Forum Topic

pulserifle187
MemberOvomorphAug-22-2012 7:02 AMdoes anyone have information or theories about the life expectancy of an engineer?
"how do you feel?"-" great, next stupid question"
71 Replies

Necronom 4
MemberNeomorphAug-22-2012 7:13 AMThe Engineers seem to spend long periods of time in Stasis, so maybe they spend most of their life in the Cryo Chambers, only waking up when work has to be done? What a life...So probably a short life span, like the Alien?
The poster was good though!

David 1
MemberOvomorphAug-22-2012 7:20 AMnope.
But you'll get to see those who say "1000000 years of life span"
or maybe "a short life span like the xeno"
or "if we come from them than they should have more or less the same life span as we do"
or even "their bio-xeno-suits gives them more life time"
I'd say it depends on the amount of SPICE they consume.
"The Spice extends life. The Spice expands conscienceness, The Spice is vital for Space traveling"
And never forget those who'll point out, if they have a great life span why the use of CryoPods?" and all the considerations that would sure to follow such as:
"if they have great life time expectancy why would they need cryo pods"
and someone would reply:
"because of x, y and z"
in turn that would bring
"oh yeah, never thought of that, but..."
and so on.
[b]Ask nothing from no one. Demand nothing from no one. Expect nothing from no one.[/b]

David 1
MemberOvomorphAug-22-2012 7:23 AMahahahah ^^^^^^ necro and I wrote at the same time ^^^^^^
[b]Ask nothing from no one. Demand nothing from no one. Expect nothing from no one.[/b]

allinamberclad
MemberOvomorphAug-22-2012 8:18 AM@David 1
I find it hard to forget the migraine-inducing complexities someone on here came up with, while trying to convince me that the Engineers were, literally, immortal.
I discovered that no amount of pointing out that the fact of the Engineers' various untimely deaths meant they couldn't be immortal seemed to make any difference, whatsoever - nor did querying what, "immortal", Engineers would need some Life-supporting stasis chambers for.

David 1
MemberOvomorphAug-22-2012 8:36 AMAllinamberclad:
may i just call you "Clad"? it makes it so much easier.
Yes, I know what you mean and I hear you. Some folks just want things to be their way, no matter how much evidence is right in front of their eyes.
Then again, the Sacificial Enginner died. The other Enginners at LV seem to be dead. And Bob died as well. There goes Imortality.
[b]Ask nothing from no one. Demand nothing from no one. Expect nothing from no one.[/b]

zzplural
MemberOvomorphAug-22-2012 8:39 AMEven an immortal Engineer might get bored waiting a couple of thousand years for something to happen. Why not have a kip instead?
If one accepts the basic premise that the Engineers are thousands or - more probably - many millions of years ahead of us technologically, it's hard to imagine that they could be anything [i]other[/i] than immortal (if that's what they wanted, and they managed to avoid accidents or violence). I'd wager that humans will have cancer, disease and ageing well and truly cracked within a few hundred years.
The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent

David 1
MemberOvomorphAug-22-2012 8:52 AMzz plural:
nothing that lives lives forever. Nature doesn't seem to apreciate imortality.
Then again, if you say that if "they managed to avoid accidents or violence" that wouldn't make them immortal at all, ´cause they could stil die (of accidents or violence). Nature wins.
[b]Ask nothing from no one. Demand nothing from no one. Expect nothing from no one.[/b]

zzplural
MemberOvomorphAug-22-2012 9:59 AMBiological immortality and vulnerability to death by physical trauma are two different things. Certain types of sea creature are considered by some biologists to be immortal, for example, despite the fact that they may be killed or eaten.
The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent

David 1
MemberOvomorphAug-22-2012 10:26 AMzzplural:
Than that is not immortality, but endurance/ phisical resistence.
There seems to be a lot of confusion an misuse of words to express an idea, in this case the ability not to die.
Mortal - that which once living, dies.
Immortal - That which lives and can not die.
Eternal - That which has no beginning neither end.
Eviternity - That which has no beginning but has an end.
Thus, if certain types of sea creature can be killed, means that sea creature was alive and it died (i.e. mortal).
If it is Biological it has life, if it is living, it eventualy dies. that is Mortality in any case possible.
[b]Ask nothing from no one. Demand nothing from no one. Expect nothing from no one.[/b]

allinamberclad
MemberOvomorphAug-22-2012 11:50 AM*Deja-vu hits with the force of a fully-loaded Express train, at full bore...*

zzplural
MemberOvomorphAug-22-2012 12:04 PMDavid 1, you should be aware that words can have many meanings and interpretations. You will find the following description of immortality (paragraph 1) on Wikipedia:
"Immortality is the ability to live forever, or put another way, it is an immunity from death. It is unknown whether human physical (material) immortality is an achievable condition —biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering. And even should human biological immortality be achieved, people could still continue to die from unforeseeable traumatic events..."
I imagine that if I had a subscription to the OED, it would have much more to say on the matter.
The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent

allinamberclad
MemberOvomorphAug-22-2012 12:50 PM?....
What you have quoted only agrees with what David 1 has just expressed?!...
"Biological Immortality", describes something other than, actual, "Immortality"?
This is the reason the word, "Biological", has been used as a modifier - the phrase, "Biological Immortality", then describes a resistance to or retardation of, usual ageing processes?
In other words, what is said here is that Physical, "Immortality" is just a concept...it is not known whether it can ever be anything more than a concept in Reality, for the reasons that have been given.
With that, even if Biological Immortality [as distinct from Physical Immortality] could be achieved, that would not be to say that actual, Physical Immortality would follow.
What it seems the entry did believe it quite necessary to point out, is that it is very unlikely indeed that Physical Immortality would follow - as we already know that it does [i]not[/i][i][/i] follow, where we are aware of Biological Immortality, elsewhere: I greatly doubt a Biologist who attended all the modules required of their Degree would seriously declare that an organism presenting with some degree of Biological Immortality was literally, physically, Immortal - and, thereby, invunerable to Death?
He or she would already know that, regardless of its level of Biological Immortality, a couple of well-placed shotgun rounds into the brain and vital organs of the organism, or whatever jellyfish it is that's under discussion, would be most likely to produced only the one, predictable, brutally swift and terribly absolute, answer to every single question you can imagine to do with whether it is, literally, "immortal", or not - that answer would be Death: and, that thing which can die, is, evidently, [i]not[/i] - [and can never have been] - "immortal": be that dead thing a Jellyfish, or an Engineer.

BurKaZoiD
MemberOvomorphAug-22-2012 1:48 PMOMFG Now I remember why I rarely post on this forum. You people are EFFING CRAZY.

David 1
MemberOvomorphAug-22-2012 1:49 PMzzplural:
Wikipedia?! Really?!
^^^^^^ what Clad pretty well said ^^^^^
Clad:
lol, I hear ya, sorry for the migrane.
[b]Ask nothing from no one. Demand nothing from no one. Expect nothing from no one.[/b]

David 1
MemberOvomorphAug-22-2012 2:15 PMBurKaZoiD:
Wellcome to the dark side. lolol.
[b]Ask nothing from no one. Demand nothing from no one. Expect nothing from no one.[/b]

zzplural
MemberOvomorphAug-22-2012 2:52 PMExcuse me. Amberclad, you were the first person to use the word immortal in this thread, in the same sentence as Engineers, who happen to be biological.
Respected biologists [b]do[/b] talk about the prospect of immortality all the time. If you can be bothered to use Google you will find that out. Go on, give it a try. You could perhaps take up your argument with them. I'm sure they will appreciate it.
What those scientists are able to do is contextualise. They are not so pedantic as to imagine for one second that anything physical will literally persist forever. But in the context of an organism that will live until it encounters physical trauma, it is terminology that is widely used in scientific literature. And we are discussing physical organisms here.
I agree with Burkazoid: there are effing crazy people on this forum. I'm perhaps crazy to devote any of my life to deconstructing pedantic arguments.
The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent

David 1
MemberOvomorphAug-22-2012 3:56 PMzzplural:
"They are not so pedantic as to imagine for one second that anything physical will literally persist forever. But in the context of an organism that will live until it encounters physical trauma, it is terminology that is widely used in scientific literature. And we are discussing physical organisms here."
In other words, you just said what I said and Clad said. I.e. No living organism lives forever.
And if you prefer, ask those "scientists" that are "not so pedantic" what "mortality" means, and what "Immortality" means.
Also, please keep it clean. Calling someone "Pedantic" is not that nice. Clad spoke clean and logically. It is okay if you can not follow the terminology (i.e. don't accept it), but terms such as "mortality", "imortallity", Eternity" and "Eviternity" are Universal concepts that even the "non-pedantic scientists" are very well aware of their meaning.
I'll recomend you some good literature about it; and I mean REAL literature that cover such topics and not Wikipedia; if you are interested in doing serious research on the implications and reality of such terminology. And by all means, it's not a "pedantic" literature.
[b]Ask nothing from no one. Demand nothing from no one. Expect nothing from no one.[/b]

Leeta
MemberOvomorphAug-22-2012 4:10 PM>>does anyone have information or theories about the life expectancy of an engineer?
I like to think they are mortal, but live longer lives than humans because of their advances in technology. They would no doubt be more advanced in medicine as well. Maybe they get to be at least 200 years old? That's just my guess. :P For all I know, they could live for hundreds of years more.

djamelameziane
MemberFacehuggerAug-22-2012 4:14 PMIm immortal by the way...ok so lets say maybe the engineers can live forever if unharmed - the end! Who gives a s**t lol!
"It's almost as if they are making it up as they go along" :D

oduodu
MemberXenomorphAug-22-2012 4:15 PMYour question is about life expactancy of the engineers. I have a friend who is a microbiologist.
According to him every time a cell replicates a small piece of the dna sequence gets cut off. As a person gets older the cell starts to become less efficient at what it does. So eventually a person will die as his organs eventually will become unable to do their job. For humans that is the order of 110 to 120 years.
So using this as a theorising basis:
If the engineers created us it may be that this cutting of dna sequence was programmed into us. So if they are able to manipulate dna in such a manner, they can probably change their own dna to whatever they like. So they would be able to prevent this by simply not coding their dna to cut a piece of the dna everytime a cell replicates. But as brain cells cannot replicate I don't know how long an engineer's brain would be able to function as free radicals will cause oxidation of it I think. Maybe they have technology that slows the oxidative process down or can reverse it. So what is their lifespan ? Maybe in the order of about 800 - 1200 years ?
The engineer"s ship is probable a lot faster than the prometheus ship. So how far on average do the engineer's travel At a time? Say at 30 times the speed of light at an average of 5 years per journey = 150 lightyears. I guess they won't spend more than 10 years (naximum) in hypersleep at a time ?
Purely guessing here. No factual basis.

David 1
MemberOvomorphAug-22-2012 4:21 PMdjamelameziane ›
lolololololol.
[img]http://i3.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/000/400/immortal.jpg[/img]
[b]Ask nothing from no one. Demand nothing from no one. Expect nothing from no one.[/b]

.
MemberOvomorphAug-22-2012 5:03 PMTotally and certifiable F-en Crazy... and sir I am the Ring Master of this Circus of Sci Fan-dom. LOL
"Let the show go on!"

Major Noob
MemberOvomorphAug-22-2012 5:05 PMI think the Engineers can live like a really REALLY Long time, like, STUPID long, like, OMG that's long.

David 1
MemberOvomorphAug-22-2012 5:05 PM*bows to the Master*
[b]Ask nothing from no one. Demand nothing from no one. Expect nothing from no one.[/b]

djamelameziane
MemberFacehuggerAug-22-2012 5:06 PMThose two are definitely immortal. Nothing could kill them.
"It's almost as if they are making it up as they go along" :D

David 1
MemberOvomorphAug-22-2012 5:08 PMdjamelameziane:
are you into Black Metal?
[b]Ask nothing from no one. Demand nothing from no one. Expect nothing from no one.[/b]

allinamberclad
MemberOvomorphAug-22-2012 5:15 PM@zzplural
I used the word first?
I used the word first - but in an anecdotal context?.....I'm not sure what point it is you imagine you're making as, thereafter, you chose to support, actually, the argument I was referring to anecdotally - which, I believe, brings us to the present.
With that, I didn't dispute that Biologists discuss the prospect of immortality and I'm not sure what relevance their imagined discussions have anyway, as what I actually said was that Biological Immortality refers to something other than Physical Immortality - because you did appear to have confused those two, separate, issues as the same thing, by using a definition in support of what you were saying, that did not actually support what you were saying?
Personally, I find it a little hard to see how that fact, or what followed after that fact, is much at all to do with, "contextualisation", or, "pedantry", or "effing crazy", or, "deconstruction", or any other inventive fancies?...
As I see someone has since pointed out, it seems much more to do with the simple matter of the actual meaning and appropriate application of terms.

djamelameziane
MemberFacehuggerAug-22-2012 5:22 PM@david 1 not exactly but I like any music to be honest as long as it has that 'something'! :D
"It's almost as if they are making it up as they go along" :D

David 1
MemberOvomorphAug-22-2012 5:26 PMdjamelameziane ›
same here, bro, same here.
[b]Ask nothing from no one. Demand nothing from no one. Expect nothing from no one.[/b]
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