X-Message-Number: 12319 From: "George Smith" <> References: <> Subject: Adam's Questions Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 16:35:50 -0700 In message #12311, Adam Hunter wrote: > I have a couple of questions for the people on this list who plan to be > frozen: > > 1. In any way does cryonics provide the same sort of psychological > comfort that religion provides for some people? Have you just replaced > heaven with the future? Cryonics did provide a profound psychological shift for members of my family some ten years ago when we all signed up. There is a difference between realistic hope and religious faith similar to having your church pray for your recovery from cancer as opposed to having the oncologist pronounce you cured based on your last lab tests. Faith is very good, but fact is even better on some issues... like breathing. Most of those religions which propose an afterlife are ALSO offering a future as they usually expect that you must die first and then (in the future) you will go to heaven (or purgatory or hell). Cryonics definitely appeals to the same desire which traditional religious faiths tap into in the desire to live again after dying and being reunited with loved ones in a "better place". Actually, that doesn't sound bad at all, does it? Consider if one would prefer the opposite: to die knowing you were being permanently destroyed and that anytime anyone else you care for dies you will never see them again. My point being that dismissing cryonics because humans find hope there for many of the same reasons they find hope in religion is to miss the point. Same motivations, different approachs and not at all necessarily exclusive of each other. If you believe in an afterlife, you will have many cryonicists who will be quick to tell you why they don't believe we will live forever, only a damn sight longer. Maybe long enough to get some good answers to the really Big Quesions. > 2. Since you plan to live forever, what are your long term goals? How > do you look at life differently than somebody who expects to live a > short life span? I intend as my first long-term goal to not stop breathing. Beyond that, I suspect I will come to think of something. So far this has worked for the first half-century! The only difference I can see between those who sign up for cryonics and those who don't is that those who do have decided to challenge the cultural death wish instead of making excuses for why they choose death over life. It isn't expensive (Usually less than buying two pizzas a month for most people). It certainly makes for a different view of the importance of life! > 3. 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. So, you saw the second Austin Powers film too! YES! I am desperately afraid that I will be revived in a world in which most people make their decisions not based upon what makes sense but what others think about them, a world in which people have a problem understanding the value of breathing over not-breathing. (Just stop right now and hold your breath. Keep holding it. KEEEEP HOOOLDING IT! Go at least a minute now. Okay. Breathe! Understand yet? Good!). Oops! I just realized I am already in that world right now. Well maybe things will improve later. It is certainly better today than 50 years ago. Hmmm. Guess I'll wait and see if this trend continues. Time will tell. Finally, I believe it was the Greek Stoic philosopher Epictitus who said about living, "Never complain. The door is always open to leave". Maybe I will end up as a lab animal in some future world (Slaughterhouse 5?). I'll just take my chances and jump off that bridge when I get there (or not). Actually the answers to ALL of these questions is really answered as follows. What do you prefer: Being alive or dead? Cryonics is just another attempt to promote the "alive" side of this equation. Now keep breathing. George Smith http://www.cryonics.org Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=12319