Introduction to Maya - Rendering in Arnold
This course will look at the fundamentals of rendering in Arnold. We'll go through the different light types available, cameras, shaders, Arnold's render settings and finally how to split an image into render passes (AOV's), before we then reassemble it i
# 31 12-08-2010 , 10:27 AM
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Hi Andy,

well I disagree....if cloning techniques get better AND if they could find a way to download your memories you could pretty much download to a new body every time you were in distress.

Cancer I believe is only so prevelant now due to the fact we do have longer lifespans...remember, the average male not too many moons ago, didnt live long enough for modern diseases. The longer the lifespan, the more chance you have at mutated cells due to environmental influences.

No nothing can last forever BUT compare a lifespan of even 500 years to now...it probably would seem like forever at the time. Rot wont worry you, synthesise a new organ etc etc this is already a reality.

As for the 2nd para in my spiel, it would be very interesting to found out (if possible) whether earlier man DID have cancer, disease etc compared to modern man and at what age?? Now that would be riveting science indeed!!!

cheers bullet


bullet1968

"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes
# 32 12-08-2010 , 11:01 AM
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Ah, but you said immortality. Duplication and transfer is quite different. It is not immortality, but simply many mortalities.
That brings up a whole other set of issues regarding the recordability of thoughts and memories into a foreign body. In theory, one could create a computer of sorts that could read the brain's impulses, record them, and play them back or return them to an external source, and yet, where would they get this extra brain that would replace your previous one? Soft-tissue cloning, especially now, has been left rather untested, and we know little of how one could connect a cloned organ to a cloned vessel, be it, the body. The human body's various systems hold such complexity that to undertake such research would be not only vastly unethical, but also would be the most difficult of sciences. If, when cloning the body, one also cloned the brain, and it managed to develop correctly along with the rest of the cloned being, and if the computer stated above did exist, one could, once again in theory, get the impression of being immortal. Though, as I said, true immortality, being the infinite lifespan of a constantly living creature, is impossible by any real means.

This calls to mind another question. Would it be the same person? Would they have the same perspective? Conscience is not something one can transfer; it is more than a series of thoughts, it is a preternatural process. We know nothing of how ones existence is formed; it delves to deep into speculation and philosophy, and it rather depressing, at that!
(Everyone you know and love, and everything you think, is just the result of chemical reactions within your body and their bodies; meaning nothing between two humans has any real meaning or cognition save for those your own chemical reactions interpret, which calls to mind whether anything can be proven as real or true, if you are relying on chemical reactions which you have no control over and no knowledge of. I often ponder this and get rather morose. Don't let it get you down though, haha, life is what you make it.)

Back on topic;
Yes, cancer has been around for many years, though it has picked up drastically in the past hundred years. If life span were the issue, we would not also be seeing an increase of childhood cancers, and yet, we are. Along these same lines are the autism statistics, as well as almost any disease they consider "Inherited" when they should be labeled "Degenerated".
(Actually: History of Cancer )

Beyond that, as I said, this is the first generation that is expected to have a shorter lifespan than its predecessor. This is rather disconcerting considering the previous trend of lifespan; that with an upward slope.

And I sure hope death is never cheated; overpopulation is already an issue. Scientists have long-claimed that the world can only indefinitely support 500 million people. Currently, we are around 7 Billion. If we suddenly decided we could live forever, ironically, we would all be doomed.

This also calls to mind evolution; if humans are so self-absorbed as to think we are the end-all-be-all of life on Earth, they are crazy. Life in one million years will be as different as going back one million years. Humans will be long gone, in favor of some higher-developed life-form. Humans at this rate will never last as long, anyway, leaving room for other creatures to evolve to their potential without man's interference. So if one man were to find a way to be immortal, he would be a lone-man among a swarm of lower life for a long-while, until they developed into what humans once were, and beyond. The man would be left, undeveloped, and would live a rather sad existence alone. Speaking his English or French to ears which were not meant to hear such mumblings and gibberish.

I'm afraid I am enjoying writing about this a bit too much!


Environment Artist @ Plastic Piranha
www.joopson.com

Last edited by Joopson; 12-08-2010 at 11:16 AM.
# 33 12-08-2010 , 11:19 AM
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Having a hard day in the pissing rain I am enjoying this Andy!!!

Well it immortality depends on your point of view. IS the continuous existence of the body truly the idea of immortality? I dont, I actually agree with the second statement that we ARE all just recordings...right down to your conscience. IF you didnt exist then you never were so to speak...so everything you have, love etc etc is learned and imprinted in the mind. Now DONT ask me to quantify the mind..that is well and truly not understood...so I may just be completely wrong about memories. SO techinally your ARE being immortal by transfer as everything you are is a result of learned situations etc. So yes (depressing bit) maybe we are just chemical reactions??

Yes cancer has sprung forth BUT how?? I believe that due to the longer lifespan we are giving the mutated genes to our children etc etc. There was a show on a while back..cant remember the exact name but it was something like chemical kids. It tested people from the beginning of the last century to detect mutations, disease, chemical imprints etc in cells. It was (just from my memory) something like 500 chemicals in the modern human compared to about 30-50 in our Great grandparents.

So cancer MAY have just been given to us through development of the modern world. I believe some resaerch is actually going on in this field to determine what went wrong. My 6 year old boy was asked to participate in such a study at school.

cheers bullet

P.S keep it up...Im sure Chirone will dart in

PPS forgive the spelling and grammar...I couldnt be bothered LOLOLOLOL


bullet1968

"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes
# 34 12-08-2010 , 11:39 AM
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I agree to a point that everything we are is a result of our past, but I equate our souls and conscience to some transient spot within our body; somehow not the result of chemical reactions or memories, but rather, imprinted from birth and left largely unshaped by experience, and yet influenced by our mind, whom takes our past into account.
I am unaware of how this could be, but conscience and lucidity seem too complicated and dynamic a state to be drawn in such a two-dimensional way. I am an atheist too, and yet I somehow do find a soul to exist; a kind of inherent energy taken from the world that makes up our conscience. Taken from the past, and from those around us. Those we are spawned from, et cetera. I can find no logical explanation for existence, or even more particularly, my existence, and so I find that conscience and soul, or whatever you may call it, may simply be undefinable by its very nature. I'm afraid it hurts my brain to so much as ponder it.
I mean, try, with all your power, to understand existence within your mind. It is overwhelming. It is, despite what humans may want, impossible to label.
I suppose that is why people are religious; religion offers a simple explanation for existence and for your life. I just cannot take such hard and fast explanations.
(But, since it is against the rules, I shan't get any further into religion)
I will write more tonight, I believe.


Environment Artist @ Plastic Piranha
www.joopson.com
# 35 12-08-2010 , 11:59 AM
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Well now that I have been drained by the inclement weather, 3D modelling for services within the new estate and now YOU Andy.....bahahahaha I am going to retire. I will check however @ 0500 tomorrow before I leave for the inspiring (not) work I do check in on your response.

Yes, I too am Atheist but have no need or desire to explain it...it just is. Something wonderful happened and life began...we cant as yet (maybe never) fully comprhend what, where and how life became. Some mystery is good for your mind...lets face it, if we knew everything it would be pretty boring LOL.

I do have a simialr outlook, where all of the past is present in you. When you die, the memories are transferred through your children etc BUT (soul, conscience I guess) what happens to that. The energy, the actual fibre of your being?? is it transferred somehow anyway?? Is it reborn? is it lost? This I guess we will all find out when we die.

I agree with the religion part, no I wont break the rules....I think that there isnt 1 or minimal explanations. Thats why it cant be labelled, no matter what we desire. It takes multitudes of various inputs to make life....a wondeful organic machine. We are but babes in the understanding of the universe and everything in it. Makes you wonder 'why humans'? doesnt it? (brain drain there!!)

Why were the humans the ones to understand, be self aware etc etc. (Green men??) possible. Anyway my friend...I will now retire and ponder some more, before sleep deprivation gets a tad too robust.

Humour: the answer is 42...bahahahaha oh damn....what was the question...bahahahaha classic.

cheers and beers bullet


bullet1968

"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes
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