X-Message-Number: 15225 From: "Mark Plus" <> Subject: Re: #15216: The World's "Excess" People [Lee Corbin] Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2000 20:39:20 -0800 In Cryonet #15216, Lee Corbin wrote, >>>But people, especially at this stage in history, >>>should not feel guilty if their focus is not on >>>making more people but doing what will benefit >>>those that others have made. > >which Phil Rhodes endorsed. I too agree with what Mike wrote; >feeling guilty is in so many cases like this is pointless. > >But let me take the opportunity to further explain my claim that >it's untrue in at least two ways that the world has too many people. Actually lately I've been wondering whether population growth with the goal of increasingly "individuality" is somewhat self-defeating. I've noticed that cryonicists seem much more highly individuated than the run of humanity, but conversely I suspect now that in general there is a lot less individuality in our species than we like to believe. I've been having the experience repeatedly in recent years of meeting people who remind me of people I've known before, either in appearance or in behavior. In fact, I'm getting pretty good at "profiling" some guests in my motel job just by talking to them on the phone for a few minutes. About ten years ago, while working for Wal-Mart in Norman, Oklahoma, it struck me that I could accurately profile the store's customers just based on appearance and my knowledge of life in Oklahoma -- e.g., that fellow over there is Christian, Republican, likes football and owns firearms. But they weren't likely to come up with a similar, nontrivial profile of me, because of the course that led to my extreme individuation and signing up for cryonic suspension. I mean, if someone back in Oklahoma didn't know me, could he plausibly profile me as, "Why, you're one of them-there atheistic Transhumanists who's signed up to get your head froze. I could pick you out from halfway across the store"? And I suspect this lack of significant individuation out there may explain the relative indifference towards conquering death. The less-individuated think on some level that there's nothing special about them, there are plenty more like them out there, so it's no great loss when they die. Perhaps they are right, despite philosophical efforts to justify Universal Immortalism. The value of individuality could be more a function of quality than quantity. Mark Plus _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=15225