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


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