-zero, then you agree with the cryopreservation advocates. In addition, if you agree that it's non-zero, you must agree that it's better than doing nothing (which clearly has a zero chance of revival). Cryopreservation advocates do not claim that th…

"Cryopreservation advocates do not claim that the process is proven to be work, they claim that the chance may be small, but it's non-zero."

They implicitly claim that not only is the chance non-zero, but that it's large enough to be worth the opportunity cost of actually freezing people. I agree that a non-zero chance seems obvious, but this claim definitely does not, and needs a lot more substantiation than there actually is.

Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks

#133

Post by mikeash »

VLM wrote: post #55
jvzr wrote: post #32

FWIW, I've ordered the first three novels of the Culture series. I didn't know of Iain Banks until today and his terrible news. I just wish he'll live the most playful last months of his life with his soon-to-be wife. We cannot wish for anything less.

Does anyone know his financial situation, too many authors (two examples, RAW and PKD) seem to end up dying while having to eat dogfood if that, and unable to pay the rent and other bills. Not that its fun to die if you're rich, just that he shouldn't have to eat dogfood in addition to the stress of the disease. If he's in bad financial shape I could easily buy a couple more of his novels in kindle form (not that I n…

Last I heard he is quite well off. He's a relatively obscure/niche author in the US, but enjoys broad popularity in the UK.

Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks

#134

Post by SoftwareMaven »

melling wrote: post #86

Very sad, of course. He's only 59. I've gotta admit that I'm also a bit angry. The war on cancer is 40 years old and we are still so far away from solving the problem(s). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Cancer The first commercial microprocessor was released in the same year: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_4004 Solutions? Ideas? The list in my mind is starting to get painfully long: Randy Pausch (47), Steve J…

For yourself, the best things you can do today is massively reduce your sugar (and high-fructose corn syrup, which is nearly identical) intake[1] and increase excercise[2]. Reducing sugar will cause you to increase other macro and micro nutrients that are healthier (which may help) and most likely cause you to loose weight if you need to (which will help).

Unfortunately, until public policy on diet (which is set by the people responsible for selling more corn and sugar) changes, it's not going to get better.

1. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130201100149.ht...

2. http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/prevention/phys...

Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks

#135

Post by primitur »

gizmo wrote: post #70
polyfractal wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm...except that cryopreservation is still, as of this point, a complete crock of shit. Trying to find a necromancer would be more productive. As an ex-biologist, I can assure you that horrible cellular damage is being committed to these "preserved" people. I used to flash-freeze all sorts of cells, ranging from bacteria (e. coli) to animal (IMCD3 and MDCK kidney) to human (Human Embryonic Kidney, Primary cortical a…

The cell damage inflicted by the cryo process is readily acknowledged by its proponents. They argue that the neurological damage is not so large that the original brain can't be reconstructed either by scanning it while still frozen or by repairing it with nano-bots. Much like data from a wiped hard drive can still be recovered by digital forensics. As for the problem of outer layers freezing faster than inner layers…

Science Fiction != Science!

(Yet.)

Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks

#137

Post by arc_of_descent »

stefantalpalaru wrote: post #27

Terrible news. If you're not familiar with Iain's work you owe it to yourself to drop everything and start reading the Culture series[1] right now. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series

I just ordered the first three books. Will start off with Player of Games. Sad news indeed.

Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks

#138

Post by at-fates-hands »

swombat wrote: post #50
Jach wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the world was just a little bit different, this would be upvoted instead of downvoted. It'd be nice if someone could convince Iain to be cryopreserved, and give him that small but non-zero chance of being revived and one day seeing a civilization better than his Culture.

I would donate money to a "Cryo-freeze Iain Banks" fund - though I'm sure he has more than enough funds himself.

I'm pretty sure he would be against cryo:

"Firmly restating his atheism, Banks spoke of his belief that death is an important 'part of the totality of life', to be treated realistically, not feared."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Banks

Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks

#139

Post by [deleted] »

polyfractal wrote: post #57
reasonattlm wrote: post #36

Another person that might be cryopreserved [1], but probably won't be, much like the 150,000 who passed in the last day or so [2]. Many sorts of terminal case can actually lead to better quality cryopreservation under present legal restrictions [3], in comparison to the drawn out and uncertain end of aging, precisely because they are more rapid and certain in time. (Or might be plastinated [4] in the alternate histor…

Hmm...except that cryopreservation is still, as of this point, a complete crock of shit. Trying to find a necromancer would be more productive. As an ex-biologist, I can assure you that horrible cellular damage is being committed to these "preserved" people. I used to flash-freeze all sorts of cells, ranging from bacteria (e. coli) to animal (IMCD3 and MDCK kidney) to human (Human Embryonic Kidney, Primary cortical a…

[deleted]

Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks

#140

Post by Nursie »

stiff wrote: post #91
reasonattlm wrote: post #36

Another person that might be cryopreserved [1], but probably won't be, much like the 150,000 who passed in the last day or so [2]. Many sorts of terminal case can actually lead to better quality cryopreservation under present legal restrictions [3], in comparison to the drawn out and uncertain end of aging, precisely because they are more rapid and certain in time. (Or might be plastinated [4] in the alternate histor…

Whole galaxies die, what to say about us poor humans, please do not offend basic physics with this "other option" thing, if there is a single certain thing in the whole universe it is the certainty of change and, as a consequence, death. We might extend lifespan greatly, it is a different thing altogether, it is worth discussing, it might even be a good thing, I don't know, but clinging to a dream of immortality will…

As someone that doesn't, ever, want to die... the thought that there is no such thing as forever gives me some comfort.

Everything is temporal, we're merely surfing the entropy gradient for a while.

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