... let me throw you some cat nip Stuart. Saw Avatar. Thought it was pretty damn good. But the central flaw in the sci-fi seemed to be the fact that the "I" never slept. For those who didn't see it, here's the idea: you have a human for whom an alien "Avatar" body can be engineered (out of merging DNA and who knows what else). The human can then crawl into something that looks like a tanning bed, put on a helmet thingy, go to sleep, and have his mind enter the Avatar. It's an interesting concept, because it steals from the "white light at death" stories. You go to sleep and follow the white light. Instead of arriving in heaven, you are in the Avatar's body. When the Avatar (you) go to sleep in that body, you return to the tanning bed. In other words, it's body sleeps while you are awake, and your body sleeps while it is awake. In neither instance, however, are "you" asleep. Here's the flaw: the "I" never sleeps; only the body does. It would be different if the Avatar was a dream. Then the sleep of the "I" would be considered quite intense. (Probably a lot of growth hormone release too). But as it is in the movie, there now is no subconscious. It's been eliminated. Imagine always being awake in one of two bodies. (And it being true). This should be the cognitive equivalent of sleep deprivation. Surely sleep is not just for the body. Dr. Sean Wilson, Esq. Assistant Professor Wright State University Personal Website: http://seanwilson.org SSRN papers: http://ssrn.com/author=596860 Discussion Group: http://seanwilson.org/wittgenstein.discussion.html ========================================= Need Something? Check here: http://ludwig.squarespace.com/wittrslinks/