X-Message-Number: 17232
Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2001 10:07:43 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: comments on 2 issues discussed

Hi everyone!

I've finished and sent off the latest copy of PERIASTRON and now come
back to Cryonet. For those who have never looked at an issue, I can
mail you one issue for $3.00 US; there are 6 issues per year and you
can subscribe for any arbitrary number of issues.

But as for the recent comments on Cryonet:

1. About religion and cryonics:
   Religion and cryonics have nothing to do with one another. We see
   this already when we read about the advances in reviving people
   with stopped heart and breathing. Right now with suitable equipment
   and drugs (and the right circumstances) it can be done after 10
   minutes, not the 5 or 4 minutes people used to talk about. Where
   is the discussion of religion when this is done?

   Basically we looked at the situation and decided that IF someone
   had been frozen in the right way, then their revival might wait
   literally for centuries. Even if it hasn't been done in the "right
   way", it still raises the question of revival. After all, we hardly
   understand ALL the things that could happen to people. People are
   not closed systems: what happens to them comes not just from their
   physiology but from events in the Universe around them. Right now
   we face a variety of problems such as cancer and heart disease, 
   but there are many others which might arise. Car accidents could
   not happen until cars existed. Spaceship accidents have only just
   started. All this does not mention what might happen with the 
   control of living things we will have. I am not talking about aging
   but about the dangers of existence which everyone faces. (Yes, we
   can make them less frequent, but if we live longer even events 
   that take 200 years to happen become much closer to us).

   Religion is just as irrelevant if we don't RIGHT NOW know how to
   cure a condition as it is if we do ... so long as the condition
   may someday have a cure. The fact that various religious people
   argue against cryonics merely tells us that they misunderstand it
   completely. I include the Pope in this comment, too.

2. What happens to people when they become old?
   Several commentators seem to accept this as automatic conservatism
   and lack of interest in new ideas. The basic idea here is that these
   people are responding as they do because they have lived for a long
   time.

   There is another way to see it. They respond as they do because they
   have little future life to expect. Someone with such a condition
   clearly will not take up any activities which will take longer than
   their expected future, and would hardly adopt a new ideology on
   their deathbed. 

   Unfortunately the examples given of how aged people respond bear
   little relevance (if any!) to how someone who WILL NOT AGE might
   respond. The examples given are all of AGED PEOPLE. 

   While I personally believe that someone who does not expect to age
   will take on a much LESS conservative attitude, and seek out new
   ideas much more, we have no such person to test this on, right
   now. I will add, however, that even if as people got older (even
   without aging) it does not follow that they must inevitably take
   the conservative approach. After all, if we can fix aging itself,
   fixing any issues like a refusal to adopt new ideas will become
   just as easy.

More to be said on the recent comments in Cryonet, but that will be
all for now.

		Best wishes and long long life for all,

			Thomas Donaldson

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