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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
 Posted - 03/08/2007 : 08:06:31 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by H. Humbert
"And if frogs had wings, they wouldn't bump their asses when they hop" is an idiom that basically means there's no point in "what ifs?" or in speculating about how things might be if things were different.
I almost titled it "If wishes were horses..." (...then beggars would ride), but thought the frogs would be cuter. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 03/08/2007 : 11:05:02 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dave W.
What sort of paranormal, pseudoscience, supernatural or "woo-woo" claims would you most like to be true?
God exists, prayer and faith healing:
Which God? What morality will be imposed upon us? While this option has the potential for eliminating a whole lot of suffering, including cronical pain of mine and people I know, there is also a major down-side: thought police. How much will God micro-manage in order to create the world he wants to have? Will God make sure there is no abuse of power in his name? If so, then this might be a viable option for me, but as long as there is no guarantee that God will keep the more zealous in check, I'll keep this as a close runner-up.
perpetual motion, zero-point energy, overunity generators:
Energy and its availability has always been critical to civilization. With new and hopefully clean energy sources will open up for a better environment. If there is dirt-cheap energy available, there would be no problem forcing industries to invest in potentially high-energy consuming applications to eliminate waste.
It also opens up space travel, as energy-consuming technologies can be employed for propulsion and life support. With enough energy available, there wouldn't be a problem building a spaceship with an ion-drive that could maintain a 1G acceleration for prolonged period of time. We could fly to Proxima Centauri in 10 years! Barnards Star in 20... Shuttle traffic to the Mars colony in a few days.
This one gets my vote.
alternative medicine:
Too limited a field when there's much more to be had. Why settle for just healing, when you can also get a God who answers prayer for the same price?
speaking with the dead, ghosts, hauntings:
Even without the ability to scry for the future, a lot of unresolved questions and mysteries could get solved. We could have Beethoven finish his 10th symphony, we could find out if Lee Harvey Oswald really was the shooter, and/or if there was conspiracy. All unsolved murders could be solved, possibly all crimes period. If we only could make sure we knew they were telling the truth.
ESP, mind reading, remote viewing, clairvoyance:
While there are many benefits in this, for one thing authors of sci-fi (Heinlein, I bet there are more) has suggested ESP could be unconstrained by the speed of light. This would mean faster-than-light communication. This might not be essential on earth, but may prove important in space travel.
Potential for abuse is staggering. Just look at the Babylon5 version of Psi-corps for a slippery slope. Thought-Police? No thank you.
telekinesis, mind-over-matter:
Really cool, a lot of problems, environmental and otherwise, could be solved.
time travel, faster-than-light travel, large-scale teleportation
Revolutionizing the transport sector... faster-than-light travel, how? Space ships á la Star Trek? That would require massive amounts of energy, and wouldn't be possible without the second alternative being true also. Without massive energy, this option will have no applications for the general public, and time travel alone opens up a huge can of worms for abuse. He who controls the time travelling device controls the future, if he manages to avoid making something that erases him out of existence.
Blackadder Back And Forth.
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Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
| Edited by - Dr. Mabuse on 03/08/2007 11:10:48 |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 03/08/2007 : 11:14:05 [Permalink]
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Don't over-analyze the poll, folks.
I voted alternative medicine, figuring that if even 1% of its proponents' promises come true, we'll all be living disease-free until we're 200 years old. With all that extra money and time, I think a lot of the technological limits we have today will take care of themselves.
But then Ricky reminded me that even with huge, disease-free lifespans, "overunity" generators and FTL travel will still be limited to fiction. So now I want to change my vote.  |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 03/08/2007 : 12:55:19 [Permalink]
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'K, here comes the ol' wet blanket: quote:
You Can't Travel Back in Time, Scientists Say
By Sara Goudarzi
LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 07 March 2007
09:01 am ET
The urge to hug a departed loved one again or prevent atrocities are among the compelling reasons that keep the notion of time travel alive in the minds of many.
While the idea makes for great fiction, some scientists now say traveling to the past is impossible.
Can You Time Travel?
The joys, terrors and true possibilities of navigating the fourth dimension, with quantum physicist Michio Kaku and astrophysicist Charles Liu.
How to Time Travel!
How can you swim upstream in the river of time? Liu and Kaku have some answers.
There are a handful of scenarios that theorists have suggested for how one might travel to the past, said Brian Greene, author of the bestseller, “The Elegant Universe” and a physicist at Columbia University.“And almost all of them, if you look at them closely, brush up right at the edge of physics as we understand it. Most of us think that almost all of them can be ruled out.”
I don't pretend to understand any of this, so this time I'll simply have to take it as read. Dr. Who would know. So would Baldrick.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 03/08/2007 : 13:29:39 [Permalink]
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| If God, I'll take the Greek pantheon, thanks. I'm all up for a good, godly loving from time to time. |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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Hawks
SFN Regular
Canada
1383 Posts |
Posted - 03/08/2007 : 13:34:54 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Siberia
Oh damn, this is for not reading the question - I thought, "if frogs had wings, how the woo-woo would interpret it?" because I didn't read the question. D'oh.
I also missed that first time around (hence my question about the frogs). I'll blame it on the fact that this happened sometime after midnight (local time).
I voted telekinesis. I think it would be absolutely excellent that when next time my X-wing gets bogged down in a swamp, instead of phoning the space-craft association, I can just reach out my arm and "Do, or do not. There is no try." |
METHINKS IT IS LIKE A WEASEL
It's a small, off-duty czechoslovakian traffic warden! |
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JohnOAS
SFN Regular
Australia
800 Posts |
Posted - 03/08/2007 : 15:12:08 [Permalink]
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I voted for "perpetual motion, zero-point energy, overunity generators"
This seems to me the option most likely to be compatible with providing tools for long term R&D and discovery of what really makes things tick, without:
1. spoiling the surprise ending (God did it), or
2. screwing with the process itself a la ESP remote viewing, clairvoynce. Besides, no one else should have to spend too much time in my head.
To me it's the choice that least breaks (now there's a term!) the laws of the universe as we know them. Yes I realise the oxymoron, but it feels almost OK.
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John's just this guy, you know. |
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R.Wreck
SFN Regular
USA
1191 Posts |
Posted - 03/08/2007 : 19:07:48 [Permalink]
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Telekinesis. No need to actually leave one's seat to get another beer  . It would also have some other benefits. Like the ping-pong table we had delivered today that my son and I had to wrestle into the house and down to the basement. Damn thing weighed a ton and no place to grip the box. Sure would have been nice to just "think" it into place. It would also revolutionize the construction trades, material handling, manufacturing, and come to think of it, almost any industry imaginable. |
The foundation of morality is to . . . give up pretending to believe that for which there is no evidence, and repeating unintelligible propositions about things beyond the possibliities of knowledge.
T. H. Huxley
The Cattle Prod of Enlightened Compassion
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| Edited by - R.Wreck on 03/08/2007 19:08:54 |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 03/08/2007 : 19:13:20 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by R.Wreck
Telekinesis. No need to actually leave one's seat to get another beer .
Already covered.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
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furshur
SFN Regular
USA
1536 Posts |
Posted - 03/09/2007 : 14:51:46 [Permalink]
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quote:
Thanks, H. That's f-ing beautiful.
I love technology...
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If I knew then what I know now then I would know more now than I know. |
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 03/10/2007 : 00:11:24 [Permalink]
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Time travel would be my second, but speaking to the dead implies not dying. That would be great.
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McQ
Skeptic Friend
USA
258 Posts |
Posted - 03/10/2007 : 09:09:52 [Permalink]
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I voted 'other'. I want certain cryptozoology creatures to be real. I would love to see Sasquatch as a real animal. Note that I don't want this so that the people who think that they are real will be proved right. I just think it would be cool to have them be real. Giant hominids = cool.
I don't care about lake creatures and such, but Sasquatch....yeah!
But I'm pretty sure I won't get my wish, as I believe that there are no mysterious hominids wandering the wilderness of North America (except us).
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Elvis didn't do no drugs!
--Penn Gillette |
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 03/19/2007 : 12:26:57 [Permalink]
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I for one dont want any of them, humans are dangerous enough as it is without time-travel, esp, telekenesis, and unlimited energy. Of course there are many alternative medicines which will have great or mild effects however, I am against the artificial enhancement of human lifespans through medicine*, so I cant say I want them to be true.
*Your arguements wont sway me so bug off. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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If frogs had wings...
