Subject: Reincarnation - a possible mechanistic context
From: "Bill Howell. Retired from NRCan. now in Alberta Canada" <>
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 2015 13:49:36 -0600
To: "Sarah Howell. Director-Actor-Freelance E-Journalist. Panama Columbia Peru Signapore " <>
Cc:

From our conversation the other day, I dug around a bit and found my old forgotten (even to me) joke that I had posted on my website.  So I just did a "refresher posting" referring to it on www.BillHowell.ca, mentioning the possibility of re-visiting it some day from a much more serious perspective  :

27Apr2015 Howell's Reincarnation : Speculations on a possible mechanistic context - From recent discussions, my old concept related to a possible explanation of, and a mechanistic context for, reincarnation has again surfaced. A short "joke" on this theme, "A Riddle by, for, of, on, and with the Mind" was posted to my website circa 31Jan2007, and emails (hard to track in my old drives, possibly lost) relate to an earlier Toastmaster presentation or discussion in ~26Jun2006.
While the linked document is presented as a joke that you might want to pull on your friends, it actually is an interesting concept that I may some day address, given that I am again trying to re-start work on my old "MindCode" project that was its inspiration. MindCode ("Given that computer code is used to program computers, then Mindcode ...") deals with DNA and epi-DNA (I am careful to avoid use of the over-extended and incorrect term "genetics") and how that might be used for Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), with a little whistful reference to real neuroscience (beyond the holy grail in a sense, but this is the great foundation of ANNs). Starting from my old resulting side joke, I hope some day to elaborate "speculations on a possible mechanistic context" for reincarnation.
No, I'm not a "believer" in re-incarnation, but this is just too fun to skip over, and to a limited sense is possibly quite real - think of instinct and heredity as a starting point.
(re-posted 27Apr2015, background document from 31Jan2007)


The original posting didn't even say "reincarnation" in the title (so I changed that).  That is a good lesson about being too cute and opaque with communications.

There have been many [plays, movies, books, etc] on reincarnation, and in general no-body really cares about mechanisms, but maybe there is some chance of a new twist on an old theme, something like :
  • mad scientist solves psycho-drama trap of a patient related to a past life, and the cure is worse than the disease, bringing out too many past lives
  • a vampire can't seem to get on with life, because he was a priest in a past life
  • two lovers find out that they had both been in past-life-love, and have to solve past problems that conflict with the present
  • some theme involving a dog and a camel (?)
Given the huge amount of entertainment that has addressed reincarnation (for example, many modern movies), I think it would be hard to come up with something original, but just maybe...

Also,  one of my former NRCan bosses posted to Linked in (I'll send in a separate email).   (Note that in my later years, I usually had more than three booses simultaneously all of the time, and many more responsibilities.)

Love,


Dad