virus: TEOTD (thought experiment of the day)
« on: 2004-01-17 08:33:04 »
Say you have a one time opportunity to send a short message (1kb max) back in time. Assume that your message will be automatically translated so that it is understood by the recipient. What would you send, to whom and when, and why?
> Say you have a one time opportunity to send a short message (1kb max) > back in time. Assume that your message will be automatically translated > so that it is understood by the recipient. What would you send, to whom > and when, and why?
RE: virus: TEOTD (thought experiment of the day)
« Reply #2 on: 2004-01-17 17:44:14 »
...i would send it back to the year 1585 addressed to a young Muhammed and say, "we in the future have discovered that eating lead shavings has increased our lifespans significantly. but dont tell anyone else! mums the word!
DrSebby. "Courage...and shuffle the cards".
----Original Message Follows---- From: "David McFadzean" <david@lucifer.com> Reply-To: virus@lucifer.com To: <virus@lucifer.com> Subject: virus: TEOTD (thought experiment of the day) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2004 08:33:04 -0500
Say you have a one time opportunity to send a short message (1kb max) back in time. Assume that your message will be automatically translated so that it is understood by the recipient. What would you send, to whom and when, and why?
Wouldn't it do greater good if it eliminated christianity?
(Historically it would probably mean we would have experienced similar crusades from moslems.)
On Sat, 17 Jan 2004, Dr Sebby wrote:
> ...i would send it back to the year 1585 addressed to a young Muhammed and > say, "we in the future have discovered that eating lead shavings has > increased our lifespans significantly. but dont tell anyone else! mums the > word! > > DrSebby. > "Courage...and shuffle the cards". .. > ----Original Message Follows---- > From: "David McFadzean" <david@lucifer.com> > > Say you have a one time opportunity to send a short message (1kb max) > back in time. Assume that your message will be automatically translated > so that it is understood by the recipient. What would you send, to whom > and when, and why? --- To unsubscribe from the Virus list go to <http://www.lucifer.com/cgi-bin/virus-l>
I'd alert the Secret Service to the fact that Oswald was going to shoot President Kennedy from the Dallas Book Depository in 1963. That would prevent our involvement in Vietnam which would have prevented Nixon from winning in 1968. Stopping that creep with his gun would have changed history and saved thousands of lives.
----- Original Message ----- From: "David McFadzean" <david@lucifer.com> To: <virus@lucifer.com> Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2004 8:33 AM Subject: virus: TEOTD (thought experiment of the day)
> Say you have a one time opportunity to send a short message (1kb max) > back in time. Assume that your message will be automatically translated > so that it is understood by the recipient. What would you send, to whom > and when, and why? > > --- > To unsubscribe from the Virus list go to <http://www.lucifer.com/cgi-bin/virus-l>
Re:virus: TEOTD (thought experiment of the day)
« Reply #5 on: 2004-01-18 04:00:22 »
My very brief message would include, "Come to America with your sisters!", and it would be addressed to my Czech namesake (no, not Zloduska, my real name), who I never met but always wished I had. When I finally did follow in her footsteps (about a century later, and about a decade after she died) where she lived, I somehow felt a deep, profound connection to another time, a place, and to her- a 'stranger' and a relative I never knew in person. Like an imaginary friend or ghost. It was a very odd feeling of pseudo-deja vu that gripped me, like experiencing something a second time that I never even done before as myself, but in another body/spirit/consiousness. Ever go somwhere and have it be strange and new but eeriely familiar at the same time? I recall, I had never been there before in my life, but drunk on buckets of red wine, aimlessly roaming in the middle of the night, no map or directions, not a soul in sight, seemingly lost, found my way around a strange city without any problem at all. Felt a certain guiding presence most of the time. Weird for a skeptic like me, for sure.
>Say you have a one time opportunity to send a short message (1kb max) back in time. Assume that your message will be automatically translated so that it is understood by the recipient. What would you send, to whom and when, and why? />
What? No shallow selfish folk here? :-) I don't think that I could resist sending myself the winning numbers for a huge lotto pool. (a hundred million US at very least) I could help fund a lot of transhuman projects with that kind of dough, not to mention living cushy in the mean time.
Re:virus: TEOTD (thought experiment of the day)
« Reply #8 on: 2004-01-18 21:31:32 »
[Lucifer] In answering the TEOTD you have to make some assumptions. I'm assuming that any message that I send back in time will significantly affect the timeline. If it isn't significant, and doesn't make a difference, then the opportunity is wasted. If the message is sent to a time before I was born, then my existence will be eliminated. If it is sent during my lifetime, then my life from the destination time of the message to now will be different, and my life from that point on will be lost. Therefore I want to send the message back to a time as recent as possible in order to lose as little as possible of my life.
I considered sending myself stock price history data, but realized that winning lotto numbers would be a much easier way to get much wealthier in a relatively short time. I wouldn't be satisfied with just one lottery though, I would send back as many winning combinations as I could fit into the size limit of the message, probably a dozen or so. One winning lottery would be for me, and the rest would be for trusted friends and associates given on the condition that they donate half of their winnings to the Church of Virus at some later time to be determined. I figure we could get several hundred million dollars into Virus this way.
Just when I thought I was out-they pull me back in
Re: virus: TEOTD (thought experiment of the day)
« Reply #9 on: 2004-01-19 20:48:37 »
Outstanding, Seb!!!!!
Dr Sebby wrote:
> ...i would send it back to the year 1585 addressed to a young Muhammed and > say, "we in the future have discovered that eating lead shavings has > increased our lifespans significantly. but dont tell anyone else! mums the > word! > > DrSebby. > "Courage...and shuffle the cards". > > ----Original Message Follows---- > From: "David McFadzean" <david@lucifer.com> > Reply-To: virus@lucifer.com > To: <virus@lucifer.com> > Subject: virus: TEOTD (thought experiment of the day) > Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2004 08:33:04 -0500 > > Say you have a one time opportunity to send a short message (1kb max) > back in time. Assume that your message will be automatically translated > so that it is understood by the recipient. What would you send, to whom > and when, and why? > > --- > To unsubscribe from the Virus list go to > <http://www.lucifer.com/cgi-bin/virus-l> > > _________________________________________________________________ > Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* > http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail > > --- > To unsubscribe from the Virus list go to <http://www.lucifer.com/cgi-bin/virus-l>
--
Walter Watts Tulsa Network Solutions, Inc.
"Reminding you to help control the human population. Have your sexual partner spayed or neutered."
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