{"id":656,"date":"2017-02-28T06:53:39","date_gmt":"2017-02-28T06:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/?p=656"},"modified":"2017-02-28T06:53:39","modified_gmt":"2017-02-28T06:53:39","slug":"the-law-of-the-conservation-of-personality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/2017\/02\/28\/the-law-of-the-conservation-of-personality\/","title":{"rendered":"The Law of the Conservation of Personality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When reading Natalie Zarreli\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.atlasobscura.com\/articles\/dial-a-ghost-on-thomas-edisons-least-successful-invention-the-spirit-phone\">Dial-a-Ghost on Thomas Edison\u2019s Least Successful Invention: The Spirit Phone<\/a>\u201d I was particularly intrigued by how \u201cfor Edison [speaking to the dead] was a matter of strict science\u201d (Zarreli). \u00a0She goes on to explain that Edison theorized that \u201clike our bodies, our personalities have a physical form, made of tiny \u2018entities\u2019 similar to our current view of atoms. He thought these entities might exist after humans passed away\u2014a personality-based residue of loose memories and thoughts, containing part of who a person was during life\u201d (Zarreli). Our personalities are \u201cindestructible\u201d and in a way, this follows the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boundless.com\/chemistry\/textbooks\/boundless-chemistry-textbook\/atoms-molecules-and-ions-2\/history-of-atomic-structure-32\/the-law-of-conservation-of-mass-194-3698\/\">law of conservation of mass<\/a>. Our personalities\u2014per Edison\u2019s theorizing\u2014cannot be created nor destroyed, only rearranged and transformed.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_657\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-657\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-657\" src=\"http:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/files\/2017\/02\/howSolarWorks-300x231.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"231\" srcset=\"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/files\/2017\/02\/howSolarWorks-300x231.jpg 300w, https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/files\/2017\/02\/howSolarWorks-768x592.jpg 768w, https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/files\/2017\/02\/howSolarWorks.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-657\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A diagram of how solar panels work. Source: Simmons, Tucker. &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/cla.auburn.edu\/ces\/energy\/alternative-energy\/\">Alternative Energy<\/a>.&#8221; Auburn University. 5 Jan. 2017.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This scientific approach was surprisingly convincing to me. Through the advancements of science, we have so much understanding of energy and its transformations. For example, through solar panels we take energy from the sun, convert solar energy to electricity, this powers our outlets, which powers our lamps, these lamps give off heat that we absorb, so on and so on\u2026 The energy is never created or destroyed, just transferred. By no credentials am I a scientist, but with this logic, I feel oddly convinced by Edison in that our personalities should still exist after our time, but just in another form. After reading Zarreli\u2019s article, I not only feel as though spirits after death exist, but that there must in fact be a way to contact these spirits through technology. I doubt this spirit communication device looks similar to Edison\u2019s original spirit phone, but maybe through more time, funding, and energy to this field we will be able to find out in our lifetime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When reading Natalie Zarreli\u2019s \u201cDial-a-Ghost on Thomas Edison\u2019s Least Successful Invention: The Spirit Phone\u201d I was particularly intrigued by how \u201cfor Edison [speaking to the dead] was a matter of strict science\u201d (Zarreli). \u00a0She goes on to explain that Edison theorized that \u201clike our bodies, our personalities have a physical form, made of tiny \u2018entities\u2019 &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/2017\/02\/28\/the-law-of-the-conservation-of-personality\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The Law of the Conservation of Personality&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[96,99,98,97],"class_list":["post-656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-group-a","tag-edison","tag-energy","tag-ghosts","tag-spirit-phone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":658,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656\/revisions\/658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}