X-Message-Number: 13777
From: "George Smith" <>
References: <>

Subject: Re:   #13767: The failure to get reanimated - or how to be dead forever
[david pizer]
Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 11:27:43 -0700

Dave Pizer's posting deserves in depth treatment, and I am certain this will
happen.

One important consideration often forgotten is the impact of the aging
Boomers on the direction of the culture.

The United States Baby Boom generation has evidently been driving the
economics and cultural norms of at least the last forty years, as outlined
in some detail in books by demographer Harry Dent (The Roaring 2000's,
etc.).

When this huge bulge in the consumer force starts reaching their deadline
time (as they start to die off) around 2015, I believe there will be almost
certainly a parallel shift in perspective and acceptance toward ALL life
extension technologies.  This will almost certainly be enhanced by the rapid
increases in most of these technologies which will be increasingly embraced
by this opinion-forming mass of people.

For example, when Boris Karloff played the monster in the "Frankenstein"
films some sixty years ago, the idea of taking dead organs from cadavers and
creating a living, human body was considered monsterous.  Now vital organ
transplants are commonplace and viewed as lifesaving, not monstrous.  I
strongly suspect that as the Boomers are presented with more and more such
options, the cultural perceptions surrounding cryonics will also shift.

Therefore, based on the ongoing trends in both technology and the aging Baby
Boom cultural effects, I can see a high likelihood that former attitudes
toward cryonics will shift.  When the shift reaches a certain point of mass
(which I can only guess at), there should be quite an influx in our
membership.

One additional point, I would like to suggest.

With increased likelihood of "biological immortality", it seems reasonable
to assume that the "immortal" will be even more interested in taking care to
insure his survival than the current mortalist would.

For example, the man who is forty years old with a seventy five year life
expectancy will even now acquire life insurance to protect his surviving
family members from the loss of his income as well as strive to obtain
adequate medical health insurance to guard against high cost hospital care.
How much more the forty year old man would have to lose if he expected a
century or more of vital life in front of him.  Wouldn't it seem likely that
with a long term expectation like that, a person would want to be prepared
for more not fewer dangerous issues?

I would expect that with "biologically immortality", the individual would be
even more interested in cryonics in the event there remained some form of
bodily destruction still beyond the capabilities of HIS then current medical
technology.  The form of such suspension may not be even remotely similar to
what we have now but self preservation for the future still seems to me to
make even more sense for such a person, than for those who are generally
resigned to short lives (short by comparison)..

To summarize, I expect to see a continuation of the last fifty plus year
trend toward embracing life extension technologies, especially because of
the huge Baby Boom entering their dying years within the next 15 years.  As
cryonics consequently becomes more and more mainstream, the other concerns
regarding "why" those in the future will want to bother resurrecting us,
will be removed as "they" will be "us".

George Smith, cryonicist
http://www.cryonics.org

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