4 ms·

Damn! Won't some millionaire here get him the cryogenics treatment. The world should not lose a man like Terry Pratchett.

by etiam 12y ago

etiam 12y ago
Apparently that's pissing people off. Too bad for those who feel offended. I'll stand by my statement. Pratchett has had a profoundly positive impact on the world including my life in particular. I wanted to see him cured and flourishing to a ripe, very old age. If I could have brought about even a moonshot possibility of having that happen eventually I would. But I failed. I was too late. Some others needn't have been. Shit. I don't know that I've ever been this sad at the death of a public person...
- Jach 12y ago
  Alas it's too late, for his brain is dead and warm. There was a nice 'translation of a song' on today's Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality chapter (http://hpmor.com/chapter/120 http://hpmor.com/chapter/120), I'll repost here: Even if the stars should die in heaven, Our sins can never be undone. No single death will be forgiven When fades at last the last lit sun. Then in the cold and silent black As light and matter end, We'll have ourselves a last look back And toast an absent friend.
  - etiam 12y ago
    Thank you.
- eli_gottlieb 12y ago
  He died of a form of Alzheimer's disease. Even if cryonics worked, which it doesn't, that would still be unrecoverable.
  - etiam 12y ago
    It's not clear to me if the dementia was a direct cause of death here. Some losses that could not be truly recovered, yes, depending on the extent of cell death. But much of the symptoms in Alzheimer's disease seems to be due to loss of function in the systems that, roughly speaking, drive the management of memories rather than those that store the memories themselves (hence, for example, possibility for relief of the symptoms in early stages by increasing cholinergic transmission), and neural memory is generally distributed, with loss of neurons or synapses translating into degradation of fidelity or acuity of the memory, rather than downright destruction. It could well be possible in principle to restore resolution to them from what remains of the representation and some assumptions, though it's certainly beyond what we can do today. So in other words, I claim that some of what seems lost may simply be inaccessible, and some of what really is lost is neither completely nor irrecoverably so.
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]

Damn! Won't some millionaire here get him the cryogenics treatment. The world should not lose a man like Terry Pratchett.

by etiam 12y ago

Damn! Won't some millionaire here get him the cryogenics treatment. The world should not lose a man like Terry Pratchett.

etiam 12y ago

Apparently that's pissing people off. Too bad for those who feel offended. I'll stand by my statement. Pratchett has had a profoundly positive impact on the world including my life in particular. I wanted to see him cured and flourishing to a ripe, very old age. If I could have brought about even a moonshot possibility of having that happen eventually I would. But I failed. I was too late. Some others needn't have been. Shit. I don't know that I've ever been this sad at the death of a public person...

Jach 12y ago
Alas it's too late, for his brain is dead and warm. There was a nice 'translation of a song' on today's Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality chapter (http://hpmor.com/chapter/120 http://hpmor.com/chapter/120), I'll repost here: Even if the stars should die in heaven, Our sins can never be undone. No single death will be forgiven When fades at last the last lit sun. Then in the cold and silent black As light and matter end, We'll have ourselves a last look back And toast an absent friend.
- etiam 12y ago
  Thank you.
eli_gottlieb 12y ago
He died of a form of Alzheimer's disease. Even if cryonics worked, which it doesn't, that would still be unrecoverable.
- etiam 12y ago
  It's not clear to me if the dementia was a direct cause of death here. Some losses that could not be truly recovered, yes, depending on the extent of cell death. But much of the symptoms in Alzheimer's disease seems to be due to loss of function in the systems that, roughly speaking, drive the management of memories rather than those that store the memories themselves (hence, for example, possibility for relief of the symptoms in early stages by increasing cholinergic transmission), and neural memory is generally distributed, with loss of neurons or synapses translating into degradation of fidelity or acuity of the memory, rather than downright destruction. It could well be possible in principle to restore resolution to them from what remains of the representation and some assumptions, though it's certainly beyond what we can do today. So in other words, I claim that some of what seems lost may simply be inaccessible, and some of what really is lost is neither completely nor irrecoverably so.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]