Insane Ramblings

[Puppet Guy]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

5) With the way that our solar system is situated that the nearest possible neighboring solar systems are far beyond our ability to travel to. Was this by design? Are we the intergalactic version of an Australian Penal colony?

that would explain a lot about human nature.

[drewboy12]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

2) While talking to a friend about Star Trek, I wondered if when a person stepped onto a transporter and was beamed to another location. If the person that stepped onto the transporter pad actually died and the person that stepped off of the pad was a perfect copy and every way and yet not that person.

I was just thinking about this thread... So science has beamed atoms from point A to B recently. So in theory, if science ever progressed to the level of moving an entire human through a transporter, every atom being an exact replica on the other end, would you lose all memory?

Because what is memory and consciousness? It's not like everything I remember moves some kind of atoms in my brain?

So would it be like being born again? Formatting a flash card.

[CaptainCrunch]

Or is it just a photocopier, 3d flesh printer that destroys the sentient being on one side and builds a copy on the other side and you don't remember the actual transporting part because you were disintegrated when they pulled the lever.

As well from a religious standpoint, since we can't identify a soul but people believe that we have them. Would the soul be copied by the transporter, and if they aren't are we being recopied as soul less beings on the other side.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by photon

Could ask the same question about going to sleep every night, I have no way of knowing if the me who wakes up is the me who went to sleep.

I thought I heard somewhere that we replace all our cells every 7-10 years, but this does not apply to the brain:

http://askanaturalist.com/do-we-repl...7-or-10-years/

Neurons in the cerebral cortex are never replaced. There are no neurons added to your cerebral cortex after birth. Any cerebral cortex neurons that die are not replaced.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/ar...rest-body.html

We are born with all the brain cells we'll ever have - around 100 billion - and most of the brain does not regenerate as it gets older.

In fact, we actually lose cells, which is the underlying reason for dementia and why head injuries are so devastating.

[photon]

Originally Posted by drewboy12

Because what is memory and consciousness? It's not like everything I remember moves some kind of atoms in my brain?

Why isn't it like that? Memories seem to be stored in the network of connections between neurons.

Originally Posted by drewboy12

So would it be like being born again? Formatting a flash card.

Formatting a flash card changes the flash card, if we're making an exact copy with no changes there's no reason to think all the memories would be wiped.

Originally Posted by troutman

I thought I heard somewhere that we replace all our cells every 7-10 years, but this does not apply to the brain:

http://askanaturalist.com/do-we-repl...7-or-10-years/

[I]Neurons in the cerebral cortex are never replaced. There are no neurons added to your cerebral cortex after birth. Any cerebral cortex neurons that die are not replaced.

Maybe, first they thought that, then they thought that neurogenesis continues into adulthood, especially in certain areas of the brain relating to memory, but there still seems to be disagreement about it.

But still it makes sense, if the cells were replaced over time with new ones like the rest of us, that doesn't change our identity, so why would replacing them all at the same time (like that kind of transporter would)?

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

People that tune cars and log for knock would be able to tell pretty quick. I believe at one point Esso had to drop the rating of their 92 to 91 because people figured out it wasn't better than anyone else's 91 for detonation resistance.

I believe Esso had to change it because the government tested it at 91 on the 92 octane they claimed. Scroll down to one of our local's that actually tested local gasolines in his SLK;

http://forums.beyond.ca/st2/co-op-ga...=&pagenumber=2

[J epworth]

Originally Posted by Kerplunk

It is an alternate universe, and occasionally they escape. Where do you think left handed people come from?

Wasn't there a Goosebumps story where people kept getting trapped in photographs? Remember it gave me nightmares for weeks, didn't want my picture taken or look in the mirror for a while after reading it.

[drewboy12]

Originally Posted by J epworth kendal

Wasn't there a Goosebumps story where people kept getting trapped in photographs? Remember it gave me nightmares for weeks, didn't want my picture taken or look in the mirror for a while after reading it.

lol yes, and in pinball machines. what a great childhood show/books. Where I currently live in central Australia, the Aboriginals actually don't allow to have their photo taken, as they believe a photo is stealing their soul. There are tribes in Africa which believe the same.

[dissentowner]

If everything entering our retina is upside down and our brain makes it right side up are we in fact looking at everything in actuality upside down? So everything in the real world is in fact upside down but our brains perceive it as the opposite.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

If everything entering our retina is upside down and our brain makes it right side up are we in fact looking at everything in actuality upside down? So everything in the real world is in fact upside down but our brains perceive it as the opposite.

Light entering the eye is right-side around, but gets inverted inside the eye by the lens onto the retina, then the brain corrects for it.

[dissentowner]

Ah, I missed that part