X-Message-Number: 17666
From: 
Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2001 15:52:00 EDT
Subject: The nature of the beast

It should have been obvious to the big brains for decades at least, maybe 
centuries.

Senescence is a curable disease--a near certainty. 

Or in words of one syllable: You don't have to die of old age.

Well, maybe some of us do, because we were born a little too soon. But even 
we have a shot, through cryonics.

Proving that senescence is (almost certainly) curable is a trivial exercise, 
one of the formulations being as follows:

Youthful good health is possible, since it exists. Matter is manipulable; our 
bodies can, in principle, be changed in any way we like, atoms and molecules 
put where we want them. What is wrong can be made right. 

(Is it possible that restoration of youthful good health is incompatible with 
retention of personality and memory? Extremely unlikely--no evidence for it 
at all. Is it possible that crucual kinds of manipulation--particular kinds 
of molecular rearrangement--cannot be done in practice? Again, extremely 
unlikely.)

Today's bit of news, in abbreviation:

> scientists have discovered how to outfox the body's slow deterioration by 
>stimulating a gene called FoxM1B. The study is reported in the Sept. 25 
issue of >the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. 

No, not many are going to see the light or holler Hallelujah because of this. 
But the grip of the old memes will be loosened a little more. 

The idea of preserving or restoring youth is easier to grasp than the idea of 
"resurrecting the dead." Not too far down the road, large numbers of people 
will begin to accept the fact that their grandchildren, maybe their children, 
perhaps even themselves, will never die a "natural" death. At that point they 
will no longer be satisfied to be part of the "natural" order or succession 
of generations. Who wants to be the last dinosaur?

After that, the heyday of cryonics. Our "little" problems will turn into big 
ones.

Robert Ettinger
Cryonics Institute
Immortalist Society
www.cryonics.org

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