X-Message-Number: 14545
Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2000 15:14:25 -0400 (EDT)
From: Ruthanna R Gordon <>
Subject: Re: Bandwidth and off-topic posts (plus an off-topic post

<P Michaels writes:  >
> Stop it George YMML (you're making me laugh).
> 
> Paul Michaels
> 
> Cryonics.................I'm in with the out crowd.

I'm cool with cryo?

Others have said this more eloquently than me, but I do wish to put in my
vote with those who want to continue the free exchange of ideas that I've
seen on this list since I joined this summer.  I don't have, or desire,
the illusion that all cryonicists, by virtue of their common interests,
have all other attitudes in common as well.  The diversity is something I
appreciate--but I do appreciate seeing that diversity expressed
specifically by people who want an extended lifespan.  Partially this is
because certain assumptions common in society are filtered out and we get
a different sort of discussion here than on other lists (when we discuss
alien contact we're discussing something that, if it happens, *we* not our
children will have to deal with.  The future--all of it--is a more
concrete concern for us.).  Partially this is because I do want to get to
know the views of the people that, if all goes well, I'm going to have to
deal with for the longest.  If/when the sleepers are awakened, we will
have to band together to deal with everything from catching up on our
educations to convincing people that we immigrants from the bad old days
are civilized.  I'd like to know you before then.

Off-topic (definitely off the topic of what's off-topic, and according to
some off the topic of the list entirely), I'm currently sitting in on an
undergraduate class about the effect of future technology on definitions
of self.  The class is going to include discussions of nanotechnology,
downloading, and near-immortality.  I'm interested in how this will be
presented to freshmen who are fairly representative of the attitudes of
the general population, and by a teacher who's only just beginning to
explore the territory (I'm ending up acting as a semi-TA and helping him
out with some of the material that I'm more familiar with).  I'm also
interested to see how a population whose intelligence is normally
challenged (?) only with introductory textbooks will handle Drexler.  

Long life,
Ruthanna Gordon


Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=14545