…

Which I’ll do. Primarily on (but not strictly limited to) your graves. As my pan-carrying assistant’s schedule allows.

And how we will laugh!

Hey, whatcha got there?

I dunno. Found it in the basement.

Looks kinda big for a food replicator. Open it up.

well, let’s see what we got he….OH MY FUCKING GOD!!!!! IT’S FULL OF HEADS!!!

Dude, I’m gonna be sick…

Or that future humans will humor their bizarre fetish and continue to keep the computers plugged in.

Unless Hanson + Glenn plan to stage a “Terminator”-style frozen head coup.

This explains their obsession with the muslimoid menace – they are terrified of their own deaths in a way that has completely short-circuited their reason.

What possible reason is there for future people to recreate the brains of dead people?[...] He won’t have any useful skills. Most of his ideas are quaint and most of his predictions will be known to be just plain wrong. Why keep a simulation of him running around the clock?

See, that’s what makes it so beautiful that all these schmibertarians are so into this: the extreme unlikelihood that they would awaken into a future run by schmibertarians, who wouldn’t give a rat’s ass about them. No, they’d only be revived if the future were run by Golden Rule advocates, or even socialists. Imagine Glenn Reynolds being resurrected into such a world… Bua-HA-ha-ha-haaaaah!

There’s nothing wrong with trying to beat the reaper, but the frozen head thing smacks of desperation, and, after about 30 years, the idea doesn’t seem to have evolved much.

This is actually one of the points that the Cryonics Institute makes against their competition: go with freezing the whole body, because it’s much likelier that your body will be revivifiable with future technology than that you’ll be re-embodied from your brain in a jar.

I’ll also note that are a few of us who think positively about a post-mortal future, even though we’re liberals. Ken McLeod also seems quite happy with the notion of extreme longevity even as he mocks the Rapture of the Nerds (though he’s currently an anarcho-somethingian, not a US-style liberal). Of course, “Just stop it and let me die whenever I want to die, you twisted freaks” would be a perfectly acceptable choice in our future.

So there!

(Seanly – the Uplift series was great, too!)

*This = small yellow kitten. Named Ubik.

My guess, though, is that they think they’ll be the cymek Titans before whom all will flee. Until Omnius comes along…

- L-S

I cant’ believe you found that pelvis! I was the time-traveler who was porking that hadrosaur when my hip-holster broke and I accidentally shot the poor thing. It was the last one, too. Talk about shooting your wad too soon! Sheesh, clumsy me.

Anyway, just stopped by to say all of Robin’s predictions came true.

- Louis-Sebastien

Oh, you know. In addition to your thoughts, memories, the very essence of you, they’ll be some additional components to help us better serve your needs, and to offset the cost.

Given that it’d cost a pretty penny to actually DO brain-downloading, why do I get the impression this would be the reality to the Libertarian’s flighty fantasies?

And who goes first with an untested technology? I can’t help but think of the Monument to the Eighty from Alastair Reynolds’ books, for the 80 volunteers whose downloads DIDN’T work right. Sheesh, these guys won’t even go risk their asses in Iraq, you think they’re going to risk their brains?

And I just love the intellectual disconnect between the speculations (not on this particular list, though) about massive abundance through high technology coupled with the ideological need to cling to free-market capitalism based on scarcity. “We’d have everything we need – AND you’ll still have to compete in a Darwinian fight for survival! Whee!”

The Ken McLeod series thelogos was talking about (I assume) is the New Mars series, of which only The Cassini Division I’ve read. Good book though. A HELL of a lot better than the protracted ideo-slog that Heinlein’s Moon Is A Harsh Mistress turned out to be, and the Libertarian characters are a lot more human and interesting. (No hippo-schtupping, but frankly, I wouldn’t put it past MacLeod. He’s got an unusual sense of humor…)