X-Message-Number: 1048 Newsgroups: sci.cryonics From: tolman% (Kenneth Tolman) Subject: The virtual choice Date: 22 Jul 92 11:31:04 MDT Message-ID: <> It is conceivable that cryonic reanimation would take place in a society short on resources. The society could opt for reanimation into virtual space- where resource consumption would be extremely low for the newly revived patient. So it may become a choice- reanimation now into a virtual place, or waiting for a future with more resources- how would you choose? Virtual space reanimation means that a person would come back to life and have all of their neurons hooked into a computer system. A human would only consume energy for driving their brain, and the cost of driving the host computer. The synthesized experience would be at least as good as todays technology- which can perform with incredible realism in high end systems. Possibly, the synthesis would be as good or better than "reality". Such a revival would allow a person to hook into any accessible information flows. Thus, on a space station one could instantly look out any of the telescopes or exterior cameras, even seeing whatever wavelengths were being recorded (such as ultraviolet). One would of course be able to monitor local information traffic, such as television, radio, networks, etc. Many other revivals (and probably citizens) would be within the computer network- meaning one could hang out with old friends and enemies, play them games, learn and teach with them, and even punch and wrestle. If you are interested in learning about the current state of virtual reality, a good book to read is Howard Rheingold's "Virtual Reality". Even if a cryonic revival doesn't have to choose virtual life or continued suspension- they will come back in a world where this technology has been well developed and have great social impact. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=1048