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Scotty Scooped Up
mmarlett writes "Scotty has been found. 'The ashes of late Star Trek actor James Doohan have been found in mountains in the US state of New Mexico, where they landed after a brief flight in space.' And pretty much where they thought they put them, too."
Scotty doesn't know, Scotty doesn't know..
The article says his remains spent only 4 minutes in space (or "at the edge of space")
It seems as though all of these high profile space-related personalities, when they have heir remains famously 'sent into space' neglect to mention the trip is always temporary.
I wonder if there will ever be an option to send one's remains into deep space. Surely there might even be some kind of value in hurling as many human bodies as we can as far out into the abyss of the universe as is possible. The bacteria present on a full corpse could, if it landed on a hospitable planet, thrive and create a new ecosystem. Or, in the exraordinarily unlikely event that billions of year hence, one of these space coffins encountered some intelligent life, we sould have given THEM proof there was was other life in the universe.
Of course these last two assume that bodies would be sent into space uncremated, which isn't all that practical I guess, but even cremated remains ought to be hurled out into deep space in my opinion.
Yup...
the passengers were already dead.
Well commercial interests are hurt if our space-trash (beautiful way to talk about Scotty's remains by the way ;)) brings down a satellite so we care about it. Whereas commercial interests are hurt if we do something about the environment, so we don't care about it. Really quite simply.
What goes up, must come down.
He's dead, Jim.
(I can't believe it hasn't been posted yet...)
If you take the absoulte view that the body is nothing but a meatbag you used to live in, then no there's no way to "pay your respects". The person you are calling has left this existance and is out of reach. What's left is only your public display to others.
I'd say most people don't work that way. People don't put flowers on graves to show off for others, but for the buried person and themselves. What has meaning and what is sacred is measured in beliefs and intentions, not in results.
Everything about a dead person is a token. The body or the ashes is a token. The gravestone is a token. The flowers are a token. Sending him ashes on a small slingshot into space is a token. Sending them permanently out into space would be a token. If we raise a statue of him it's a token. If we hang up a picture on the family wall it's a token.
In short, if it has meaning to the people willing to do it then STFU and let them pay their respects. The you can pay your respect to the dead the way you want, or not at all. But don't go around claiming to have the answer to "more appropriate ways to pay your respects that actually mean something" unless you want me pissing on your grave (does that have meaning?).
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings