X-Message-Number: 10545 From: Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1998 01:43:43 EDT Subject: Where is the rush? I hope, that I am not posting something, already posted to the point of nausea. But perhaps the principle reasons that the great rush to sign on to cryonics has not happened are profound philosophical conflicts and strong emotional conflicts. 1. The fundamental philosophical conflict is that if one believes in an afterlife (as most people do), then being returned back to life would be having oneself suddenly yanked from heaven, and deposited back into the real world. This is a daunting prospect - of course most people would consider themselves worthy of the best that their religious beliefs have in store for them after life. And thus to suddenly be returned to present reality would be a form of damnation. "Unnatural" would probably be a word that would be used. "In conflict with God's purpose" might be another. 2. The attraction for athiests becomes obvious. 3. The attraction for agnostics is wonderful - you are get to hedge your bet both ways! 4. The attraction for the followers of the major religions is greatly diminished. On a seperate note: The large costs involved is a daunting figure. Even if it is arrived at from a life insurance policy it is money being taken from future generations. The support of future generations is a profound emotional motivator. Honestly thought, I would consider this a very minor area of conflict. If it is simply paid for in cash, it is still a rather sizeable amount, for something that is by most people considered a fool's gamble. It would be like playing a lottery with the cost of the tickets being $50000+. Perhaps the odds realistically are quite removed from the 1 in 30million but the odds are still quite high. On another note: Social and scientific advancement is a complex system, and even at the present could be entering a new dark age.One can take an optimistic pespective and hope for social stability and continued scientific advancement. But there is the opposite side. That social forces will result in science being ostracized,demonized, or governmentalized to death, and advancement coming to a gradual halt. And going on : Even if science continues at a high pace, present day methods of freezing may destroy the patterns of personality to the point of no return. And until experiments begin on reviving humans we have no way of knowing which method of freezing is best. In summary - a lot of unknowns and a lot of theory, but few facts. On another note. To sign up is to realize one's mortality. This is extremely difficult for a lot of people. Note the difficulty of selling life insurance to young people or even more so the difficulty of selling burial plots to young people. For an older person realizing one's mortality and accepting it is a standard of wisdom. There is a tremendous conflict with the sudden ray of hope that cryonics might provide. During this time of turmoil, the elderly flock to their religiuos roots,. They return to the fundamental conditioning of their youth. I begin to believe that religion is the fundamental obstacle to mass popularity of the cryonics movement. We are in direct conflict with the principle function of religion, being the emotional comfort of providing purpose during life and continuity of self after life. And another note. There is a serious lack of famous people being signed up. A large majority of the population are followers. The need for famous, public, respectable people to sign up is obvious. I think this is a large factor. And last, on a similar note. There is a social ostracism to being a member of a group that is extremely small, with ideas that conflict with the common sense of the masses. No one wants to be alone. Obviously the attraction of very independantly minded people to cryonics, understandable. A funny note is that all of Heinlein's heroes were independant and had a high sense of ego. If not at the beginning of the story but certainly by the end. I hope I have not repeated that which has been said too many times. My conclusions from all this are focus on atheists and agnostics focus on the wealthy get some big names let the independant minded find their own way to cryonics by having the information out there. With utmost respect, Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=10545