Annoying Questions I'd Like Answered...

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 12:18 am

That's ok, Count. You serve as an example to the rest of us that things could always be worse.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 3:10 am

I've certainly lived a fuller life by not doing the things you do.

Hicks · Post by **Hicks** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 9:16 pm

This next question goes out to Frank/medical field professionals/biologist:

In what ways can an organism die? I'm designing a near future space game and would like this list to see how humans and aliens kick their breathing habit.

I''m not looking for an exhaustive list of specific diseases and circumstances, just a general list like :

Hyperthermia, burning
Hyperthermia, freezing
Environment (too much pressure)
Environment (too little pressure)
Toxins
Lack of food
Lack of fluids
Lack of respiration
Electrical shock
Radiation
Diaease (parasites, bacteria, viruses)
Genetic disorder
Trauma

...Did I miss anything?

Count Arioch the 28th · Thu Jan 17, 2013 10:15 pm

Failure to maintain homeostasis is pretty much all you need to know.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 10:47 pm

How come you need all these ways to die? Is it the next Space Quest?

erik · Post by **erik** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 11:48 pm

Hicks wrote: I''m not looking for an exhaustive list of specific diseases and circumstances, just a general list like :

Hyperthermia, burning
Hyperthermia, freezing
Environment (too much pressure)
Environment (too little pressure)
Toxins
Lack of food
Lack of fluids
Lack of respiration
Electrical shock
Radiation
Diaease (parasites, bacteria, viruses)
Genetic disorder
Trauma

Heh, since this is sci-fi, consider adding Discorporation/Disintegration by teleporter, or by energy weapon or by standing at the wrong end of a thruster, which I suppose serves as an energy weapon as well.

Your list is a bit wonky since it has direct physical causes and then it has indirect things that cause those causes, some several connections away from final total organ failure. I don't know what genetic disorder is doing on that list, nor electrical shock... or most of em for that matter. An electrical shock could cause your heart to stop beating which would cause oxygen to no longer be delivered to your brain and other organ bits, leading to death, or an electrical shock could destroy an organ by burning the crap out of it, whatever. There's causes and effects. Going without food for example will eventually cause organ damage which can lead to all your organs failing (i.e. death). Ditto for toxins and most list entries.

Anywho, need to back up a bit. The things we call death now are not the things we called death a hundred years ago. Likewise what we consider death 100 years from now may not be the same as our current standards.

I mean, would we consider someone dead if their body was completely discorporated but the information of their exact physical state were kept running on a computer, waiting for their body and mind to be reproduced?

What about a sentient program that forks itself and then has one of its copies get deleted? What about if both copies merge again?

Once you figure out what you want to call death, then there's the things that directly cause that state.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 1:54 am

erik wrote:I mean, would we consider someone dead if their body was completely discorporated but the information of their exact physical state were kept running on a computer, waiting for their body and mind to be reproduced?

That's been the basis of several Star Trek episodes.

erik · Post by **erik** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 4:10 am

Shrapnel wrote:
erik wrote:I mean, would we consider someone dead if their body was completely discorporated but the information of their exact physical state were kept running on a computer, waiting for their body and mind to be reproduced?

That's been the basis of several Star Trek episodes.

My face when I read this...

But then I went:

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 4:25 am

Well, maybe not the basis of episodes, but due to the way transporter technology works in Star Trek, it could work, theoretically.

In Star Trek, at least.

erik · Post by **erik** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 4:42 am

Oh no, I'm fairly certain it was the basis of at least two TNG episodes (well one exactly, and another with a duplication via teleport). I was just regretting that I did not reference them more overtly. If we had a smiley with a proper Scotty mustache I totally would have placed it after my sentence quoted.

fectin · Post by **fectin** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 4:47 am

Hicks wrote:This next question goes out to Frank/medical field professionals/biologist:

In what ways can an organism die? I'm designing a near future space game and would like this list to see how humans and aliens kick their breathing habit.

I''m not looking for an exhaustive list of specific diseases and circumstances, just a general list like :

Hyperthermia, burning
Hyperthermia, freezing
Environment (too much pressure)
Environment (too little pressure)
Toxins
Lack of food
Lack of fluids
Lack of respiration
Electrical shock
Radiation
Diaease (parasites, bacteria, viruses)
Genetic disorder
Trauma

...Did I miss anything?

a lot of blood acidity
very little blood alkalinity
washing out your kidneys
necroses
punctures in many places
shock
many, many, many brain things
nerve demyelination
nerve over-myelination
skin not able to breathe
tachycardia leading to fibrilation
bradycardia leading to fibrilation
infarctions everywhere
unfortunate variations on the word 'prolapse'
crystallization
endocrine disorders (diabeetus)
prions
losing all your gut flora
chemical burns
two different flavors of suffocation (hypoxia and hypercarbia(I think? Too much CO2))
burst bladder
burst colon
burst other
sudden pressure changes
Giant Frog

...just offhand. There are a lot of ways to die.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 3:12 pm

Many of them good ones!

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 4:34 pm

Ultimately, you die because you do not continue to survive. This means that all forms of death are caused by one of the following:

Lack of nutrition.
Trauma.
Lack of respiration.
Poisoning.

Everything else is just details.

Have a pelvic inflammation that blocks both your ureters? Well that blockage is going to cause pressure buildup in your kidneys, and that's going to cause kidney failure, and that's going to cause a collapse of water balance and a massive increase in waste products. Toxic products and a gross ion imbalance will ultimately corrode your brain's ability to function. Cause of death: poisoning.

Have an abdominal tumor that blocks your intestine? Well, that blockage is going to cause feces to backup through your intestinal track. The muscular action won't stop just because it can't go out the normal way, which means that after a while you're going to start vomiting up your own shit. With the total inability to extract nutrients from food, you'll starve to death while shitting out your mouth. Cause of death: malnutrition.

And so on. There's lots of ways to die. But really there's only like four ways to die. The things we think of are just various fanciful ways of getting there.

Edit: an excess of carbon dioxide is called Hypercapnia. Hypercarbia is supposedly OK according to Wikipedia, but I have never seen it in a medical context.

-Username17

Grek · Post by **Grek** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 4:59 pm

I think you could probably narrow down that list Frank gave a bit more if you define what you mean by death. Is someone that is brain dead dead? Or does their heart have to stop? What if they're a species that doesn't have a heart? What about someone who's had their brain overwritten by nanobots? What about someone who's brain dead and has had their heart stopped, but can still be revived by future super science? What about someone who's been disintegrated and uploaded into a computer like on the Star Trek episodes mentioned above? Or are you going to define it in terms of cells ceasing to respire?

Once you've got that narrowed down, then you just list all the things that could bring about whatever death-criterion you've decided on. This will especially help if you somehow have organisms that don't respire (like androids) or ones that can't suffer from poisoning (like Eclipse Phase infomorphs) and the like.

PoliteNewb · Post by **PoliteNewb** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 5:17 pm

Count Arioch the 28th wrote:According to every woman I've been with, there's only one type of underwear that women actually wear: big. Only whores and porn stars wear anything different, because anything that isn't big grandma panties cause excruciating, indescribable agony that no man would ever ask a woman to endure.

I'm not gonna comment on the rest of your post, but I figured I could throw you a bone here.

My wife prefers full-cut ("big panties") most of the time, because a.) they are comfortable and cheap, and b.) most of the time, nobody is looking at them anyway, because she wears jeans, so it literally does not matter.

That said, there are exceptions.
a.) She will wear the boyshorts style, which are the comfiest kind of somewhat sexy panties; with some lace trim, I'd have to say they are cute, and fairly sexy. She basically wears these any time she thinks there's the possibility of taking her pants off for me unexpectedly, or if she just wants to feel sexy.
b.) She will occasionally wear other styles (g-string, etc), but only specifically for sexytimes, and they usually come off pretty quick. They are (to her) hella uncomfortable, so they are not worth the trouble of wearing.

Full disclosure: I've worn thong underwear (both women's and men's), and while I think they're sexy, they are pretty damn uncomfortable, if you plan on wearing them for more than an hour or so.

Now: please take that information as useful data, and not some verification that the women you know are all emasculating bitches who just want to torture you by refusing to put on sexy underpants. Please.

Count Arioch the 28th · Sat Jan 19, 2013 4:37 am

I'm going to take it as you gloating about how your life isn't as shitty as mine, actually. I'm sure if I was awesome like you, women would do the same for me. But I'm not, so I don't see the point in torturing myself with things I can never have. Suffering only ends when you relinquish your attachment for transient things.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Jan 19, 2013 4:47 am

Count, have you considered trying gay sex? You actually should be able to find a feminine looking guy who can take things larger than your monstrosity of a cock...

Count Arioch the 28th · Sat Jan 19, 2013 5:03 am

Tried it. It's not without its unique charms (and if I didn't feel like the world has broke me right in half, I would possible consider trying it again with the right person), but it just wasn't as good. Also, the last I told that to someone I was dating she called me a fa ggot. Never mind that she was bi herself. Being a bi man is the worst deal ever.

I am working towards trying to release my attachments to the idea of emotional comfort. It's... harder than anything I've tried. I don't do very well most days. All I want is some peace and quiet, and that's so hard to find.

Hicks · Post by **Hicks** » Sat Jan 19, 2013 6:50 am

Thanks Frank. I wanted to nail down getting killed, and that was great stuff.

Ted the Flayer · Post by **Ted the Flayer** » Sat Jan 19, 2013 4:19 pm

Why is it that people complain about how many calories restaurant food has, especially McDonalds?

Is there anyone on the planet that doesn't know that this stuff makes you fat? Sometimes, I want a goddamn cheeseburger, and I don't care about the caloric content because fat and oil makes shit taste delicious. Why do people feel the need to be my guardian and protect me from the delicious food?

I'm pretty sure that everyone knows the mechanics of weight loss these days (I argue that the weight loss gimmick industry isn't funded by ignorance; I think the people who buy the stuff know it's not going to work. It's because of laziness, because losing weight is fucking hard and everyone wants a short-cut.)

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Sat Jan 19, 2013 10:17 pm

The mechanics of weight loss are not as simple as everyone wants to believe. My most successful weight loss was entirely accidental - it was when I was pregnant.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Sat Jan 19, 2013 11:48 pm

You lost weight despite being pregnant? The baby had a negative weight?

I found that I lost a fair amount of weight in hospital, so gall stones and subsequent infection could help.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Sun Jan 20, 2013 12:39 am

Nah. I'm not a skinny person - never have been. When I was twelve, I practiced ballet for hours every day, went to Weight Watchers, and still was overweight. And the older I got, the less inclined doctors were to try to help - they just printed me off a copy of the food pyramid and told me to stop eating so much. I tried that, actually. I kept a food journal with amounts and everything, and ended up gaining weight despite cutting food intake by more than half. Switching to a low carb diet solved a lot of my health problems - asthma, insomnia, hay fever, chronic pain - but I didn't lose that much weight.

When I got pregnant, though, I lost almost 40 pounds (20 kg). I wasn't even trying - if anything, I was slightly worse* than I had been leading up to pregnancy. And my son turned out just fine - he was pretty big (very tall with weight to match) at birth, but he wasn't (and has never been) overweight.

I would love to know what it was about pregnancy that did it.

*I'm picky about my food. I don't eat a lot of sugar, I don't eat foods with lots of preservatives or artificial ingredients, I try to eat organic when I can afford it. Being worse means I ate a brownie or had an ice cream bar - and mostly, I made those things myself so I could control what went into them.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Sun Jan 20, 2013 12:42 am

Coulda been you became a diabetic during pregnancy - that happens sometimes.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Sun Jan 20, 2013 1:47 am

Ancient History wrote:Coulda been you became a diabetic during pregnancy - that happens sometimes.

Nope. Was tested. Twice.