'Bon apetite' was Re: [extropy-chat] wretched journalists strikeagain

spike spike66 at comcast.net
Wed Dec 14 04:54:57 UTC 2005


> http://food.oregonstate.edu/ref/culture/allen.html
> 
>  Necessary disclaimer: I do not advocate nor condone
> cannibalism or other forms of ghoulish behavior
> directed toward Americans or other higher primates
> except in those extremely rare circumstances where
> jungle law trumps civilized behavior. The Avantguardian

What about cases where the victim *wants* to be 
devoured?  The meal would presumably donate her 
dead-of-natural-causes mortal remains to those 
who wish to devour human flesh.

I can imagine such a thing.  Suppose for instance
one views life from the point of view of a carbon
atom, an anthropomorphic view.  What was life 
like?  Well, there was this big bang, then lots
of nothing for a looong time, then stars, then
eventually supernovae, in which the carbon atom
was born and hurled into space.  A looootta 
nothing, then eventually it fell into a star
system, orbited around and around for a long
time, then combined with a couple of oxygen atoms,
stayed that way for a long time, so boring this
existence.

Then one day, it becomes part of a plant!  OK
this is sorta cool, but the plant perished, into
the ground, carbon dioxide again for a long time,
then plant, CO2, plant, coal, CO2, for eons,
occasionally becoming part of an animal, which
is way better than being part of a plant, running
around, perhaps being devoured by another animal,
which is perfectly OK for a carbon atom, doesn't
hurt a bit.  

But most of the time over these eons, the carbon atom 
stays as CO2, until the fortunate (for a carbon
atom) event happens where it is incorporated into
a human!  These cool animals do a lot of interesting
stuff, so those few years are a lot of carbon fun!  But
it lasts for only a short time, after which it is just
more monotonous ages as carbon dioxide, or even worse
coal, or worse still, diamond.  Diamond carbon atoms
never get to do much of anything.

If on the other hand, the human carbon atoms are devoured 
by another human, some of the carbon atoms get incorporated 
into the tissues of the devourer, so they get another fun 
ride.  

Well lets see, 12 grams of carbon is 6e23, so a typical
prole is about three to five octillion carbon atoms, and 
they served you well, did they not?  They did so much
for you: forming chains, supporting metabolism, making
possible all the excellent adventures you enjoyed all these
years.  So do not these carbons deserve a shot at another 
70 or 80 exciting trips around the sun?  YES!  What does 
it cost you?  Nada!  Have your head frozen, then convince 
several (admittedly weird) fellow proles to consume the
remaining three to five octillion little 6-proton friends, 
who richly deserve to be devoured.  Do it for the team.

spike







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