X-Message-Number: 14630
Date: Fri, 06 Oct 2000 21:08:53 -0700
From: Olaf Henny <>
Subject: Re: CryoNet #14614 - #14618
References: <>

>
> Message #14616
> From: "john grigg" <>
> Subject: Will cryonauts be exploited in some way?
> Date: Wed, 04 Oct 2000 21:27:59 GMT
>
> Tom Walton wrote:
> I agree with a lot being said about cryonics. The only questionable thing is
> if there will be a free world to live in upon reanimating a human cryonaut.
> We'd only be able to hope that such a world exists and that our cryonauts
> are
> not going to be exploited in some way.
> (end)
>
> Will we be in some way exploited after our reanimation??  Actually, I
> believe so.  I optimistically think the world will be a far more prosperous
> and even freer place then it is now, but they will be afflicted with a great
> amount of pride regarding their near-utopian world.  They will very much
> want to... SHOW OFF!!

?I believe, that  exploitation  will be the surest ticket to our
re-animation, more so than the efforts of kin and other
cryonauts, but I also believe this  exploitation  will be benign.
While there still are incredible cruelties inflicted by people on
people in some third world countries, in the so called  developed
world , Europe, North America and parts of Asia, there have been
since my childhood in WW II enormous strides made in terms of
tolerance, equal rights and respect for others.  While there have
been occasional setbacks, the trend has clearly been a positive
one.  It is called civilization.  I see no reason why this trend
should not continue.

I therefore strongly agree with most points John Grigg recounts
in his reply, except for the time frame he appears to imply: I
believe that the re-animation will occur well before the end of
this century.  The first three decades after Robert Ettinger
wrote his ground breaking book, there were only a few scientists
working on the problem of cryonic suspension, with practically no
funding, spurred only by the desire to  safe their own butt .
This has IMHO changed considerably within the last few years.
There is a whole lot of mainstream basic research into cryonic
organ preservation, which is bound to further technology in
cryonics.  But of course this is a long way from getting us to
re-animation.

I don t remember who said it (Isaac Asimov? Arthur C. Clarke?):
 Any technology far enough advanced is indistinguishable from
magic.   Well, I have already experienced in my lifetime a number
of technologies, which would have appeared as magic to the little
Olaf of 1945.  Real time satellite transmission from another
continent, a simple remote control or this communication, which
will be received simultaneously by friends on all continents,
although I write it only once, to name just a few.

I suppose we all agree, that scientific progress is accelerating.

I believe that:

-   in five years most cancers will be curable

-   in ten years we will be able to re-grow nerves in the central
    nervous system, thereby cure paraplegics, people who are hard
    at hearing or visually impaired due to nerve damage, cure
    Parkinson s, arrest Alzheimer s and we will probably be able
    to cure *all* cancers.
-   in twenty years, organ transplants may well be part of our
    barbarian history, and the sight of a scalpel (in a museum?)
    may send well send shudders down the back of the then young.

Freezing and re-animation are concepts, which are probably today
more plausible to most, then real time TV transmission of life
events would have been in 1945.  The hard part to get across is,
that it would extend the life indefinitely and not just add a few
years to a fellow s life, who died at 75 of cancer, which has
meanwhile become curable.

Best,
Olaf

>Will we be in some way exploited after our reanimation??  Actually, I
>believe so.  I optimistically think the world will be a far more prosperous
>and even freer place then it is now, but they will be afflicted with a great
>amount of pride regarding their near-utopian world.  They will very much
>want to... SHOW OFF!!

> They can have celebrations and seminars explaining to each other just how
> great their society is, but that would not be nearly as self-satisfying as
> reanimating a person from the backward and barbaric early 21st century and
> showing them around!  This is a key reason why I see reanimation being
> perfected and carried out by a future society. (Snip)

I have cut John's submission here for sake of brevity, but they can be read
in Message # 14616

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=14630