From: Brian D Williams (talon57@well.com)
Date: Fri Dec 29 2000 - 07:52:57 MST
From: "Emlyn" <emlyn@one.net.au>
>Morgana came running in to Jodie, crying. After Jodie managed to
>calm her down, Morgana explained that they'd said on the show that
>the sun was going to explode and swallow the earth in 5 billion
>years. She was terrified! She woke up in the night with nightmares
>about it.
>So today, I'm expounding at length on visions of colonising the
>stars, jupiter brains, and all the rest. Also, we took some time
>to discuss just how long 5 billion years is, finding out that we
>have a little time up our sleeve after all.
>Still, she takes the threat seriously. When she found out about
>death, about a year ago or more I think, I told her about life
>extension and what I think will be happening in her life time,
>which she was very happy with. Since then, she's been ruminating
>on that a lot. She told me this morning that we'd probably be dead
>before the sun explodes, but we might not be.
Tell her that one day humans will live on millions of worlds and
that we will know all about the day that the sun will explode long
before it happens, and that we all will have safely moved away
before then.
But we will watch and remember.
There is an old joke about this that goes like this:
A physicist is giving a lecture on the sun, and concludes his talk
saying the sun will explode in 5 billion years.
A man jumps up from the back of the room and in a terrified voice
says "HOW LONG?????"
"About 5 billion years" the physicist answers.
" Oh Thank God" the man says greatly relieved, " I thought you said
5 MILLION".
Brian
Member:
Extropy Institute, www.extropy.org
Adler Planetarium www.adlerplanetarium.org
Life Extension Foundation, www.lef.org
National Rifle Association, www.nra.org, 1.800.672.3888
Ameritech Data Center Chicago, IL, Local 134 I.B.E.W
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