If the Egyptians had had digital media, we wouldn't know much about them... unless, of course, they had etched inch-wide bits in stone.
With proper care, my vinyl can be passed on to future generations. And while I hope my crandchildren will have the sense to understand that Oingo-Boingo et al was a passing phase, I believe they will eventually come to appreciate Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-fields' and Neville Mariner's take on Mozart, Led Zeppelin, Tom Waits and even Rush. The list goes on. The point, however, is that if I owned these pieces of music in the form of microscopic pits in an aluminum film or as bits of electrical charge in a silicon device or as magnetized bits on a tape or platter, they would not survive.
Someone in the military will do a cost-benefits anaylsis and this will never happen. It's cheaper to recruit and train a new hunk of meat than to repair a "blown in half" hunk of meat that will likely no longer be able to hurl depleted uranium at The Enemy.
Humans are a renewable resource. As such, the only humans who will directly benefit from this technology are either those deemed valuable due to exceptional skills or knowledge (e.g. Einstein, Mozart, David Hasselhoff, etc.) or wealthy enough to pay for the procedure.
Check out the book Altered Carbon for another take on suspended animation (recording and storage of a person's sense of self via a "cortical stack").
Great explanation of what is meant by "sharp" and it's in line with the original article. However, it seems to me that the phrase "sharp as a tack" usually means something more like "really smart" as in "That G. Dubbya is not sharp as a tack." See also "not the sharpest tool in the shed."
This got me to thinkin' about the parallels between various definitions of "sharp." The basic idea expressed by Moraelin works for the other definitions as well:
Sharp = Smart: People with pointy heads penetrate dense concepts with a lower expenditure of energy.
Sharp = Pungent (e.g. cheese): Cheese with pointy flavors pierce flavor threshold so that smaller hunk of cheese satifies such hankerings.
Sharp = Stylish: Enhancements to visual appearance get you into hot girl's/boy's pants without expending as many sleeping pills.
Seems like "sharp" basically means "effective" in these cases.
Slashdot Mirror
If the Egyptians had had digital media, we wouldn't know much about them... unless, of course, they had etched inch-wide bits in stone.
With proper care, my vinyl can be passed on to future generations. And while I hope my crandchildren will have the sense to understand that Oingo-Boingo et al was a passing phase, I believe they will eventually come to appreciate Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-fields' and Neville Mariner's take on Mozart, Led Zeppelin, Tom Waits and even Rush. The list goes on. The point, however, is that if I owned these pieces of music in the form of microscopic pits in an aluminum film or as bits of electrical charge in a silicon device or as magnetized bits on a tape or platter, they would not survive.
Well said.
Juveniles, if not pushed out of the nest, will stay as long as they are cared for.
Since the "parent" in religion is imaginary, he/she/it/they can't push us out... we have to leave the nest of our own accord.
Someone in the military will do a cost-benefits anaylsis and this will never happen. It's cheaper to recruit and train a new hunk of meat than to repair a "blown in half" hunk of meat that will likely no longer be able to hurl depleted uranium at The Enemy.
Humans are a renewable resource. As such, the only humans who will directly benefit from this technology are either those deemed valuable due to exceptional skills or knowledge (e.g. Einstein, Mozart, David Hasselhoff, etc.) or wealthy enough to pay for the procedure.
Check out the book Altered Carbon for another take on suspended animation (recording and storage of a person's sense of self via a "cortical stack").
Great explanation of what is meant by "sharp" and it's in line with the original article. However, it seems to me that the phrase "sharp as a tack" usually means something more like "really smart" as in "That G. Dubbya is not sharp as a tack." See also "not the sharpest tool in the shed."
This got me to thinkin' about the parallels between various definitions of "sharp." The basic idea expressed by Moraelin works for the other definitions as well:
Sharp = Smart: People with pointy heads penetrate dense concepts with a lower expenditure of energy.
Sharp = Pungent (e.g. cheese): Cheese with pointy flavors pierce flavor threshold so that smaller hunk of cheese satifies such hankerings.
Sharp = Stylish: Enhancements to visual appearance get you into hot girl's/boy's pants without expending as many sleeping pills.
Seems like "sharp" basically means "effective" in these cases.