17 November 2013

Robert Lanza and his biocentrism - the bright side of death

Robert Lanza must be one hell of a great scientist in his domain, which, if I understand it correctly, is stem cell research. According to his site (that is, to my taste, a bit too heavy on self-aggrandizement) he is up there with toughest and greatest in modern biology, and more power to him.

However, in addition to his day job, Dr Lanza appears to have a hobby, and he has given this hobby a name: biocentrism. Dr Lanza has written a book with that title, but I am not planning to buy it, the linked article was enough for now. So what is in the article?

A curios mixture of good ole solipsism, some pretty muddled other philosophies, some heavily mangled physics and a lot of words stringed together to resemble a serious attempt at a popular science article. The learned author is not missing anything fashionable in the way of catchy buzzwords, like parallel universes, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle (the poor man's sleep is certainly being unduly disturbed), quantum reality etc etc.

And the goal is to explain that "death may not be the terminal event we think". And that "Immortality doesn’t mean a perpetual existence in time, but resides outside of time altogether." You figure out what that means. And if you are, like I, a crusty, obstinate cynic that dares to demand proof for every scientific and (especially) for every quasi-scientific statement, your answer will be something like "Life has a non-linear dimensionality – it’s like a perennial flower that returns to bloom in the multiverse." Poetry where common sense doesn't work is a good line of defense.

Dr Lanza seems to have stumbled (consciously or not) upon the idea exploited with such success by all organized religions: a thinly veiled promise of (de-facto) eternal life, a promise that will be swallowed by many, without asking a whole lot of inconvenient questions. After all, what crusty, obstinate cynic wouldn't like to know that, while his used and abused body is attended by worms in this universe, he/she is attending to an appropriately chilled stein of beer in many other universes?  

Anyway, why a scientist of this (apparently) caliber will even attempt such an underhanded enterprise, filling the readers' minds with such trash is beyond me.

Oh well, I shall better go with that (truly eternal) one:



Now another interesting question is: why does Indie publish an article on that buffoonery in its "Science" rubric?

P.S. And, in the interest of scientific impartiality: of course, I could be terribly wrong, and if I am, believe me, even from another universe, I'll let you know. And you can take this promise to the bank.

14 comments:

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Your cynicism is modern. Belief in eternal life used to be "common sense." But that was before the theory of the Big Bang, whose origin the scientists still can't explain. Oh, well, they'll get around to it, I'm sure.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

You mean they aren't hunting for kidneys and livers? Shocking waste of time.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Have no fear, Lurch is here. He'll have it all fixed up in a jiffy.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

"Part vegetarian part vegan"... hm... an interesting combo"

What's the moral difference between "Part vegetarian part vegan" and "part vegetarian part carnivour"?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNo0i-bwIRM

SnoopyTheGoon said...

You forgot the popular indictment of how the IDF do not rape Palestinian girls. If (or when) a rape of this nature, or any rape for that matter, takes place in Israel, it will be only reasonable to assume that it will codified as "non-rape-washing".

Argumentum ad absurdum :) But unfortunately with this crowd we are speaking of, nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing can ever be assumed to be too absurd.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

They will - or not, as the case might be. But even religious belief pales compared to the balderdash Mr Lanza is selling.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Doubtlessly.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Bingo!

SnoopyTheGoon said...

So true. Mea culpa, and I spend some time a few years ago investigating the no-rape story. Thanks for the reminder.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

You are wrong, but stick around this universe for many long healthy years.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Hummus has become part of the Israeli-Arab conflict. The HBO series "Hung" had a recent episode where the main charecter, a handsome high school teacher in his late thirties who doubles as a high class male prostitute, is heavily pressed by two of his lady clients, one Israeli and the other Lebanese, as to whose Humus he prefers!

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Can the IDF teach that bigotry of not raping local girls to the US Military? It happens rarely, but even then it does a great deal of damage to US relations with the locals. On a larger scale there is a similar problem within the US military concerning the number of rapes of servicewomen by servicemen.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

That's the situation in a nutshell.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Some people say that eating a lot of cabbage makes one docile and takes away the urges. But I am sure IDF doesn't use more cabbage than any other army...