We are like gods

Well, now isn't THIS just a case of the Eggy calling the Forestrock sweet?

Hold on guys--I thought viruses were considered to not be alive. So if humans are viruses then are we really ali. . .makes you wonder. . .

. . .I don't know what it makes me wonder. I just felt like typing something.

this reminds me of a movie

Parasite Eve.

(right? the one about the mitochondria taking on human form and planning on eradicating the human race for their own benefit and evolution?)

Heh, I love you too, Eggy? You're right though, it is pretty cool that we can even have this conversation. We "common" people can do things everyday that all the world's wealth and power 200 years ago couldn't afford.

I'm sure you guys have probably read, Carl Sagan's Pale Bue Dot soliloquy. It sums up my thoughts on humans and their accomplishments.

Cybin, wasn't that a play station game in the Resident Evil series?

Viruses can be viewed as either living or non-living, depending on what state they are in. When not infecting a host cell, they do not exhibit signs of life. However, when they DO attach and infect a cell, they act VERY alive. This is why biologists have argued fervently about whether or not they are living things. The correct answer to "Is a virus alive?" is "Sometimes".

As for us being Gods.... I wouldn't quite put us there yet.....and at the rate we are going, it may very well come crashing down around us soon. While the page is alarmist in nature, take a gander at http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/PageOne.html and tell me you can argue with what is coming.....it may be 50 years from now, but will you still be here in 50 years? I probably will be....and that's a frightening future to face. And my son most definitely will be here.

We are NOT gods. Gods can create something from nothing. We can only take what is already here, and reshape it, or destroy it.

But your point is well taken....we have advanced technologically to the point where the peoples of historical times would consider us great wizards for the feats we can accomplish. And we have advanced VERY fast over the last 50 years. But in doing so, much of our vaunted technology has outpaced our ability to comprehend it (on the whole). I have a thirst for knowlege strictly for it's own sake in science, so I have learned much more than most, and understand how a great deal of our modern technology really works. And we've become VERY dependant on those comforts we don't understand.....How many here could hunt/farm food for themselves if they had to? Hunting is a lot more than just shooting an animal. Skinning, Slaughtering, and Butchering the meat all take skill and knowlege. Could they build a stable shelter for themselves? Ride a horse? Sterilize water for drinking? Preserve foods? Heck, I know people who don't know how to cook beyond 'put it in the microwave for 2 minutes'......

Think about it.

How well would YOU fare if civilization disappeared tomorrow?


(I do so love pondering imponderables and though exercises. Don't get me started on Superstring theory, though..... )

Uhm, is that the same as Schroedinger's cat?

That is one of the most depressing articles I have ever read. I don't mean that as an insult, or anything, just that... shees, I guess I've never really thought about the inevatibility of running out of such a resource....

My plan is to start stockpiling concentrated orange juice. If I start today, I should be able to have a whole warehouse of it by the time the "Crash" comes. I'll be the Orange King! I'll have an army of loyal gaurds and subjects who will help protect and distrubute the OJ. I'll have a scepter made from the empty tubes. And for a time this utopian society will flourish and develop technologies like mass anti-matter production and machines that can ignore the laws of thermal dynamics. Of course this will all come crashing I run out of concentrate and my steadfast desciples throw me into the nearest volcano. doh!

Which brings up the question, is Schroedinger's Cat communicable? If so, will normal cold medicine work or will you have to use catsup?