in regards to food pills

I find this topic very interesting because I, like most people, really like food. I think that food pills, however, are something that we wouldn't be able to realize for a long time. For instance, there are many important characteristics that make up a fruit that humans can currently come no where near close enough to replicate and shrink down to a pill size. This reminds me of meal replacement shakes that are sold in GNCs and grocery stores that although may be a healthy addition to one's diet, should never be used solely as replacements of "real" food.

Eugenics

Our discussion last week about "Liking What You See: A Documentary" made me think about why I wouldn't try calliagnosia. It seems to me that people should be content with their bodies, and that any attempt to alter natural biological forces en masse would resurrect the underlying principles of eugenics. I guess that just the thought of everyone desiring to appear the same reminds me of the Hitler's Arien philosophy. The reason America is so great is that you don't have to be just like everyone else.

Here's a brief history of Eugenics including some really great pictures to check out.

Monkeys, time travel, etc.

Amanda: The reference at the end of my last post was merely a joke to Gorilla City in the DC Comics Universe (the link was to an entry on Gorilla City on a very thorough, albeit strangely theoretical Flash Encyclopedia I had found).

I did find it interesting that you don't like the idea that humans could have evolved from primates -- specifically monkeys (though they are a bit different than gorillas). I think perspective is everything if you examine that opinion through a very broad evolutionary mindset: will whatever humans become in the future find it hard to believe they came from us? Given how far (and how little) we've come in intellectual development, are most humans ashamed of what they came from 100 years ago? 200 years ago?

Delicious food for thought.

John: It's a good question why we haven't been visited by anyone from the future yet if time travel is possible, though they may merely be trying to ensure that they don't alter the timestream.

(Thank you Robert Zemeckis.)

Of course, Mr. Chiang also pointed to how many don't believe traveling to the past is possible. That would mean, as depressing as it is on a very deep level, that the past really is gone forever.

As for getting a CW story on a time traveller, do you know how hard it would be to background someone who doesn't even have a birth certificate or a Social Security number yet?

It's a little difficult, especially with our resources.

Strange New Worlds: Fall 2005

People have always talked about travelling at the speed of light. That would be really cool, but still not worth the effort. If we could travel the speed of light, it would still take us several decades to travel to the nearest star. Then on top of that, if we could build a rocket capable going the speed of light, the human body could not withstand the stress. It is hard enough for us to withstand going several times the speed of sound. Travelling at the speed of light would only be good for deep space probes, and that is if our equipment could even make it.

I would rather propose more research when it comes to travelling via worm holes, time, or other dimensions. While it may be possbile for us to one day build a rocket that travels the speed of sound, we will never be able to travel on it. Our bodies may be able to travel through worm holes or other ways, however. Why don't we try looking into that.

I would be wrong if I did not mention that I am not an expert on astrophysics or math. Most of my knowledge on this subject comes from movies like Event Horizon. It's a good one, you should check it out.

that would be awesome

Although I think it is unrealistic, Nick's post is just flat out fun to think about. Who really knows what evolution could have in store? After studying Marine Biology last year, i was always intrigued by the way some underwater species have evolved over the years. I think it would be pretty awesome if another species evolved enough to potentially rival humans. Im pretty sure if this did happen, from monkeys or another species, that we would enslave and benefit from them anyways. i dont know, I had fun thinkin about it, thanks Nick.

Traveling at Faster than the Speed of Light

I think this will be my last post about this topic, but I wanted to say just a few more things about it. After having read the link in Mr. Chiang's response to my question several times, I can't honestly say that I got much out of it. But I have formulated my own thoughts on the issue.

If you were able to travel at faster than the speed of light, I would imagine that you might would be able to see yourself coming once you arrived. This would be very similar to hearing a golfer hit a golf ball seconds after he or she actually hit it. While you might see yourself coming, you wouldn't actually see yourself coming, because you would obviously already be there. Light would just be catching up to you and carrying your image with it. I don't know how likely I think this is, but I guess I can't rule it out.

If you think of the world we live in as being more than just three-dimensional, time travel becomes more feasible, yet perhaps more out reach. You could think of time as being a forth dimension. Just as in three dimensions, you can walk along a two dimensional plane with out changing your third coordinate, you could possibly change your time coordinate without changing your other coordinates. Similarly, you could maintain your time coordinate and move to another location in our three dimensional world. This would represent teleportation perhaps. But this really represents traveling at a speed of infinity.

Next comes my skepticism with not being able to change future events if indeed time travel was possible. If you are truly able to interact with the past, I think you would have to be able to change it too. Otherwise, what kind of interacting are you really able to do?

Next, if time travel were possible, whether by traveling faster than the speed of light, or any other means, why hasn't any one come back from the future to tell us about it? I would think that would make it onto CNN, and if not Nick could at least get it into the Crimson White. I know that if I had invented a time machine, I would use it. Why wouldn't they? Perhaps it will be invented so far from now that the idea to come back to this point in time to tell us about it would be as unlikely as me deciding to go tell homo erectus. I don't know though, because if I had a time machine, I would use it often. I might just go see homo erectus and make a documentary.

Food Pills and Evolution

These are fruitful topics for discussion, so I think I'll chime in on both with this post. First on the topic of food pills, I like the idea. I think it would be quite convenient. Of course, there would be times when I would like to actually cook my own meals; however, most days (especially this semester) I just don't have time to eat until around 9:00 pm. I think being able to take a pill to substitute would be remarkable. And if they were cheap, that would be even better. I think that the pills would be a great tool for combatting world hunger.

As far as evolution goes, I think I have to bring about some skepticism. I tend to agree that evolution does occur, but I have some questions that need answering. If we as humans did evolve from monkeys, toward what I would presume would be a more advanced being, where are the links in the evolutionary chain? Why have the less primitive primates outlasted these middle species? In virtually all other types of animals, there are various related species that have almost definitely evolved from a common source. I mean seriously, how many types of birds are there out there? And how many of them look utterly the same?

Neuroengineering

I want to apologize for not having posted this earlier. I actually thought that I already had. Over the past week or so, I have been looking over the realm of neurengineering as a possible paper topic. There are lots of articles out there that discuss the topic, but I think the one I have linked is the best for our purposes. At this point, much of what we want to do with these advances is still science fiction. I hope you guys find this as interesting as I do. I am going to save many of the specifics of this breakthrough for my discussion tonight. I will say this, DARPA is involved, and when DARPA gets involved things get interesting.