Go Into Space And Become Immortal With Richard Garriott

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

Okay, aside from concerns that Garriott's past incarnations as Lord and General may have been a bit, well, weird, where's the resistance to this project coming from?

For the lolz!

Still, if all he wants is a DNA strand, then I'll let him go on his space odyssey and we can create clones.

 

[BobisOnlyBob]

If I actually played Tabula Rasa, yeah, I'd be up for this. It's just another genetic archive, the more the better. It's hardly immortality, but the location is both suitable and highly inconvenient, depending on the parameters of the species' particular apocalypse.

Personally, I think it'll be unnecessary (I'm an overoptimistic singularitarian) but the more backups the better, eh?

 

[Melaisis]

Shouldn't they take the Tabula Rasa servers into orbit too? It's the only way to be sure.

Hey, you could say the game is out of this world.

 

[Sigenrecht]

If using gamer DNA to restore the human race in the future is our fate, it will be a very poor populace indeed.

With a lot of genetic breakout issues as well.

 

[Alex_P]

Man, you are so bitter.

I try to give the guy the benefit of the doubt. I have no real reason to hate his work.

He wants to bring a cute little time capsule to space with him? Fine, whatever.

But this... I expect better than this wad of fantasy and ignorance.

Garriott is a a trustee of the X Prize, for fuck's sake! Operation Immortality's little FAQ even says something about how this crap is supposed to promote science education.

Let me repeat my honest question: what is there to like, exactly?

-- Alex

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

i'd of thought penicillin was probably a little more important than sputnik, but then again i'm no richard garriot

An important technological achievment isn't so much about what it does know, but what we can do with it in the future.

Consider fire, sure cooking food and scaring predators are good. What's this? We can craft metal tools using fire, we can keep warm when we travel to cold places, we can boil water to generate power. Those are the real powers of fire, not what fire itself does but what it can be used to do.

Same with space travel.

 

[Andy Chalk]

Let me repeat my honest question: what is there to like, exactly?

I guess I'm just not seeing where the aggressiveness is coming from. I mean fine, it's a crazy-ass idea, but it's not like Richard Garriott is the most normal guy you're ever going to meet. And even if you write off the idea entirely as nothing more than a rich weirdo indulging his adolescent fantasies (which I suppose is pretty much exactly what it is), so what? Where's the harm? It's not like he's demanding your DNA so he can create an army of clones to take over the world.

Even if it's nothing more than just a very quirky contest prize, I give the guy points for coming up with something original for fans.

 

[Alex_P]

Where's the harm?

They're straight-up lying to make this contest seem meaningful. "If the ultimate disaster strikes, this our best, last hope against extinction." "And, theoretically, if anything happens to the human race, it could be their DNA that is used to resurrect humanity."

Garriott is misrepresenting science to a crowd that includes a substantial number of semi-impressionable teens. This is somehow "promoting" science and space education? Maybe they should change that part of the FAQ around.

I'm also getting a whiff of both eugenicist fantasies and "fans are slans" syndrome -- both of these are garbage that sci-fi "fandom" is still struggling to outgrow. Pandering to that is distasteful.

-- Alex

 

[Andy Chalk]

My god, you're right! How dare they attempt to attract new users by pandering to their audience with overexcited hyperbole? That would make this whole thing nothing but... marketing!

Heh, seriously, I know where you're coming from. My gf used to tell me I was being an idiot for getting worked up over Disney movie adaptations of stories like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, because I'd go off about how we're going to end up with a generation of slackjaws who think the Disney versions are the real thing. I guess I've traded sides on this one; Garriott's not going to save the world*, but I don't see any real harm in his self-indulgent sideshow.

(* or is he?)

 

[Alex_P]

A relatively harmless self-indulgent sideshow is still a self-indulgent sideshow.

I'm not angry. I'm annoyed and bemused. I am definitely getting my money's worth of entertainment out of this (easy since I don't think I've ever directly contributed to Richard Garriott's fortune). But, well, in this case my entertainment comes from thinking about just how irredeemably dumb the whole project is.

I will give him this, though: he has a nice beard.

-- Alex

 

[Johnn Johnston]

I will give him this, though: he has a nice beard.

-- Alex

Which is enough to redeem anyone, provided the beard is nice enough.

 

[Alex_P]

Which is enough to redeem anyone, provided the beard is nice enough.

Indeed. I just can't stay mad at that beard.

-- Alex

 

[Arbre]

"Go into space and become immortal"

Aweseome!

"with Richard Garriot"

pass

By setting off that chestband of explosives you have brought with you.

 

[sammyfreak]

My god, you're right! How dare they attempt to attract new users by pandering to their audience with overexcited hyperbole? That would make this whole thing nothing but... marketing!

Heh, seriously, I know where you're coming from. My gf used to tell me I was being an idiot for getting worked up over Disney movie adaptations of stories like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, because I'd go off about how we're going to end up with a generation of slackjaws who think the Disney versions are the real thing. I guess I've traded sides on this one; Garriott's not going to save the world*, but I don't see any real harm in his self-indulgent sideshow.

(* or is he?)

*High five*

Personally I think this is utterly awesome, the world needs more insane rich excentric people who us commoners can laugh at.