Very Hottest Photos

It’s no secret your poor health wearies you. If you could download your consciousness into a robot body that would never get sick or die, would you? Why or why not?

No.

Just to get the least existential reason out of the way first, I am too much of a cynic to think nothing could ever go wrong with a robot body. Even if I wanted to be immortal, the odds are the body could eventually malfunction and be damaged beyond repair. In that case, I would be merely delaying the inevitable. Even worse, there is a possibility the body could be partially damaged, thereby giving me a disability for eternity rather than just by allotted three score and ten and some change if God has other plans. What is the value in that?

But for the rest of my argument, I will cast aside my cynicism--not an easy task, that--and assume the process of downloading my consciousness into a robot body works as planned and I become a perfectly healthy, immortal thingamabob. It does not sound like a good idea, either.

First, I have questions about my soul. I believe I have one, so skeptics need not bother calling me on it. I have heard your arguments from years of engaging in apologetics. You have nothing new to tell and I already know you believe I am ignorant. Save your breath. The human body is greater than the sum of its parts. Whatever that spark of life is, it has something to do with the soul. The consciousness is the closest way I can define it, so removing it from the body sounds like a no-no in the first place. I am not eager to house it in an immortal body, either.

Second, I am no hedonist, but I think I would lose a lot of human pleasures trapped inside a robot body. Even with emotions intact, there is the lost sensation of human touch, food, and drink, an afternoon nap, petting my cat, or a thousand other things I could come up with if I thought about the possibilities. The consequences that come right off the top of my head are the same day because I would not be able to create new memories. enough of a deterrent.

Third, I could not watch the cycle of life and death continue for all eternity, even assuming that would happen. Neurologists now theorize the brain only has the capacity to store about 400 years worth of memory. Assuming my mind in this robot body is still mine, I could wind up like Drew Barrymore in Fifty First Dates. Every day is But even assuming that does not happen, I cannot imagine forming new attachments over and over again, only to watch people I love wither away and die. I would eventually wind up an emotionally dead hermit.

Finally, who wants to live forever? Even Christians rely on the faith God has made heaven stimulating enough for us to want to spend eternity there because of doubts we would want to live anywhere forever. Things have to end, or else the experience gets stale as it becomes too familiar. A person can get bored with anything, but particularly when one has enough time to do everything.

There are too many con arguments with downloading my consciousness into a robot body to seriously consider the pro arguments valid. Near as I can tell, the only pro argument is getting rid of health problems I am currently suffering. That would wind up as temporary relief versus never ending negative consequences even if the transfer works perfectly. I do not see how any reasonable person would go for the option.

What's your sleeping position?

On my side with my top arm resting on a large pillow. It is a throwback to the months after my hip surgery in 1992 when I used to put a pillow between my knees to hold my hip joints at a comfortable angle. It does not feel right to sleep without one now.

Where all have you lived? How have you liked those places?

I lived just outside the city limits of a small city of Hartsville for fifteen years. When my parents divorced, I moved to a house in the city . That was still considered my official residence during college at the university of South Carolina in Columbia where my residence hall living status was updated based on my upperclassmen standing. I moved to colmbia for a year after college, then back to Hartsville to have and recuperate from surgery. I then lived in Virginia Beach for three years while at law school. I never returned to my old Hartsville house for much other than to bury my mother and wrap up the loose ends of her life. I now live on a lake in another part of Hartsville.

I liked growing up outside the city limits. We had a big yard and woods nearby to play in. there were lots of places to ride bikes and such. I was a long way off from having hip replacement surgery, but I could still get around well enough to enjoy being a kid. I had many, many cats back then, too. It is where I learned to appreciate them so much.

Moving downtown as a teenager was cool. I had long since outgrown the desire to romp around woods and such. Without going into a whole lot of personal detail, my mother acted more like a teenager than I did at the time, so I often wound up with the house to myself. Every sixteen year old’s dream, right? The only drawbacks to living there are memories of recovering from my double hip replacement and my mother’s descent into alcoholism there towards the end. I was away in Columbia and Virginia Beach for much of the latter, but I still had to deal with it to varying degrees on a regular basis. Alone, more often than not.

I loved college. My junior and senior years were the best living situations. I had three roommates, but it was apartment style dorms, so we had plenty of room to not get on each other’s nerves, save for obnoxiously loud music and a few awkward girlfriend encounters. My room was robbed my senior year, but whoever broke in only took money and a few small objects, presumably to pawn. Otherwise, I have no complaints about anywhere I lived during my college experience.

The year after I graduated, I had a nice apartment, but a pain in the butt roommate who was a selfish slob. He made maintaining my first place out on my own a difficult experience, but who really enjoys their first apartment outside of the new freedom it offers?

I lived in an apartment complex owned by Pat Robertson when I attended Regent university in Virginia Beach. It was not a happy time, however. Law school is like a visit to the dentist. Some days it is just a cleaning. Other days it is a root canal. But either way, it is unpleasant. I did particularly enjoy many of my more fundamentalist classmates. I was cursed with two as roommates, so that was lovely. The cost of living was ridiculous because it is a resort town , but I got few benefits of vacationing fun. Regent was on the wrong side of the tracks. Not a good three years.

I am preoccupied with health issues these days to dwell on living arrangements. There are water moccasins in the lake. That kind of sucks.

A few months ago, my sister gave me a brand new laptop. I had to use Internet Explorer for the first time in at least six years in order to download Firefox. But before I could get to Mozilla, I noticed IE 7 had a feature that could enlarge the display by any percentage I wanted. That was a blessing for my pitiful lone peeper, so I declined Firefox to stick with IE 7, numerous warts and all.

Internet Explorer 7 and I had a happy, though often sluggish and reluctant to handle Java relationship all these months. A couple days ago, it became clear IE 7’s inability web browsing was overshadowing any benefits I received from easily enlarging pages to any size I needed, so I switched to IE 9. I am profoundly disappointed with the switch. As far as I am concerned, IE 9 has been just as slow and troublesome, but does not allow for the entire page to be enlarged. Only the fonts. What a gyp. Why would a developer get rid of such a useful feature two browsers later?

In response to my disappointment, I downloaded Firefox 4 and Chrome whatever the heck generation it is. Thirteen, I think. I have been playing with all three to find out which is the best. I am still having a tough time with the pros and cons.

I have gotten used to IE over the last few months. I am prone to get into a groove and stick with it, even if it is not the best, because it works for me. Hence, I stuck with IE 7 much longer than I should have as far as optimal browsing is concerned. So I am still comfortable with where everything is, but only having the fonts enlarged is annoying. Plus, even though I have downloaded the latest updates, I am still having problems with java.

Firefox 4 is a disappointment from past versions, too. It runs sluggishly even though I have a barebones, very few applications browser. It will enlarge the entire page, as well, but it will not stay that way. I have to enlarge every page I visit rather than it being a permanent setting like it was in IE 7. I never thought I would say it, but aside from its better handling of Java, Firefox has fallen behind IE for the first time ever.

Which brings us to Chrome. It is still an unpopular browser outside of the youngest web surfers, but I notice Firefox 4 has copied many of its features. The barebones chrome I have been using is lightning fast, which I like. Again, Chrome will enlarge a page in its entirety, but has to be done for every page visited. No problems with java, but book marking and access to bookmarks has really annoyed me so far. It is the only browser I have ever seen that puts bookmarks on the far right. Exactly where my blind eye cannot see it, of course.

Out of the three, I have wound up using Chrome more than the others. I have still been switching almost arbitrarily between the three when I go online hoping some new ly discovered aspect of one will completely blow the other two out the water. So far, not really. If anyone more technologically minded has any insight on something useful I have not yet discovered, please speak up.