X-Message-Number: 12313
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 04:38:21 +0000
From: Kennita Watson <>
Subject: Re: Adam Hunter's questions
References: <>

> From: Adam Hunter <>
> Subject: questions
> 
> I have a couple of questions for the people on this list who plan to be
> frozen:

Actually, I don't plan to be frozen unless death is the only
alternative.  I hope to avoid it.
> 
> 1.  In any way does cryonics provide the same sort of psychological
> comfort that religion provides for some people? 

I don't know.  I think of it as an insurance policy.  My assessment
of the risks and costs is less than my assessment of the potential
rewards.

> Have you just replaced heaven with the future?

I don't think so.  The future is very dynamic and unpredictable, 
parts of it might be downright unpleasant, and I might not get to
it through no fault of my own.
> 
> 2.  Since you plan to live forever, what are your long term goals? 

CUES -- Capability, Understanding, Enjoyment, and Survival.  I 
may pick more specific ones from time to time, but those are 
the basic ones.  I'm not a great planner -- my long-term goals
change from year to year -- I'm not even going to guess what 
they'll be a millenium from now (though I may be a better 
planner then).

> How do you look at life differently than somebody who expects 
> to live a short life span?

I don't panic -- I don't feel as though my only chance to have 
certain experiences is passing me by.  For example, I can decide 
to have children in a few hundred years or more, when I have 
more time to raise them and maybe a better planet to raise them
on.  And I can try rockclimbing in virtual reality, or when I 
have a more durable body. 

Oh -- also I think I consider death a much bigger deal.
> 
> 2.  Are any of you afraid of your bodies falling into the wrong hands
> after your frozen?  It is possible that you might be reanimated as some
> kind of lab animal.
> 
Yes, it's possible, but not likely (I'll leave it to the more 
verbose to go into it -- I'm guessing they will).  In any case,
I think I'd prefer being a "lab animal" to being dead.  I could 
catastrophize about how horrible life would have to be for me to
prefer to be dead, but I'd rather not.  This isn't a horror movie;
I have more pleasant things to think about.

Live long, and prosper.
Kennita

Kennita Watson           |   Late to bed, early to rise,
       |      work like hell, and advertise."  
http://i.am/Kennita      |               -- Werner von Braun

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