Sirrobert

So in flight to my vacation a few weeks ago, I saw this movie. Not to relevent. Than near the end (spoiler I gues?) they revealed the bad guy's 'super weapon' A satelite that 'drops' a metal rod from a satelite down to earth, where it impacts and causes an explosion 'similar to a nuke' This clip shows the details as named in the movie.Now skipping over the obvious part that you can't drop something form a satelite in orbit and have it fall down to earth just like you would drop a ball. What would it take to get such a rod to fall down to earth in that way, and what would happen to it? In the movie they say it touches down 8 times faster than a bullet, would that cause such an impact? Third question: How long would you be able to keep such a satelite locked on a target? In the movie they just get into position, and than nothing happends to them until they launch

I thought I already mentioned that, but let's go again: We are not talking about a SPECIFIC accident, we are talking about AN accident. Autorepair can get broken. It happends all the time, autorepair broken is the reason cancer can exist. Your cells have autorepair functions. They are not perfect, and sometimes a mutation happends in those functions. Hell you even have multiple of them and they still can't always stop every problem. You accuse us of speculation, but you are just as much speculating that immortality would come with a perfect auto repair function

You can never turn a chance to 0. We are not talking about a specific accident here, we are talking about *an* accident that leaves some crippling damage. That can be anything, from an astroid strike, to you falling into a hole and reliving that movie 127 hours. Eventually, something will happen that leaves you crippled

I have a follow up question about those points: How would one put an object in them? Would it be like rendevous, in that you adjust your orbit to intercept the point, and than adjust your speed to match? Second question: With 'unstable point' do you mean they drift? I can't imagine them stopping to exist at some point, as the bodys are there, so I asume it's drifting. But I have a hard time understanding how exactly they would drift

That's not exactly what I meant with philosofical I meant it more in the way of 'there is no way we can definitifly awnser that with arguments' But you are right, I'm pritty sure I would not

When you say 'with mechjeb', do you use the docking autopilot, or smart ASS? It sounds like you use the autopilot, which for docking is horribly inefficent, and does indeed not care about rotation. Just use smart ASS to line up the docking ports, and than translate to them by hand

Alternativly for your lander, if you use multiple engines you could (if it doens't botch up the symetry) turn of a few. For example a lander with 4 engines on each side could turn off 2 and still be in ballance. You'd have to turn them off before you start landing ofcourse, or have 2 set to an action group

Manual docking worked better than smart ASS asissted docking?

I don't think you can compare a hyptotethical treatment that MIGHT exist to the flu. IF it will be done with virusses, it will be adenoviruses (if I remember that correct, could have mixed up virus types). They are often used to transfer genes to organisms. If we are to activate telemerase (the protein that 'repairs' telemeres) in the celltypes that don't have it, we'd need to do the mutations required with fetusses, or even just fertilized eggs We'll never be able to remove free radicals, as metabolism itself produces most of the radicals you find in the body. As for telemeres, it will probably be easier to reactivate telemorease in the celltypes that don't have it. Immortal cancer strands in the lab have this. Introduce the right mutations to a freshly fertilized egg, and voila If I remember correct, telemeres are hardly the main problem with getting old though. Simple damage from use in the organs themselves, mutations introduced during growth, diseases leaving scarrs, those things are much worse

It would be alot easier to keep a young person young than to keep someone who's already old alive for that long

Ofcourse, it's all speculation, no way to test it. And it's not a big deal, but I do think the extrapolation of those boring days would be a horrible life Meh, we'll probably never figure it out anyway

Your right, to small a difference. But still, even if you actively track all those developments, it's not going to be able to fill the biggest part of your time, which will be mundane things. Holidays (you've seen 400 of them) would go by in a flash. Talking to people, unles it's some moviestar you have always loved (not likely, your childhood stars are long dead) you are not going to remember the details. Unless you are on the forefront of those developments (which might be possible. You have plenty of time to devote to it afterall), it's not going to keep you busy long enough to pull you out of the routine. You could go thrill seeking to make life a little less boring, but after jumping out of a plane a thousand times, I doubt you'll get that big an adenalin rush off it anymore

It's amazing how many people don't read This topic is about the OBSERVER EFFECT, not about the double slit

It's also relative time. If you lived for 500 years, than 1 year is meaningless to you. I think you'd get bored pritty soon

You might wanna rethink that. Courtesy of Cracked.com, here's what happends: So you'll be forever lonely, by the time you get to know someone he aged and died

I always strap septratrons to the upper stages that I expect would be stuck in atmosphere. Than point prograde and stage, firing the sepratrons. If you find they cause a spin, you didn't put them on symetricly

Just rightclick the engines and turn them off, and do whatever you want with it. Or just don't use the autopilot? Ever tryd that?

I think he's extrapolating the 'observing changes things' into joke teritory

If I remember correctly, ravens also recognize themselves in a mirror. Or atleast some bird And thanks for pointing this out, I had completly forgotten about the mirror thing Again, obviously. We don't speak theyr language Those clicks dolphins make translate to some pritty complex messages

Hell, if we ever find alien higher life forms, we don't even know if they breathe. Could be space ships filled with dolphins (space dolphins) in tanks

Well obviously, both halves still control the same body. I thought I already explained how each little part of the brain controls a different part of you Yup I have. It's post nr. 63 in this thread

Who's not thinking out of the box now? Have you ever asked a dolphin what it thinks of the meaning of life? And who's saying we will never develop true AI? Did you check with your time machine? EDIT: Also what brabbit says, I forgot about that part

Right, I understand what you mean now. I don't think that would be the case no. Each brain area controls it's own part. Like in your wiki page, the part that controls speech is located at a very specific point. Severing that area from the rest of the brain would dissable the rest of the brain from speech. Now there is an exception, if you suffer brain damage at an early age and some areas are damaged, the surviving part of your brain can, over time, take over the lost functions. So continuing on this exception, if you were to remove (say) half a developing brain from it's skull and place it in a new body where it can continue to function and grow, and somehow ensure both brains and bodys survive, than they might live on and each go theyr own way. Severely cripped though.

That's exactly what I'm suggesting yes, I'm glad you understand In the same way a computer makes decisions by compiling yes and no questions, so do neurons generate a charge by compiling incoming charges. The billions of neurons all cooperating, is what makes every decision in your body. If you learn actions, your brain builds new connections. If you learn ideas, theorys, new languages, your brain links more of those 'unconscious material cells' tougether in a VERY specific network

You do know the brain hemispheres perform completely different functions right?