Holy crap I was not prepared for that. Hahahaha, awesome!

My question is, what does this mean for... well anything really? Are there any particular real world applications for this knowledge or ways that it noticeably affects people, or is it just cool to know? How will scientist use this new knowledge going forward?

Anybody know?

"In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him." - Ender Wiggin, Ender's Game

Thanks for posting this. I guess I better go get my tin can and string to have some private conversations.

Well I wish you the best of luck!

Alas, I'm sorry your plans didn't work out. So what do you do now then, if I may ask?

Took me a long time and the loss of a few friends to learn that second one. Great advice!

I'm currently attending Santa Barbara City College. Despite it being a city college and despite the fact that I didn't choose it, I'm really glad I go there. The professors are there to teach at a CC as opposed to many other schools and since it's in beautiful southern California people really want to teach there, so we have great teachers. Also, it's super cheap.

Very cool, thanks!

Followup question: How does one pronounce hubski properly? Is it hub-skee or hub-skeye? Or should I pronounce it with a soft I so that I sound like I have a British accent and I'm doing an R drop? Oh please can it be the British one!? I love British accents!

I completely agree with you my good man (or woman, as the case may be)!

I think this is really good advice. I'm very logical guy and so when people would come to me with a problem I would try to solve it. One of two things would always happen though, either the person would stop coming to me with their problems or I would become exasperated with them and stop wanting to listen to their problems.

Eventually I realized that no matter how good of a solution you have to someone's problem it's still totally unhelpful if they're not in a place where they can hear that.

Never be afraid of being wrong.

By which is meant: Don't let fear stop you from considering that you may be wrong. Don't let fear stop you from admitting that you're wrong. Don't let fear stop you from trying things and having opinions.

After studying ethics I've realized that you just can't create a logical justification for being a good person. It seems to me though, that this is just about as close as you can come. Pain sucks, that's universal. So, lets minimize that. And past the cold rationality, helping people just makes me happy.

It seems to me that if your moral code suddenly stops working because of a change in circumstances (other than something like the zombie apocalypse), then you should get a better moral code. Furthermore if you stop being a good person as soon as your death grows near, then I have my doubts as to whether you were ever a good person.

Now of course that's all philosophical. Psychologically, it does seem that people change their behavior when they know they're going to die and they stop doing things like considering the consequences of their actions.

The thing about that is (and someone correct me if the science says otherwise) I don't think that you'd have the same experience of flipping out and not considering consequences if you had time to prepare. Now some people probably couldn't or wouldn't handle it and would end up doing some shitty things. If you prepared yourself for it though, I think it would be a fantastic chance to get your affairs in order and to make sure that you're ready when the time comes.

I think what it really comes down to is personal preference and personal mental state/personality. Me, I'd love to know. College seems smart now, but if I found out I was going to die next year I'd want to drop out and make the most of the little time I had left. On the other side of the spectrum if I found out that I was going to die at 105, then plans wouldn't change much. I'd love to be able to plan for my demise though, to come to terms with it, make peace with it, and ultimately make sure that I have a good death in the classic Greek sense. More generally, I think it would help me with life planning immensely if I knew where the end-point was.

All that's me though. I do think that many people would be better off not knowing.