The new company are aiming to “extend and enhance life" by freezing human brains for extended periods of time using cryonics, a deep freezing technology using very low temperatures, and then putting them into artificial bodies.
But Josh claims the company’s ultimate goal is to preserve a human brain BEFORE a person dies.
There is a fresh blanket of snowing consuming the ground this morning.. it won’t last, I can hear the sounds of spring birds chirping away, perhaps in disbelief that their return home was greeted with a winter blast.. The cold is waning, though. . And the sky is a beautiful shade of pinkish purple the darker clouds lift..
It was a beautiful morning. Even though it was spring, it was amazing to see the snow thick on tree limbs. It will be over soon.. gone.. And forgotten.
Spring will turn to summer.. And summer will also wane away eventually.
Years go by fast anymore..
I don’t know if you agree, or perhaps if I am just beginning to fear the middle ages of life as I quickly progress in my 30s, but life is going fast.
Jim Carrey on doing what you love because you may very well fail at things you don’t love.
I am always perplexed by the ‘coincidences’ that fill our headlines and litter our histories.. Things that should not happen simply because the rare occasion of them occurring would need stars to line up and miracles (or the opposite) to occur.
One such event made news in Texas.. A head-on collision took place on Road 87 North and FM 2379. Both drivers were pronounced dead.. both drivers, in separate cars, were married.. the husband and wife had their respective lives extinguished at the hands of each other..
There are three children that survive without a mother and father now. A tragic accident.. a strange series of events that caused both to be at the wrong place at the right time.. both now dead at the hands of some force or fate that often destroys people and ruins lives. With is this yin and yang we call life? What is this series of unfortunate events we call coincidence?
Hearts out to the grieving relatives and friends.. But I am still amazed and confused of the chances of this occurring and the fact that it did..
This is music from the TRUMAN SHOW by Phillip Glass.. It’s the sort of mood I’m tonight. Slightly Beethoven-ish but with more of a modern edge. It gives me the feeling of peace and security.. it’s as though you’re sleeping in safe quarters while fires of hell and scourge of war rages outside your window. And when you wake up, in the pile of your nightly drool, trying to remember what your last few seconds of your dream excursion was, you’ll have to face the day again. And you won’t like it at all..
Organisms carrying beefed-up DNA code could be designed to churn out new forms of drugs that could otherwise not be made
This would seem to be one of the most important science stories to come in a long, long time.. a turning point, perhaps? Artificial DNA.. artificial life.. Apparently, announced with this discovery, scientists have created an entirely new lifeform!
The marriage of the synthetic with the real.. Which one will be real?
This is a big one..
Bill Clinton told Jimmy Kimmel that aliens may one day be known. Maybe the moon Enceladus is a start of space life..
… the only way out is a crash: Death.
I think that sums up the gravity of the situation we are all in.
Please don’t consider this a negative posting about life. Life is actually quite fun for me right now.
I have a 17-month-old little man who is the joy of life.. My wife and I have been forever changed by his existence in our world. I have a wonderful family. Friends I cherish. We have jobs. We have a roof over our heads.. we have food when we are hungry. And I have an iPhone, and all the other technology that comes with life these days, too.
In the past two weeks I have been to two funerals. I will keep the overly personal information out, and just say that one was for someone who was 95 and a World War II POW. Another was for an uncle who lived to the truly ripe old age of 94. Both were pushing 100 when they met their respective final resting places. They both had long lives and lots of memories.. they both had stories.. both had a memories.. both had loved ones, cherished friends.. We all have stories, too. No matter the person.. From the richest to the poorest. From the oldest in the world to the child that dies at birth. There IS A MEANING to life.. right?
After contemplation, I have determined that we have become overly busy with our selfish pleasures of newsfeeds and campaign stats and sports stats and bla bla bla bla bla. At least I have.
I have neglected so much in the real world because of the online world. The internet and technology have become habits instead of pleasures. It went from being a novelty to a way of life. We all have been touched by the net bug. We are addicted!! Addicted to virtual reality. Addicted to virtual everything……virtually nothing.
But back to life for a second. REAL LIFE, not virtual.
What is the purpose to all this? Why ask! you know there is no answer. Lots claim to know the truth. Many others ponder it forever. In the end we don’t have a clue. What happens when we do die!? Again, here.. no word from anyone who did perish. We are left to wonder if near death experiences are really experiences of truth or just brain waves going awry. We are left to question tenets of religion.. question all things.
In the net age we have oodles of knowledge at our fingertips. All we have to do is Google or Bing it or MetaFilter it.. or whatever it. Do people even ask Jeeves anymore? Or AltaVista? .. Asta La Vista ..
Search results would amount to tons of data if you printed it on paper. But in our paperless society paper doesn’t exist anymore… right? Even though a paper-stack of bills sits next to me, that snail mail sent me, that was licked by some underpaid secretary in a cubicle maybe even AGHAST! with a typewriter…somewhere in the world.
There are bits and bytes of data flying around the world at a record pace.
And with all this knowledge you’d think by now someone would have found the meaning of life! The closest I know that found something was John Clease in MONTY PYTHON’S THE MEANING OF LIFE. The death penalty introduced to us in that show was, well, one many men wouldn’t mind having.
The information superhighway.. that is what it was once dubbed. Now it’s filled with potholes and dead sites that have dead ends.
Where does it all go in the end, though?
No where.. bits and bytes go bye bye for us.
Our bodies were dust and to dust they return. Despite the big plans we have to strive for big goals, we are cut down by something..whether it’s fate, God, time.. science. Whatever you believe. You can be five months, 15, 35, or 95. All dust.
So after this week, with two funerals (and a wedding, congrats bro), one can only leave the day with a renewed perspective on this strange place called earth.
A new lease on life!?
Not a chance…
A constantly expiring lease?
Now that is more like it..
Over a pizza buffet nonetheless. But here is what I concluded.
We ask the wrong questions of ourselves.. and by doing so constantly lead new generations to ask the wrong questions, too.
When you’re young and dumb someone old comes and says those typical words: Why do you want to do when you grow up? A plumber! A reporter! A teacher!
I think we all know that the vast majority of people don’t live up to the childhood dreams.
But maybe the premise of the question should be rephrased.. maybe the basis of the question isn’t actually about money and income and the choice of a career…
Hear me out on this, because you know for a FACT that when you go to parties or functions, one of the first questions you typically get is someone asking you, “So what do you do?” i.e. JOB, INCOME, SALARY! MONEY MONEY MONEY.
Dollars and dinero. But it all means nothing.
So while I was chowing down today in my pizza buffet food I asked the other person, who right now is jobless, “what do you want to do. REALLY want to do.. like REALLLLYYY want to do?” And I said this question is based on the fictitious scenario where you have everything you wanted, salary and income aren’t an issue, and job title could matter less. Minus all that away.. like, obituary type way, whatdo you want to do…….. in this short life…. ?
Now when I asked this question I did it because I was asking her but at the same time asking myself. I, too, wanted to know what I WANT TO DO IN LIFE, TOO. And out of almost no where, I blurted out,
I want to protect innocent life. I want to protect all innocence. I really want to
And that is it. I figured out my role in life. It was just that easy. Minus away the nonsense about success. Get rid of that veil that your JOB is something that will matter generations after your once intact skin has turned to dust. And bring in the real question: What do you strive to do in life, what matters to do, and what you WANT TO DO with what matters to you?
Sure, jobs matter in the ‘now.’ And the ‘now’ seems to be where we all live all the time, never looking forward to the future and seldom learning any thing at all from the past.
So I figured it out..
Protect innocence.
Now to put that into practicality… that’s the tough one.
So ask yourself.. What do you want to do in life?
On to the dealership, I suppose!
But it gave me time to contemplate life. Contemplace Facebook.. contemplate lots of things that boggle my mind, boggle our world.. and cause consternation, panic, and envy to take precedence.
Oh, and I went to the mall, got a hair cut, and had pizza, too.
Yes indeed, that was my emotion/food mixed day.
..so say scientists who ponder if life on earth is a fluke..
And I wonder this based on the pondering of the highly educated: If life on earth is a fluke then it makes me almost have to ask whether the human species is a parasite? Did earth develop a disease named life? Or is it instead a message that somewhere the old debated book we call the Bible is on to something that science is finally realizing: Human are special and in the image of God?
Weighty questions, I guess, for a weekend..?
…and then I discovered just how many meanings there were. I learned something myself..
Roman gods of fertility..
Ancient Pagan Festival of Lupercus..
…saints…
….little lovely signs of love..
Lots.
And then I realized why it was so easy for corporations, Hallmark, and chocolate companies to take over the holiday and do what they do best: Profit off of it.
I used to work in the restaurant industry (and still miss it.) Therefore I can only predict diners and dives across America are filled tonight.. bad chicken and tough steak … being served as we speak. Lovers out to eat.. balloons.. kisses.. and sour stomachs to follow.
Yes, indeed. Tonight is the night of love.
As for my wife and I? We took a more simple approach.. I gave Tara a balloon, a card, and a cheese steak. She gave me Cadbury Mini Eggs and David’s Jumbo Sunflower Seeds. And Ayden gave her an Elmo picture. A simple, kind, nice.. and meaningful Valentine’s Day 2012. Whatever Valentine’s Day means anyway..
I’m a dog person myself, but seeing this video of a mom cat comforting a kitten having an apparent bad moment during sleep makes me know that no matter the species on earth, we are all connected in our emotions. In a sense, no matter our size of type, we are all the same.. I’d bed if we looked close enough even trees do the same. Of course modern science would call me crazy.. But if cats can do it, what can’t? Maybe ..worms.
His secrets to a long life? Embrace change, help others, eat twice a day, and accept death. It sounds pretty well rounded to me. A nice long life.. If only all of us can be so lucky—maybe more so if all of us can take his words if wisdom maybe we would in fact live longer, and even if not longer, but healthier..
A friend of mine today told me that his professor, only his in 40s, died suddenly over the weekend.. The person had kids, a wife.. a life. A great job, a great background in education, and according to my friend, was an influential member of the faculty at the University he worked for.
Weird how quickly your events of life can change.
This is the exact type of story that makes me want to change my whole life.
Having a son has really altered the course of my very existence. Everything I do and think now involves him.. I am second to him. But in the same way, I want to be happier and have a better life for myself, but in a way that only can make his life better too..
I don’t know if it makes sense or not… but I used to ‘hate’ jobs I’ve had. Now I find the need for them. But I am extremely displeased with them now… less in a selfish way and more in a way that I really am not doing what I want to be doing. But isn’t this, in the end, how all people feel one day or another?
And what makes me nervous as, illustrated by your professor’s mishap, we don’t have very long to try to get to a point in which we actually do what we want to do….. and that makes me sad.
