Sir Terry Pratchett has died • Hacker News Board

Re: Sir Terry Pratchett has died

#201

Post by etiam » Thu, Mar 12, 2015, 10:42 PM UTC

eli_gottlieb wrote: post #183

etiam wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently that's pissing people off. Too bad for those who feel offended. I'll stand by my statement. Pratchett has had a profoundly positive impact on the world including my life in particular. I wanted to see him cured and flourishing to a ripe, very old age. If I could have brought about even a moonshot possibility of having that happen eventually I would. But I failed. I was too late. Some others needn't have be…

He died of a form of Alzheimer's disease. Even if cryonics worked, which it doesn't, that would still be unrecoverable.

It's not clear to me if the dementia was a direct cause of death here.

Some losses that could not be truly recovered, yes, depending on the extent of cell death.

But much of the symptoms in Alzheimer's disease seems to be due to loss of function in the systems that, roughly speaking, drive the management of memories rather than those that store the memories themselves (hence, for example, possibility for relief of the symptoms in early stages by increasing cholinergic transmission), and neural memory is generally distributed, with loss of neurons or synapses translating into degradation of fidelity or acuity of the memory, rather than downright destruction. It could well be possible in principle to restore resolution to them from what remains of the representation and some assumptions, though it's certainly beyond what we can do today.

So in other words, I claim that some of what seems lost may simply be inaccessible, and some of what really is lost is neither completely nor irrecoverably so.

Re: Sir Terry Pratchett has died

#202

Post by DanBC » Thu, Mar 12, 2015, 10:48 PM UTC

Loughla wrote: post #134

zeidrich wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think we have lost anything. I think we gained something incredible over a short time. Nobody lives forever. What Terry Pratchett has given to us will live longer than any person. I'm not sad that he has died. Everyone who is born dies, and there's an infinite number of potential people who are never born. What is important is that we live, and while we live some of us do extraordinary things. I'm reading Gua…

While beautiful, I need to know - how do you get a 2 year old to sit still to listen to "Guards! Guards!"? (or any book without ridiculous pictures, for that matter)

Try starting with books like "Press here" or "the book with no pictures"

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Press-Here-Herve-Tullet/dp/081187954...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0141361786

Re: Sir Terry Pratchett has died

#203

Post by walshemj » Thu, Mar 12, 2015, 10:48 PM UTC

colin_jack wrote: post #195

lucraft wrote: post #61

Words to live by: "There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who, when presented with a glass that is exactly half full, say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs , however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was f…

That quote didn't seem like him at all, in fact it seemed to be showing a mindset completely at odds with his books, quick google indicates you maybe missed a key part: "And at the other end of the bar the world is full of the other type of person, who has a broken glass, or a glass that has been carelessly knocked over (usually by one of the people calling for a larger glass) or who had no glass at all, because he w…

Which is more like the average techie/engineer ;-(

Re: Sir Terry Pratchett has died

#204

Post by krupan » Thu, Mar 12, 2015, 10:54 PM UTC

One of my favorite Pratchett books is Nation. It's actually not a Discworld book, but very much in the same vein. My wife and I listened to the audiobook (and then later both read it) and loved it. The Milk that Happens, when Daphne figures it all out, is the only scene in a book that has ever made me simultaneously laugh and cry (not from laughter) at the same time. Every time I read it. Hilarious and heartwarming.

Re: Sir Terry Pratchett has died

#205

Post by notahacker » Thu, Mar 12, 2015, 10:55 PM UTC

aaronbasssett wrote: post #42

Hs anyone checked for a "I ATEN'T DED" sign?

Terry Pratchett's standard author blurb begins: "Terry Pratchett was born in 1948 and is still not dead"

Re: Sir Terry Pratchett has died

#206

Post by jws » Thu, Mar 12, 2015, 11:20 PM UTC

dpeck wrote: post #116

jmduke wrote: post #33

"No one is actually dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away." ~ TP, Reaper Man An absolute force. I've got a bookshelf devoted to Pratchett, and it's only going to grow. RIP.

I always liked the following sentences to that one too. "No-one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away - until the clock they wound up winds down, until the wine they made has finished its ferment, until the crop they planted is harvested. The span of someone's life is only the core of their actual existence."

I suppose we'll have to count my daughter as a ripple. Exposed at a young age, she grew up a Granny Weatherwax fan. I type this now from her cottage in some impoverished mountains where she is the local midwife. So Mr. Pratchett has another 50 years of women without healthcare getting access to a reasonable birthing experience to ripple out.

Re: Sir Terry Pratchett has died

#207

Post by thinkpad20 » Thu, Mar 12, 2015, 11:39 PM UTC

mkstowegnv wrote: post #155

dredmorbius wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, etymologically. "Good bye" is a contraction of "God be with ye (you)", which isn't quite so abrupt. "Au revoir", literally, "until (we) see again". Similar to "Hasta manyana" (until later), or "bis später" (same), Spanish and German, or "zài jiàn" ("see (you) again", Mandarin Chinese) . Farewells (literally, "fare thee well", be well) in many languages share similar attributes.

My favorite is Japanese sayoonara: "if it must be that way"

Sayounara is more used for a very long, possibly indefinite goodbye, which accounts for the more wistful translation (similar to "farewell"). The more commonly used form is some form of mata, which means 'again', more in line with the parent's examples.

Re: Sir Terry Pratchett has died

#208

Post by Immortalin » Fri, Mar 13, 2015, 12:17 AM UTC

mcphilip wrote: post #94

The first celebrity death that hit me hard. I've read all fourty Discworld novels, some of them 4 or 5 times. His books taught me to approach the world with a twinkle in my eye and a smile quick to come out -- a good change from the cynicism of my teens. So many memories... he wrote amazing characters. Dorfl, a Golem who figured out how to program himself (via writing his own scrolls to feed into his head). His firep…

I am really optimistic about the current rate of technological advancement, maybe in a couple decades Death will be conquered and Man will be immortal. That said, may he rest in peace, and may Discworld live on!

Re: Sir Terry Pratchett has died

#209

Post by Joeboy » Fri, Mar 13, 2015, 12:20 AM UTC

mcphilip wrote: post #94

The first celebrity death that hit me hard. I've read all fourty Discworld novels, some of them 4 or 5 times. His books taught me to approach the world with a twinkle in my eye and a smile quick to come out -- a good change from the cynicism of my teens. So many memories... he wrote amazing characters. Dorfl, a Golem who figured out how to program himself (via writing his own scrolls to feed into his head). His firep…

> THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS JUST US

I don't think that's a Pratchett original. It was a Ruthless Rap Assassins track before Reaper Man, and I suspect it wasn't original then either. If anybody knows where it originates I would like to know.

Re: Sir Terry Pratchett has died

#210

Post by thret » Fri, Mar 13, 2015, 12:29 AM UTC

poem_for_your_sprog on Reddit produced this sublime poem:

http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ysvzb/terry_pratchet...

The sun goes down upon the Ankh,

And slowly, softly fades -

Across the Drum; the Royal Bank;

The River-Gate; the Shades.

A stony circle's closed to elves;

And here, where lines are blurred,

Between the stacks of books on shelves,

A quiet 'Ook' is heard.

A copper steps the city-street

On paths he's often passed;

The final march; the final beat;

The time to rest at last.

He gives his badge a final shine,

And sadly shakes his head -

While Granny lies beneath a sign

That says: 'I aten't dead.'

The Luggage shifts in sleep and dreams;

It's now. The time's at hand.

For where it's always night, it seems,

A timer clears of sand.

And so it is that Death arrives,

When all the time has gone...

But dreams endure, and hope survives,

And Discworld carries on.