Re: Truman Show and Immortality :)

From: Gabriele Betti (lbetti@dinonet.it)
Date: Wed Feb 02 2000 - 02:17:05 MST


Hello,
I'm going to make a wish.
Is there anyone here that would highlight or summarize discussions being
conducted here?
I see on this list there's a line as style in exposing things.
Is there any way of highlighting like this for example.
Thanks and ....
CIAO
Gabriele

At 00.29 02/02/00 -0600, you wrote:

>>From: CampMars@aol.com
>>Reply-To: extropians@extropy.com
>>To: extropians@extropy.com
>>Subject: Re: Truman Show and Immortality
>>Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2000 23:59:35 EST
>>
>>In a message dated 02/01/2000 12:21:17 PM Eastern Standard Time,
>>randysmith101@hotmail.com writes:
>>
>><< I recently rented (and subsequently bought) a videotape of the Truman Sow.
>> Incredible movie. >>
>>
>> You mean you haven't got a DVD player yet? Oh Randy get with the times
>>video is sooooo 2nd Millennium.
>> I forget who came up with that line but I thought it was priceless.
>> That is a great movie though isn't it. As far as acting, Carrey blew
>>Truman away when he played Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon.
>>
>><<When Truman came up against the wall at
>>the end of his world, it reminded me of my own revelation that death,
>>although accepted as inevitable by all those around me, may not be so
>>inescapable as it appeared to everyone else.>>
>>
>> I can relate to that too. Very often when people bring up
>> the >topic of death, I will inevitably mention that death "may" not
>> be >inevitable.
>>When I
>>try to explain that it is really just a problem with biology and it >can
>>be corrected, I usually get a look as if I just tore off my face
>>and >revealed some terrifying Sci Fi creature.
>
>I hear you. We are quite different from the ordinary run of people. That's
>all there is to it. Somehow we took another path to being people.
>
>
>>I never understood why this should come as
>>a shock to people these days. As a species human kind has
>>been >searching for the answer to immortality from the moment we
>>realized >that we are alive.
>
>Somehow when we (as opposed to all those others) read something, or come
>across some knowledge, we understand it in a different way.
>
>>We
>>have been searching for answers and now we are coming up with answers that
>>don't involve having to die to get there. Seems to me that there should be
>>less "faith" involved in physical immortality than the leap of faith or
>>gamble that there may be a spiritual after life involving a transference into
>>another dimension, an alternate reality or even an unseen UFO in the tail of
>>a comet. To me these are no longer valid options.
>> Then there is the old why would anyone want to live forever refrain. If
>>someone truly does not care if they die than they are not really living to
>>begin with. Ask the same person if they would be willing to die tomorrow and
>>the answer is almost always "no". It should be obvious... That is the whole
>>point! Perhaps it's just another step in evolution or natures way of
>>choosing it's Immortals.
>
>I read a fascinating article today in Science News about how different
>modes of reasoning are used by people of different cultures/continents.
>The researchers tested reasoning skills of some people in Bumfuck Mongolia
>(East Uzbeck). They posed a situation where they said that all bears in
>the northern part of the world were white. They said that a man from the
>northern part of the world had seen a bear. The researchers then asked the
>tribesmen what color the bear must have been. Without exception, to the
>growing frustration of the researhers. all the men replied, "Well, how
>would I know?! Ask your friend who saw the bear!"
>The study concluded, citing numerous other examples of typical cultural
>reasoning, that analytical reasoning is a learned skill, and not something
>innate, or something to that effect....
>
>
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