Subject:
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Re: Bicentennial Man and Immortality (was Re: Who James Isn't (was:Re: New Castle Sucks (so far...)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Fri, 31 Dec 1999 15:13:29 GMT
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Reply-To:
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LPIENIAZEK@saynotospamNOVERA.COM
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Viewed:
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873 times
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Point taken. You're absolutely right. Savor the moment, it comes so
RARELY in discourse with me... To be actually immortal means to not be
able to choose not to be immortal.
However, I think for this discussion we are using Immortality
(incorrectly, under the strict definition you point out) to stand in for
"immunity to most common causes of death" that is, "practical"
immortality as I said in the first or close to the first append, not
immunity from the effects of flying your spaceship directly into the
sun.
Further, if you'd been reading the thread carefully instead of just
looking for nitpick opportunities you'd already know that. Either that
or you're just trying to twit me back for the dubya/4 sins thing. :-)
So the question returns to, would you choose to live practically
forever, subject to certain bad hair day incidents like having the
empire state building land directly on your head point first and so
forth, if you could also choose to wilfully decide to end it, or would
you instead choose our lot now, immune to some things but not all,
killable in ordinary car/plane accidents (Andrew would not have been
done in by the crash that killed Diana, nor the one that killed JFK Jr),
and subject to an internal clock winding down and making the end of your
days rather miserable.
To me the choice, stated that way, is obvious. I'll repeat, I would not,
repeat NOT, want to be actually immortal. Andrew threw practical
immortality away for the wrong reasons. And that, to me, was what made
the movie great, despite all the issues that Dave S had with it (which
I, while agreeing with, tended to discount, of course you're going to
have to sketch some characters if you're going to span 200 years, and of
course some things are going to be repetitive, that's life after all,
and of course some massive breakthroughs were required, I felt
sufficient backstory was given for that, his scientist pal's place
expanded rather a bit, wouldn't you say?... in 2.25 hours).
None of the critics David cited actually got the point either.
--
Larry Pieniazek larryp@novera.com http://my.voyager.net/lar
- - - Web Application Integration! http://www.novera.com
fund Lugnet(tm): http://www.ebates.com/ ref: lar, 1/2 $$ to lugnet.
NOTE: Soon to be lpieniazek@tsisoft.com :-)
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Message has 1 Reply:
Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: New Castle Sucks (so far...)
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| (...) Well, I'm not Larry(1), but I use the web interface, so I can answer this. When you post a message, there are 4 fields you can enter data in. From the top right: Newsgroups: Followup-To (optional): Subject: (and 1 untitled box, which is the (...) (25 years ago, 28-Dec-99, to lugnet.dear-lego, lugnet.admin.general)
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