[ExI] virtual travel improving all the time

[Max More]

Hey, Spike, Anders, other ExI pals -- come to the Alcor-40 conference and
stay a few days extra. We'll take a trip to the Grand Canyon. I haven't
been into it in well over 20 years.

--Max


On Fri, Jun 22, 2012 at 6:58 AM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:

>
>
>  >> the awesome feeling of climbing down into Grand Canyon...Anders
>
> This is a terrific example, for the comment brought back fond memories from
> 11 years ago when my bride and I, along with another couple, hiked from the
> south rim to the north rim, with three nights on the trail.  We became
> acquainted with two other couples doing the same thing down there and
> became
> friends, for it was a fairly unusual pair of groups: we were four engineers
> who went to school together, they were four doctors who went to school
> together.  They were all around 30, we were all around 40.  With the decade
> handicap, the oldster engineers were still able to hike their young socks
> off.  Of course, they offered a perfectly logical explanation: we were
> spending our weekends hiking, they were spending theirs working at the
> hospital.
>
> The reason I wanted to hike the Grand Canyon was I wanted to examine the
> interface where the layers change.  Look at this photo, and notice the
> transition a few hundred meters down from the rim of the canyon, especially
> visible toward the right of the photo where the color changes from tan to a
> reddish brown:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GRANDVIEWREVB.jpg
>
> I had flown over the canyon a number of times on my way to and from Phoenix
> and had wondered what the heck that transition was.  I wanted to see that
> up
> close.  So I talked my bride and my friends into doing this three day hike,
> reasoning that the trail had to cross that transition somewhere, so I could
> look at it.
>
> A few hours into the hike, as we neared that transition, I marveled at how
> abrupt that layer changes, even as you get closer to it.  It appeared just
> as sharp as when viewed from 10 km in a plane.  Still closer, still
> appeared
> to be a sharp transition.  Eventually I found a place on the trail where I
> could walk right up to that layer change.  It is so sudden that you can
> find
> that transition and place your thumb on it.  Half your thumb will be
> touching a tan material and half will be touching the reddish brown.  The
> layer boundary is as sharp as if you drew it with a pencil.
>
> To this day, I find it completely astonishing that geological layers have a
> transition that abrupt.
>
> That is an example of something that cannot be experienced by virtual
> travel
> in any real sense.  The feel of the air, the opportunity to meet the young
> doctors.
>
> spike
>
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>



-- 
Max More, PhD
Strategic Philosopher
Co-editor, *The Transhumanist Reader*
CEO, Alcor Life Extension Foundation
7895 E. Acoma Dr # 110
Scottsdale, AZ 85260
480/905-1906 ext 113
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