From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Wed Aug 28 2002 - 13:13:23 MDT
On Wed, Aug 28, 2002 at 01:25:40PM -0400, Spudboy100@aol.com wrote:
> Natasha Observed:
> <<Just imagine in the centuries to come when we ice skate the microns to
> meters water ice rings of Saturn; skip across the circular highway of the
> Sun and leap across its 40,000 asteroids in the Asteroid Belt; sail the
> Solar System; and scuba dive the methane and high-altitude photochemical
> smog or 9 dust rings of Uranus! Why do we even want to do this? Because
> we love the feeling we get from being exposed to the elements and using our
> bodies, whatever form or shape they may evolve into, to romp around and
> explore.
> Natasha>>
>
> Aren't we more likely to do this in a simmulation experience (replacing
> television and movies and video games), rather then a cell-altering
> experience that alters tissue?
I just took a long, lovely walk home from the Institute, watching the
late summer sunset and enjoying the end of our local heatwave. It was a
fundamentally enjoyable mental and bodily experience, and it felt right
to have it alter my cells.
I don't think base reality is in any way 'more authentic' than any
virtuality we build on top of it, but there is a difference between a
simple experience and a complex, artistic experience. Altering cells as
part of it might be what turns a certain experience into true art; in
another experience *not* changing any cells might contribute to the
result. It is all a question of self-design.
> I wonder what alteration might tune cells to
> withstand liquid methane, or to sustain its coherence over the solar surface,
> against heat, radiation, and gravity?
You don't want to use water-based cells in the methane, I guess. But a
nanocirculatory system like Freitas' vasculoid might be extended to act
as a heating/cooling system to enable such a walk.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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