Alpha Centauri IRL

[Hydro]

A billion years? Easy! Upload yourself into a conscious biosphere. Then you can play and think deep thoughts among the neural shunts until the last organic matter is crispy fried.

Hydro

[Jeje2]

Originally posted by WotanAnubis
I suppose you believe in reincarnation or something.

Naa - he's just an optimist and believes he can avoid death...
(It's hard to achieve something if you don't believe it )


OK - who would like to book places on the shuttle already?
(I'm out - I'm too lazy to be a settler&/pioneer.)

[Alinestra Covelia]

Running to Alpha Centauri will only buy us a reprieve of about 40 million years. There's a large gas cloud poised to collide with the Milky Way, which will likely create all sorts of problems, including new stars.

Read about it here. Join in the screaming too!

[sir_schwick]

I'm definitely getting off this doomed rock.

And who wants to be screaming about a gas cloud? I think it will be cool, and ultimately dangerous to be navigating around during that time period. All the species that start to emerge long after that rapture will hear legends or see the fireworks. Those of us who lived through it will be considered a special class of explorers or deities to less astrologically developed species.

[Gremnon]

Who said anything about a few billion years?
I just intend on living. Nothing more to it.
Theory is, if the theory that gods are created by belief, and that belief can override logic, since I'm an agnostic, I'm putting that belief to a better use - beliving I'm just going to go on living, no matter what.
Proves to be an interesting experiment.

[Zeiter]

With even the discover of gas giants orbiting stars in their habitable zones, it is almost assured that we should at least have some habitable moons in the interstellar neighborhood.

[Darsnan]

I never knew that MMI stood for "Monkey-Machine Interface"!

Monkeys with sensors implanted in their brains have learned to control a robot arm with their thoughts, using it to feed themselves with fruit and marshmallows.
A monkey feeds itself using a robotic arm.
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine scientists behind the experiment say it will lead to the creation of brain-controlled prosthetic limbs for amputees or patients with degenerative disorders.
"We are beginning to understand how the brain works using brain-machine interface technology," lead researcher Andrew Schwartz wrote in the Nature journal.
"The more we understand about the brain, the better we'll be able to treat a wide range of brain disorders, everything from Parkinson's disease and paralysis to, eventually Alzheimer's disease and perhaps mental illness." Watch monkeys feed themselves with robotic appendage. »
In the experiment, a pair of macaque monkeys were fitted with electrodes the width of a human hair that transmitted signals from areas of the brain linked to movements.
The signals directed the arms to grasp marshmallows and fruit and place it into their mouths in "one natural-looking motion," the Nature article said.
With their real arms restrained, the monkeys learned how to control the arms in a matter of days, negotiating obstacles and tilting their heads and moving their eyes without affecting the robotic limbs.

And I for one welcome our new Cybermonkey overlords!