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...
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