X-Message-Number: 11348 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: Re: CryoNet #11339 - #11347 Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 22:36:33 +1100 (EST) To Chrissie: As someone who has plainly stated that he does not think resurrecting everyone is moral, even if it were possible (and who has also doubted its possibility in the first place) I feel that I should answer your message. Clearly not everyone agrees with Mike Perry, not even every cryonicist or member of Alcor agrees with Mike Perry. Mike is giving his own opinion on a question which remains important to all of us: just whom should we seriously think of resurrecting, if we have the ability to do so. You yourself agree to the importance of this question when you say that many of those you know would NOT WANT to be resurrected. As a cryonicist Mike has done one thing many others would find difficult: for a long time, before parts of this task began to be automated, Mike was in charge of looking after the dewars containing suspension patients. That is not a task requiring much intelligence, though Mike is intelligent (he too has a PhD), but it was highly necessary. And so Mike did it. Slowly the task has become increasingly automated, but there must always be a human being involved, if only to check that the automatic mechanisms are behaving as they should. Many intelligent people faced with such a task would not like it at all, and some would slowly go mad. Mike has done an important task in really suspending people, and he has not gone mad. And (sorry, Mike, if I'm wrong here!) I suspect that in those long hours he's thought exactly on the question of just who might be resurrected if we could ... for many hours. Neither Mike nor I wish to limit our ability to resurrect people, though I disagree with him on just how far such an ability will someday go. Even if someone does not want resurrection, perhaps if it is provided they would choose differently. Most of all, you should understand that even officers of Alcor, when writing on Cryonet, are not stating any official Alcor opinion unless they say so clearly when they write. And there is considerable divergence of opinion on the questions we address on Cryonet --- otherwise there would be no discussion at all. For that matter, so long as I have the right to express my opinion on these issues I will support the right of Mike to do so also. Finally, note that most cryonicists do not post constantly on Cryonet. You get a selection of opinions, not a single opinion, and often that selection is in no sense a poll of cryonicists, just the discussions of those who had something to say. Many cryonicists are just like you, and aren't interested in the higher realms we enter when we discuss the possibility of resurrecting everyone who ever existed and everyone who might have existed, too. Not only that, but by posting here you state YOUR opinion on the merits of these discussions. By doing so you are likely to change the direction of the discussions, too. Cryonet is for all cryonicists and all those interested in cryonics; it does not aim to convince anyone of anything, but will, over time, provide a snapshot of the questions that interest some cryonicists at particular times. I won't argue that you must join Alcor, but even if postings by Alcor members put you off, remember that there are other cryonics societies too. And if you truly want to live a life free of the problems that began when you were 24, cryonics right now provides a hope of doing so. Best wishes and long long life to all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=11348