Zjar

Thank you, everyone. This thread is responsible for my having registered as a Science Forums member today, undeterred by when the conversation about dense materials and osmium blew off track. From your links, discovered some fertile things about rhenium as well. Something particularly nice about 'permanent' online compendia is that the articles in Wikipedia have probably been improved upon my reading them this week, beyond what they contained when you posted links there 2 years ago. And threads like this one, to which conversants, including new ones, can add material with new discoveries and perspectives, are a great new way of living we're privileged to share together.

A few people asked what would happen to everything but the memories and/or working personality of a human downloaded into cyberspace (which is a broader term, potentially than the current internet, if seen, like 'virtual reality' as a concept and technology expected to extend into the future and grow). We often assume that biological cells, muscles, nerves, cannot or will never be able to be downloaded, and assume that memories and rules or even fuzzy logic about a personality can be downloaded because they can be transduced into code representations, described in a separate electronic language. Notice, however, that transduction and description in another language is very different from transubstantion, the changing of matter directly into another form. Which is why religions who use terms like that, like Christianity, in which some sects such as Catholicism believe that when an authorized priest blesses bread and wine, it becomes, in a literal or spiritually-inhabited sense, the "body and blood" of someone once alive, leads others (and some adherents) to call this magical. Some would say this of the translation of the humans into TRON's electronic space, and especially if they are sent in via laser beam. However, instead of seeing this transduction of humans into TRON space as impossible, there are certainly people now who are working on making it possible, though guesstimates of how long it will take before they possible succeed in part or entirely vary greatly. These include the people in the popular Singularity movement spearheaded most publicly by Ray Kurzweil, and the related, broader transhumanist movement, which includes physicists just now calling for early theoretical and future practical work in femtotechnology, a few quanta smaller than nanotechnology. If and when we can actually design and build with subatomic particles, using them like bricks in architecture, the direct reuse of the messy body molecules of humans (and other species) may be actually translated and not just reproduced as a separate electronic model that's not really even a copy of the original, but a description. Not a real clone and not a real download. If matter-porting downloads are possible (where Star Trek's transporter beam meet's TRON's laser) then re-uploads back into human living cellular form might be possible too. It will take really tiny tools and their technologies, far beyond our current means. It may even take very large new discoveries and grasp of subparticle physics. So would you take the laser into TRONspace if it were available now? At least temporarily, and if you were guaranteed a way to take another laser or some other vehicle back into human body-scale life, reconstitute as a biological human, with your new experiences intact in you?

Might be interesting, JillS, and maybe extra credit to include in your report some ingredients which may translate to a molecular formula but where there are variations available in detailed molecular configuration, and indicate when you do which configuation (if you know or guess) is used in the household substance about which you're reporting.

What particular methods have been used or might be used to effect the transfer of the electrical energy from the eels, the photons (and infrared?) from the fireflies, or any other electromagnetic radiation? And in the case of eels and other charged animals, the release of the charge is not regular but has to be stimulated, right? Is this harmful or cruel to the eel? Does this affect the eel's diet or rate of feeding? Does this affect the ionization of the surrounding water or biochemistry regarding skin, mucous covering, muscles, nerves and perhaps swim bladder?

There are sanitary, housekeeping, and cultural motives for taking shoes off, which are fairly well known. I wonder what motives there are for keeping shoes on? I can imagine: * wanting to keep feet and/or socks clean(er) * avoidance of showing socks (fashion) * avoidance of showing feet (aesthetic, confidence, anti-sensualist ((some religions probably, like conservative chador wearing perhaps?)), modesty ((morality)) ) * medical ((eg protection after surgery)), physiotherapeutic ((poor posture, skin soles whose grip is incompatible with floor material, texture, or conditions)) ) * 'moral' or emotional support for others who are wearing footwear * protest ((political, religious, interpersonal, mood, existential, artistic, food ethics)) ) * aesthetic ((prefer displaying particular footwear)) * temperature (too hot, too cold, too much change occurring or possible), climate (including microclimate: too humid/ dry/ foggy for those with short range vision) * footwear contains needed accessories (eg mountain climbing tools, stiletto for personal defence or mission, money) * regulations (eg military or organizational or retail store policy, contravening personal conscience) This perspective has more rarely been described. What other motives can we cite or imagine?

OP (from the forum posting etiquette thread) - is this Opening Paragraph?