X-Message-Number: 14636 From: "john grigg" <> Subject: Re: will cryonauts be exploited in future wars? Date: Sun, 08 Oct 2000 00:18:54 GMT John Grigg wrote: David Stodolsky wrote: >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!! > People will be needed for practical tasks, like exploring the Galaxy. Once the expense of getting into orbit is reduced the race will be on. Evidence suggests that we will be competing with alien civilizations. (end) So, you think there will be a great need for colonists to lay claim to territory before e.t.'s plant their flag in it? With the advanced reproductive technologies humanity will have over the next century(cloning, artificial womb, androids, etc.) I don't see how they would really need to reanimate the frozen to give a boost to their colonist rosters. Now, if cryonics REALLY catches on in the next twenty years(scared aging baby boomers) then we may see several million people in suspension and that would be a decent though not overly impressive number. At least not to a world which would already have billions of sentients who are not in the cryonic state. It could be that a majority of indefinite lifespan people in the late 21st century will not want to leave the earth with all of it's beauty, sense of community(possibly linked minds) and creature comforts. So even if there are not many cryonauts to "recruit" for colonizing we may find ourselves a valued commodity to the state. I am implying that a strong central gov't would exist that could say, "we paid for your reanimation and now you must pay us back through service as a colonist at one of our less liked locations!"" I wonder how many of you have read the Larry Niven novel "A World Out of Time" where a man is brought back from cryonic suspension to be trained as a starship pilot? When he returns from the earth after his jaunt in space he finds the earth vastly changed due to all the time that had past while he travelled at near light speed. I could also imagine a future society bringing us back in a time of war. The citizens of their age might be reticient about dying when they have indefinite lifespans. The young people of this world will have elders just as virile and long-lived as they are and so arguments to go off and fight for your gov't will not be near as tempting as in the past. They will say except in the most pressing circumstance, "go and fight your own damn war!!" Viet Nam era protests could pale before what future youth facing a unpopular war might say... So, the state would bring us back and then expect payment in the form of us going off to fight for them. We could be seen as barbarians from a violent age who would actually be better suited for war then present-day peoples. Artificial intelligences could be used as extremely capable war fighters but they may have won their civil rights and not want to fight either. Using robots and AI which are "just smart enough" to fight might limit war making capacity and so humans would also be used along them. If brought back to fight I see us being used more likely in a marginal and "regional" war then a titanic war involving the fate of humanity. In a war like that full human and AI resources and lives would be thrown into the balance to turn the tide. Even if used ourselves we would at least not be doing it largely on our own. A war on this scale would stir the hearts of even the reticient near-immortals of earth. "Patriotic" fervor would spread and everyone would want to do their part to save humanity and our civilization from the alien, or renegade AI, posthuman, human, etc. threat. A little dirty war which the gov't wants kept quiet might end up most likely being the one we are brought back to fight in. We would be people without identity in this new age and so would have if the gov't decided less rights and voice. And so, we would be unconnected to the age we were brought back in and very susceptible to gov't manipulation. I hope the society which brings us back has leaders with ethics which would never indulge in such a scenario. I see the odds of this happening as very small but it is something to think about. best wishes, John P.S. I want Robert Ettinger as my commanding officer and George Smith as my platoon leader should this scenario prove true... We'll fight the Zerg all the way back to their homeworld and then nuke it to smithereens! Then we'll go back to earth and picket the Global Government Central HQ for our exploitation as cryonauts... _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=14636