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Underground > Laboratory >

Fun in the Lab!

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00:49 / 23.04.02

>>inspired by lab thread over in policy (and youse should all be periodically visiting policy. shame on you if you don't<<

This is playtime in the greatest science lab in the universe. if you can dream it, we can build it. So...what do you want?

Me? just one simple request. i would like a hardware network in my head that can record video, stills, audio and even certain thoughts. i would be such a prolific writer if i had this to cheat with. of course, it's possible that someone could gain access to this and erase all my memories, or plant new ones. or some punk kids could beat the shit out of me, crack my skull open and pawn my hardware for cheap beer. and i'm sure i'd set off metal detectors...but what the hell!

00:59 / 23.04.02

I want a lightsaber, pure and simple.

01:10 / 23.04.02

A cure for aging.

tom-karika nukes it from orbit

07:29 / 23.04.02

A cure for a cure for aging (sorry).

15:38 / 23.04.02

Screw the lightsaber. After thinking I'd lost my wallet, I've decided I want a chip implanted in my arm that has all that silly identification stuff. You know, types of vehicles I can drive, name, ssn, all that.

19:29 / 23.04.02

wait a few years, it will happen. oh, but i'm not going to go off on a "Big Brother" conspiracy thing here. the head stuff is cool, but i'll be goddamned if anyone's gonna put an ID chip in my irish ass!

20:35 / 23.04.02

I think what'd be really cool is something like a datajack from Shadowrun, only a bit more complex. Then there'd be no need for all this big boxy equipment. Instead of a keyboard, the equipment would keep track of your finger movements, moving your eyes would scroll a page up and down, and you could do some simple voice commands.

20:48 / 23.04.02

A cure for a cure for aging (sorry).

What's your problem with a cure for aging?

20:48 / 23.04.02

We're getting there. Got a chance to see the Wearable Computing solution that Cisco created for the Bath shipworks in ME. The "PC" portion was about 5 or 6 inches long and two inches wide, I think. Wasn't to heavy, fit well on a belt. Display could be either glasses or a small panel (about the size of a notepad). Keyboard fit on your lower arm (between elbow and wrist) can't remember if the track ball was incorporated with the keyboard, or if it was seperate. Looked very cool. Saw a video of firefighters using the technology (accessing building layouts, etc.)

Combine this with the advancements in VR tech, and you can imagen some fun things in the not to distant future.

20:53 / 23.04.02

What's your problem with a cure for aging?

Personally, it strikes me as kind of self indulgent. Why exactly would I want to live forever?

Not to mention a cure for ageing before space colonozation is established, or at least feasable, is just dumb.

20:58 / 23.04.02

there's also the infra-red keyboard. a small projector ummm projects a keyboard on any flat surface and reads your finger movements. voice response technology also gets better and better.

21:01 / 23.04.02

Yeah, I noticed the infrared keyboard thing. Has there been a price set on that?

I really wish I could get my hands on an old nintendo powerglove. There's some plans out there that lets you modify it and use it in place of your mouse.

21:09 / 23.04.02

i wasn't aware that the infra-red keyboard was on the market yet... try ebay for the power glove (that would be cool in such a 1980's teen movie computer geek kind of way...)

21:14 / 23.04.02

I've checked e-bay. They run about 10 or 20 dollars mint. My problem is I don't have a credit card, which means I can't register for an account, so I can't bid on anything which pisses me off.

02:59 / 24.04.02

Personally, it strikes me as kind of self indulgent.

Oh, I see. A cure for aging is self indulgent, but lightsabers, headjacks, wearable computers, and VR are all selfless requests made for the benefit of mankind and the world.

Why exactly would I want to live forever?

I can't tell you why you should want to live forever, any more than I can tell you why you should listen to classical music instead of awful pop music. This is a subjective decision, and if you don't want to live forever I doubt that anyone will force it on you.

Not to mention a cure for ageing before space colonozation is established, or at least feasable, is just dumb.

I assume that you're talking about overpopulation here. Personally, I don't think this will be an issue. In the developed world, we've pretty much hit zero population growth. For example this http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/popclock shows that our growth is basically due to immigration. However, even if it does become a problem, we can always restrict birth rates for those who choose to have a longer lifespan.

tom-karika nukes it from orbit

07:21 / 24.04.02

It's not living forever thats the problem. It's the not dying. Don't you want to know what happens next? I don't think I could kill myself, not easily, so if we got rid of aging, I'd be left with no way out.

10:25 / 24.04.02

I wasn't aware that this thread wasn't supposed to be self-indulgent.

an anti-aging cure sounds interesting, but wouldn't it be better to take care of diseases like cancer and aids first? I mean sure, you've got this long lifespan and all that, but it seems to me that you'd still have a chance of becoming terminally ill and how fun would it be to lie in a bed hooked up to machines for 300 years?

11:46 / 24.04.02

I'll tell you what I want, and I've wanted it for ages: the sleep machines used by Judge Dredd and his colleagues. A full eight hours in ten minutes! I would be so fucking productive if I had one of those babies

12:20 / 24.04.02

i would still sleep for full 8 hours....meaning that i'd really get 384 hours of sleep a night! (umm, i think). how's thatfor self indulgence?!

12:58 / 24.04.02

Personally, I don't think this will be an issue. In the developed world, we've pretty much hit zero population growth. For example this http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/popclock shows that our growth is basically due to immigration.

Um, may be I'm missing something but, people being born and no one dieing strikes me as a fairly large population explosion. We might be at a zero population growth now, but that's cause people are dieing.

And by self-indulgent, I meant that there are possibly serious ramifications to be dealt with, when it comes to something like a cure for aging. The biggest problem to having a light saber is not cutting someone's head off.

13:28 / 24.04.02

A teleporter. I enjoy trips sometimes, but sometimes I want to roll out of bed a 5 to 12 and be at work on time.

Zoom.

The Sinister Haiku Bureau

13:47 / 24.04.02

Lentil: It's been done, pretty recently though. See here:
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-041502sleep.story

14:38 / 24.04.02

'Snot quite what I was after though, I don't want to skip sleep, just condense it. One thing I liked about the link was the fact that they describe one of the symptoms of "shift work syndrome" as an "all- round blah feeling".

14:45 / 24.04.02

A dream recorder, yeah its been done in sci-fi but I want one! Wake up in the morning and watch all your dreams and think of all the money I could make becoming a Lucid dreaming director - you want to see George Bush dance naked into a bottomless pit !

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

15:07 / 24.04.02

teleporter would be cool, but only if it worked like the carrier in the authority, cause i want to see the bleed and have a place outside of the current reality to hang out

03:21 / 28.04.02

Don't you want to know what happens next?

Not considering that I may stop existing after it happens.

I don't think I could kill myself, not easily, so if we got rid of aging, I'd be left with no way out.

I am not advocating an enforced cure for aging, in the same way that I am not advocating that everyone be forced to take the DPT vaccine. If you want to die a certain way, say by aging or diptheria, I am perfectly alright with that, and I think your wishes should be respected. I only want people to have the option of whether or not to age.

...wouldn't it be better to take care of diseases like cancer and aids first...

There is a decent amount of evidence that aging and cancer are linked. Therefore, taking care of one could help for preventing the other. As far as AIDS goes, I care less about it considering that I possess the ability to pretty much avoid HIV, but do not possess the ability to avoid aging. If you want to talk about diseases with a worldwide impact, Malaria is more of an issue than AIDS. However, I'm not likely to get Malaria, which means that its not high on my list of priorities.

...how fun would it be to lie in a bed hooked up to machines for 300 years?

This would be a rather unlikely event for a person who possessed a constant biological age of twenty to thirty.

Um, may be I'm missing something but, people being born and no one dieing strikes me as a fairly large population explosion.

I expect that a lot of people would continue dying, mostly as a result of choice and accidents. Of course, as I stated before, birth rates might have to be regulated. I listed the popclock example to show that people are able to adjust their birthrates to our current life expectancy (which is much improved compared to a hundred years ago), and may continue to adapt to the improved life expectancies of the future.

And by self-indulgent, I meant that there are possibly serious ramifications to be dealt with, when it comes to something like a cure for aging.

A cure for aging also has the potential to solve certain problems. I would say that people will act more intelligently when they have to live with the consequences of their actions for a few hundred years.

The biggest problem to having a light saber is not cutting someone's head off.

Decapitation wasn't a minor issue last time I checked.

12:38 / 28.04.02

To deal with the population problems, you could tweak the fertility of those who decided to take the cure for aging. You know, like the elves from pretty much every fantasy novel ever written.

solid~liquid onwards

13:35 / 28.04.02

i personally cant wait untill im old and senile, shouting at kids shitting on my doorstep, plus nowadays old peopple get those cool little electric car thinggies...imagine what an old person will have when im old (50 to 70 years) *imagination kicks in*

my dream is to have a totally self sufficient house in the middle of some really old woods or an overgrown estate... i could do it, i just need lots of money first :'(

solid~liquid onwards

13:36 / 28.04.02

oh yes, and i need a clone of kylie

in fact make that several

19:38 / 28.04.02

I would say that people will act more intelligently when they have to live with the consequences of their actions for a few hundred years.

I think you'd be surprised. I can think of a number of people (your average young conservative in this area [DC]) that would take the cure, but still live their life as if the world revolved around them.

I just see this as a subject that's got a lot more variables then we can see.

Not to mention, would you really want someone like Jesse Helms or Struhm Thurman (sp?) to get a hold of an again cure? Death is about the only hope liberals have for these people getting out of office.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

23:25 / 28.04.02

"Hello? Clonez-2-Go? I want half-a-dozen of your Kylie De-Luxe model, with the optional senility fetish and the denture-locating device. What? I already placed the same order half-an-hour ago? You sure? Oh, okay. Send'em anyhow, just give one of them a notebook or something...."

Laydeez'n'gents, I present humanity's last ever invention.

01:00 / 29.04.02

maybe we could start a thread about the ethics of clone fucking.

Krister Kjellin

13:15 / 29.04.02

No ones even mentioned a flight suit (the suit is optional -- a Legion of Superheroes flight ring would be okey as well).

Just imagine feeling the world in full 3-d, the way you do when you're swimming under water.

Okey, so it's simple and obvious. So what?

14:16 / 29.04.02

getting closer, that one.
birdMan International

Our Lady of The Two Towers

14:37 / 29.04.02

I'd quite like control over my genetic structure, so I could go out on the razz for a night, get off my face, have a great time, then when it comes to time to go to work or something, just flush all the toxins from my body and be ready to go. And then change my body to how I want just by thinking about it. Reaching for a book on the top shelf, I'd just evolve into something with much longer arms, but which is probably quite incapable of drinking coffee... (sorry)

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