X-Message-Number: 17462
From: "john grigg" <>
Subject: why suspend the entire body?
Date: Wed, 05 Sep 2001 20:53:58 

Doug Skrecky wrote:
To be blunt, the damage inflicted on bodies at present is so
extensive the chances of their revival is negligible. It would be far more 
likely that only the brains would be restored, with the rest of the body 
being replaced, as opposed to repaired. Storage of whole bodies might make 
psychological sense, but technically it is an absurd notion.
(end)

Suspending the entire body may make sense from a sociological sense though.  
We may be heading toward a future where there are still strict limitations 
placed on science for religious/ethical/cultural reasons.  If the current 
negative attitudes toward cloning stand, I could see it being against the 
law for future scientists to even clone us a brainless body created from our 
own DNA.  And so I see it as crucial to have the entire body preserved.

Neuro-only patients could probably be fitted with android bodies, but not 
everyone coming back might like this!  And also, this might be a very 
expensive option the people of the future might not want to indulge in.  Not 
to mention the exceptional physical and mental abilities such a body might 
confer, which a future society might not want to trust us with initially.

I think if they can bring back the brain, then there should be no problem 
recovering the full body.  With a truly mature medical nanotechnology this 
should not be prohibitively expensive for their economic system.  Of course, 
I am assuming a government agency will bring us back rather then a fairly 
small Alcor-like organization.

So, why take a chance?

best wishes,

John

P.S. Let's invite Matt Groening to the next Alcor conference so we can beat 
him up!

Just kidding! ;)

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