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27th May 2007, 04:05 PM | #1 |
Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 200
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Robert Anton Wilson predicted "immortality" for himself in 1978.
http://www.futurehi.net/docs/RAW_Immortality.html
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Mark Plus, Advanced Atheist "There was a time before reason and science when my ancestors believed in all manner of nonsense." Narim on Stargate SG-1 |
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27th May 2007, 04:24 PM | #2 |
Chief Cdr Scientist, NWO Cloning Labs
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 2,054
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When I was actually working as a geneticist, back in the early '90's, my research was in this area (not that I did much, I was a very junior scientist then) - understanding aging and the genetics underlying the processes of aging. From what I remember, it was very poorly understood at that point, and from what few journal articles I see today, it's still very poorly understood.
1978 was way too early to predict something like that. I do think that in time we will crack aging, and maybe even slow or stop it. But I doubt it will happen within the next 100 years. It's just such a complex system. Cheers, TGHO |
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27th May 2007, 11:07 PM | #3 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Yokohama, Japan
Posts: 28,964
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I wonder when Aubrey de Grey will die.
Here are the 7 types of aging damage proposed by de Grey, which need to be solved to achieve immortality.
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28th May 2007, 01:07 AM | #4 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 13,001
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http://felix.openflows.com/html/kurzweil.html
I'm reminded of Ray Kurzweil and the coming singularity. my vote: R.C. more annoying than interesting. btw, what did Wilson die of at 46? I've got one book by him, which I've only skimmed because it seemed silly. |
28th May 2007, 03:39 AM | #5 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 13,001
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make that R. K. oops
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28th May 2007, 04:37 AM | #6 |
Critical Thinker
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 321
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He didn't die at 46. He wrote it at 46 in 1978, but died in the last 6 months or so.
His books are silly. And very amusing. And contain quite interesting ideas. The Illuminatus! trilogy, with Robert Shea, is his best in my view. Schrodinger's Cat is good too. He was a bit woo in some ways. But he was above all sceptical about everything, including himself and his own ideas. Illuminatus! is one of the few books I've ever read which did actually change the way I thought about things and view the world. I'm a fan, as you may have guessed. I think he was a bit of a doofus and wrote a lot of crap, too. That is, I like to think, the type of cognitive dissonance that R.A.W. himself would have liked. |
28th May 2007, 07:44 AM | #7 |
Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 200
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The writings from these counterculture visionaries and pranksters active the 1960's and 1970's don't seem to have worn all that well. We don't have the radical life extension, greatly expanded LSD-induced "consciousness" and space colonization predicted for right about now by Wilson and his buddy Timothy Leary back in the late 1970's.
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Mark Plus, Advanced Atheist "There was a time before reason and science when my ancestors believed in all manner of nonsense." Narim on Stargate SG-1 |
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28th May 2007, 08:04 AM | #8 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 13,001
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my bad. should read more carefully. and I get the dissonance, which I, too, like.
with Leary, you could never be sure where the huckster ended and the acid damage (or whatever) started. say more about Illuminatus! would I like it at my age? (49), or do you have to be, as they say, young and dumb and full of come-hither attitude? |
28th May 2007, 12:12 PM | #9 |
Master Poster
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 2,380
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Illuminatus is unique and difficult to classify. It's long and its style is apparent from the beginning so you should pick it up and give it a try. It's "way out there science fiction", not in the impossible Star Trekkie way, but in a "different way of looking at the world" way. There are also many good short Wilson books that are non-fictiony but reveal is style of thinking. However, they read more like boring textbooks: Promethius Rising and Quantum Psychology.
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28th May 2007, 05:47 PM | #10 |
Biomechanoid
Director of IDIOCY (Region 13) Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: New Texas (aka SOMD)
Posts: 32,151
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I think Wilson and Shea's description does it the best justice. It is a tripped out mystery novel, written by two acid-heads who tried to make the most outlandish conspiracy novel ever.
Wilson later wrote that he and Shea tried to make the strangest CTs, and never was able to make anything so strange, so bizarre that someone didn't write them and say that they'd heard it before. I recommend checking it out from you library. It's a worth-while read, and if you can make it past the first 100 pages or so, you'll probably not be able to put it down. The first 100, however, take a bit to get through. And yeah, Tim Leary and SMIILE was, to be kind, a bit ahead of their time. I admire Tim and Bob for what they contributed to my life, they were probably the two authors most responsible for getting me away from religion. They're a bit...odd though. |
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28th May 2007, 06:51 PM | #11 |
Illuminator
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