Desirability without Desire: Life Extension, Boredom and Spiritual Experience

In response to Bernard Williams’ suspicion that we would inevitably become bored with immortal life, John Martin Fischer has argued that we could continue to enjoy repeatable pleasures such as fine wine, beautiful music, and spiritual experiences. In more recent work on near-death experiences, Fischer has also explored the non-religious meaning of spiritual experiences in more depth. I join this deeper exploration of spiritual experience, and I also join Williams’ critics who question his view that character and desire are needed to explain the desirability of life, while providing additional reason for concern that Williams’ way of valuing life may itself actually be a cause of boredom with life. With an eye to spiritual experience, I indicate how we can distance ourselves even further from Williams’ view, and I suggest how the attitude that life is good but death is not bad emerges from spiritual experience, as expressed in numerous religious and secular spiritual traditions. This lends support to the conclusion that radically extended life is desirable even if not actively desired.

Performance Evaluation of Thermoelectric Refrigerator Using Peltier Effect

The worldwide growth in call for refrigeration brought about the manufacturing of extra power and this, in turn, brought about extra use of CFCs. CFCs, in particular, are a notable factor in the ozone layer's depletion. TER (Thermoelectric Refrigerator) is a revolutionary option that eliminates the use of refrigerant. As a result, it is critical, especially in underdeveloped countries where extended life and inexpensive maintenance are required. The goal of this research is to design and build a functional TER that uses the Peltier effect to cool this volume to much lower temperature in under two hours and retain it for at least the next 1/2 hour. In this project, we created a TE system that works with both solar and electrical power. Food preservation, military or aerospace equipment, medicinal and pharmaceutical equipment are just some of the uses for the project. Keywords: Thermo-electric Refrigerator, CFCs, COP, Peltier Effect

TRACS JIP – TTR Life Extension Process

The Tensioned Riser Assessment for Continued Service (TRACS) JIP develops a structured life extension process for TTR systems including single casing, dual casing, buoyancy can supported and tensioner supported TTRs. The JIP bridges regulatory and API frameworks and achieves industry consensus on analysis, inspections, and documentation. The life extension process developed in this JIP consists of detailed roadmaps that guide the operator through the different assessment steps starting from initial data gathering through to the development of the forward-looking IMP. The JIP life extension process is based on a threat assessment philosophy which ensures identification and assessment of all possible threats to the integrity of the TTR in its extended life. The JIP process is validated against three real life TTR systems that are nearing the end of their design lives. Potential threats to the integrity of these TTRs during the projected continued service beyond the design life are identified and specific inspection and analysis recommendations to safely manage or mitigate these threats are made. The JIP also provides TTR life extension analysis guidance while considering the opportunities to reduce conservatism compared to new designs. Inspection of TTRs is challenging due to accessibility issues and the pipe in pipe construction. Several subsea NDE inspection tools are surveyed in this JIP and their applicability to TTRs is discussed.

Hauntological dimensions of heart transplantation: the onto-epistemologies of deceased donation

The practice of human organ transplantation studies is shot through with questions concerning the concepts of selfhood and identity that continually reach out towards transmigration, displacement and haunting. In particular, heart transplantation is the site at which the parameters of human life and death are tested to their limits, not simply for the recipient but for the donor too. In conventional biomedicine, the definition and therefore the moment of death is a matter of ongoing and disturbing dispute between two major channels of thought. Should we understand life to end at the point of cessation of cardiac function, or alternatively that of the brainstem? That whole logic is predicated, however, on the familiar binary of life/death that fails to address urgent concerns in three arenas: social-cultural imaginaries, postmodernist philosophy and increasingly exploratory bioscience. If there is always something about death that is uncanny, that exceeds rationalist thought, then we need to queer the concept and ask whether there are more sensitive ways of thinking the process of dying. The very concept of extended life for the recipient is no simple outcome, and the question of whose life has been prolonged is far from clear. My contribution touches on the idea of thinking transplantation in the mode of parasitism but will suggest an alternative Deleuzian way forward.