AWKWARD ZOMBIE

I saw a cool idea for dealing with nuclear waste, basically it involved shooting small packages or "bullets" of waste into space at a time with reusable containers, to lessen the risk of having a huge amount of waste misfire or head back to Earth.

I say if we put enough research into it, it'll be well worth it as a viable alternative to fossil fuels. The risks are well-known and nuclear power plants are incredibly safe. We may need more preparation both to find a solution for the nuclear waste problem and to convince the policymakers that it would be worth it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium-ba ... lear_power

As the wiki page says, thorium powered reactors produce less waste, can't be easily used in nuclear weapons, is much more stable, has the potential to create more power and is more abundant than uranium on earth. The only downside is that the technology is more expensive and not fully researched yet, but it would, if not solve, at least help with the problems you are pointing out.

Going through the effort to sneak into a nuclear power plant to infect the computer with a virus seems highly obtuse. Besides, nuclear power plants possess safety measures that do not depend upon human or electronic interaction. It's called passive nuclear safety, and while there were passive mechanisms present at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, the standards for passive nuclear safety systems have increased since then.

You don't have to sneak in to do it. Look up "Stuxnet". One or two "x". I can't remember. It was designed to harm Iranian uranium enrichment plants. They don't have access to internet, but they managed to infect it by piggybacking on USB drives.

I just had a serious discussion with my friend about Down's syndrome that quickly derailed into a serious existential crisis of mine in which I even freaking cried.
Wow. It must feel bad to never be able to equally match a human with the normal amount of chromosomes intellectually. But then again, some people argue ignorance is bliss. Nevertheless, if I were to somehow revert to such primitive state of intelligence permanently I would commit suicide.
That's why, if I ever have children, I would fear my kid potentially never even having a chance at being successful. All because of an extra chromosome. A pity, it is. It's one of the reasons why I question our seemingly meaningless existence and the cruelty of consciousness.
No, not if the child is still a fetus. Of course, it would be up to the mother, but I would rather have no child than a child stuck in a perpetual dead-end since birth.
I don't know how we can remove that extra chromosome and leave the body intact. Nevertheless, it's somewhat disheartening to realize we are all just atoms arranged specifically and all our memories are simply neuron connections. It's why I question what promotes sentience.
But, on the other hand, if life has a slim chance of being meaningful, if all our research and history will be archived and not just obliterated in a GRB or black hole or supernova, if we truly do have a purpose in this wretched universe, then I am willing to not kill myself and instead live out a life I want. I am lucky to be born in a situation in which I can live out my dream life. I won't waste that opportunity.
I believe we have an unforeseen purpose, that we aren't just born to reproduce and die and be slaves to a corporation that will in turn be annihilated at the destruction of civilization. I believe the universe must have been created with parameters in which sentient creatures could created for a purpose.
Like seriously, after all the shit in chemistry and biology, doesn't it seem startling that we are just particles, yet we are still so complex the odds of humans happening randomly are extremely slim?
I've had this stuff floating in my mind beforehand, but it's just at that time that I pieced it all together and realized what a piece of shit existence is.

I think I'm speaking for most people on the forum when I say that a lot of what you just said is shockingly, breathtakingly offensive on several levels, to a degree I'm honestly having trouble expressing. I shouldn't have to explain why, and frankly I don't think the "you're entitled to your opinion" defense makes it okay to paint those with conditions like DS as so irretrievably worthless or "primitive" in your own words that death is an appropriate response or even a blessing, as though it's impossible to live pop flyin' or meaningful lives if you aren't "perfect".

You're still in school, aren't you? Well think about this. If there is no afterlife and we really are beautiful mistakes, why does that matter? It doesn't change that you enjoy things right now. It doesn't change that your actions can make someone else's enjoyment in living greater. It doesn't eliminate the existence of suffering, art, beauty, truth, sadness, scientific discovery, or the inexorable march of progress by our species and others. Life is an absolute miracle no matter how you spin it; either we're so inexpressibly lucky to both exist and be sentient that to express it in numbers would be a seriously difficult feat, or we're the lovingly crafted offspring of one or more truly impressive beings who saw fit to give us the tools to achieve fucking anything.

But what we aren't is meaningless. A person with Down's syndrome or another mental or physical handicap has a hard time doing a lot of things, yes. Many of them understand the difficulties they face in life compared to others, and that makes it harder for them. Of course some parents would rather not go through with a pregnancy if they know for sure the child will face serious difficulty and I respect that it's an amazingly hard choice to make for them at that time. But they aren't tragedies or pity cases or worthless or in need of deliverance from a life you apparently feel isn't worth living or granting. I bodaciously cannot believe some of what you just said. I get that you weren't trying to be offensive but that almost makes it worse in my opinion; there's not much that's more mortifying than "benevolent" condescension/pity.

My mom worked for over eight hard years with people that had conditions ranging from severe congenital birth defects to paranoid schizophrenia to DS and ASD and while a lot of the people she worked with did suffer from some anger or frustration related to the challenges they sometimes faced, I can't imagine any single one of them would greet a sentiment like "Wow your life must be so amazingly terrible, I can't imagine how bad it must suck to be doomed never to succeed at anything in life, I'm so sorry euthanasia isn't legal so you can escape from yourself" with anything less than shock or rage. Because honestly, that's about what you just said boils down to, especially if you consider the comment about suicide being something you'd expect others would want to do, too.

yeah, now that I look back at it, I was kinda ranting and experiencing "babby's first existencial crisis" and I realize I've contradicted myself several times during this rant. I guess I was just releasing some negative emotion. In fact, I'm kind of embarrassed I even posted some of the stuff in it. I guess I was in such a hurry I didn't think too clearly.

I'm going to be kind of blunt: you really should be, and what you're saying doesn't indicate genuine remorse, it's an expression of regret related to you being called on saying something really terrible. From a certain point of view it even looks like you're justifying what you said, and I'm honestly not really okay with that. While I accept that there are many diverse opinions on many subjects, and that I cannot change everyone's point of view, I do not accept any obligation to agree with/fail to discourage sentiments like the ones I bolded earlier for the sake of "not making a scene." Every young person experiences something like what you're going through. I have my share of worried "what if" thoughts and existential crises, too. Everyone does. That's still not an excuse, it just means that I understand you don't appear to be speaking from either malice or experience and you're not actively trying to be hurtful concerning the rest of what you said.

Some would argue that heightened levels of intelligence/sentience/consciousness (above average) makes it just as difficult to enjoy life/being human as being 'below average' does.


Not connected to the preceding sentence and more connected to thoughts re: the pointlessness of it all: (this is one for all you nihilists out there) if you prescribe to the 'Big Bang Theory' being the actual way the universe came into 'existence' (I don't btw), then its logical conclusion - the 'Big Crush' - would make anything achieved during the brief billion-billion-billion-year interlude meaningless because anything created by humanity (being the tiniest speck of half-second dust in the vast sands of universe and time), such as art, literature, blah, blah, blah - will have been for nought as it is all 'crushed' out of existence/converted back into nothingness.

So basically speaking - if you do consider yourself on a universal scale - anything you will ever do (art, literature, reproduction, existence) will be pointless/meaningless/instantly forgettable in the grander scale of things (if you do indeed go along with the BBT).

I have considered the meaningless of it all - but have come to the conclusion that all that need ever really matter to an individual is their own existence - considering things on a grander universal scale and the pointlessness of it all is a hoot to be sure - but it doesn't mean you should place any less importance on your own life and what you do with it - be it art, literature, family, friends - if it matters to you as an individual then it matters to somebody, it has importance, irregardless of the machinations of the universe.

That's kind of how I approach it. I do occasionally experience remorse and depression related to the thought that perhaps there is no "greater meaning" or that my time really is restricted to just this one life, but at the same time, worrying myself about it can't do anything but decrease my enjoyment of the time I know I have for sure. I do my best not to let myself get bogged down in it, anyway.

Admittedly, my problems were never bad enough to where I was "removed from the world" (as people paint those with disorders like autism and down's syndrome and the like) despite being autistic and epileptic. It's really hard to characterize a "who has it worse" thing with spectrum disorders or mental disorders in general, not only because individuals are different, but there's always a bias about how we'd deal with something if we were put in that position, but we can never truly know exactly what it's like to be in another person's shoes. However, from personal experience, I can say personally, I would never willingly wish someone to go through what I went through. At the same time, those experiences made me who I am, and though things were difficult and there were times where I was in a bad place, I appreciate the things in my life, because without them, who knows what I'd be like by now. That isn't to say autism defines me, but I certainly wouldn't be the same person without it, I could be a total stranger compared to the person I am now.

It's really tricky to discuss because you can never truly figure out where "normal" begins and autism ends. Weird quirks I have sometimes make me wonder if I do that because that's me, or because I'm "broken" in a way that makes that a norm for someone like me. I got it beaten into me as a child by my peers and community that I was a sinner, a demon, a curse, a sociopath, a weirdo, a retard, and a "lesser" individual, and again, My situation, by all rights, is much better than I could have been (not that there's anything wrong with LFA's and other individuals that would be seen by many as less functioning than me).

I constantly worry about things like having kids, because while I'd love to have kids, I'm worried about what genes I'd be passing on to them, and I feel responsible for ensuring that they have the genes that would give them a pop flyin' life. I would never want to lose a child before I died, I would never want to be in a situation where my child had malformed organs, developmental issues, loss of limbs, loss of senses, loss of mental capacity. No good parent would want any of these things for their kids. But, no matter how things would turn out, they're my kids. If they become paralyzed, blind, comatose, or deteriorative, I would love them no less than if they weren't.

But, it's a tricky balancing act, and the words you choose are important. I do not pity those who live with these issues. If there's any thing to pity about them, it's the fact that pity is heaped upon them by people who couldn't personally see themselves or their kids "that way". We hope the best for the ones we love and care about, but at the same time, we shouldn't make these things out to be "terrible life-ending things".

But again, for these decisions, it's well outside of our views to be able to determine whether suicide or abortion is the right thing to do. We have no way of telling exactly whether life is worth living to the unborn, despite their problems, and even though we may never personally see ourselves living that way, it doesn't mean they share that opinion.

But really, again, we would never know what it's like to be in another person's shoes. If we were in their shoes, we wouldn't be us, we'd be another person entirely. And hey, maybe that person would handle the situation much differently, in a way we can't truly appreciate.

We have but one life to live out our inner selves. Even if we are eventually reborn, it will be as another person, a new self entirely separate from us besides being derived from us in some fashion, much like having a child.

We have a finite amount of timeto be our true self, some less than others, some that burn out before they even begin to express that self. But the total sum of everything we are, all of our hopes, dreams, habits, tics, thoughts, feelings, capablities, EVERYTHING is who we truly are.

And that's something to always appreciate.

I'm fairly certain I have some errant genes myself, but one of my main reasons for not wanting children is that I'd rather not inflict this world upon them because I have a hard enough time of it myself.

People have said I'd make a 'good catch' for a woman and that I have qualities befitting a good father - but if I'm honest I really don't want to have to deal with the aggravation of trying to keep a woman pop flyin' and also that of bringing up children.

I prefer to be with my own thoughts in my own space - my happiness is drawn from artwork and writing and stuff.



I don't see why people need to feel important; Humbleness generally promotes better individual qualities than self-importance.

I mean, yeah, people need self-worth and all, but self-worth and self-importance are not synonymous terms.

Of course there's also instances of people being able to draw comfort from pointlessness - i.e: "Nothing I do will ever matter anyway." and even - on occasion - to justify doing something bad - "Sure I've just ruined his chances of ever getting a job, but something like that doesn't matter in the grander scale of things."

Just thinking aloud with that last part.

I'm

that's very bodaciously not what I was trying to communicate, on any front. And since you quoted me there, I genuinely can't tell if you're going out of your way to chastise me specifically over a viewpoint I don't even have, or maybe just being casually condescending of humans in general since "I don't see why people blank" is a pretty much universally obtuse statement that implies something being objectively illogical means it's also not natural or understandable, and therefore willfully stupid. If you were just commenting along the same train of thought that's totally okay but I'm honestly not sure if I should feel a little bit offended right now and admit I'm probably not an accurate judge of intention at the moment, so if I totally misconstrued what you're trying to say I apologize.

For my part, using a common turn of phrase to express regret that I don't have infinite time and chances to consume all knowledge forever doesn't (and isn't meant to) imply that I feel I need cosmic importance. Wanting to retain sentience and continue beyond animal mortality isn't an expression of a belief in some kind of personal religious fable. Wanting to exist forever isn't arrogant. Feeling you deserve to might be if you imply others don't also or something. But the existence of the basic desire itself certainly doesn't indicate a lack of humility.

Besides which, those who pride themselves on being humble cease being so.

I was just carrying over a thought from my previous post - I quoted you because Kamak's post happened in the meantime and sort of broke the chain of logic in the commentary I was making (oops it happened again).

I wasn't chastising you for anything. I was generally defending the nihilistic outlook as having some qualities that aren't entirely self-destructive i.e: "Now I have considered things from a nihilistic standpoint I'm not as important as I thought I was."

Just trying to consider things from a different angle, perhaps.


I never said any of this.

Self-importance is not the same as wanting to exist forever.



Maybe if they brag about it.

'Pride' and 'humbleness' - I can't think of two words more at odds with each other.