X-Message-Number: 18913 From: "John de Rivaz" <> References: <> Subject: Re: In Ictu Oculi Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 14:23:35 +0100 > Message #18908 > From: >> There is a wonderful painting I ran across in the Church and Hospital de la Caridad in Madrid by the Spanish baroque artist Juan De Loyal Valdes. It is entitled In Ictu Oculi (In the Blink of an Eye) and was painted in 1671. As far as I know it is virtually unknown in the "popular" world of Western art (i.e., outside academic circles); I've never seen it in any books of art history or paintings. << See it on the web: http://www.artehistoria.com/historia/obras/10662.htm I agree that if you consider any single, **specified** individual, the chances of him or her being cryopreserved and reanimated are much lower than the chances that an unspecified individual is cryopreserved in the late 20th or early 21st century and is reanimated. Indeed the chances that the money making industries of law and so on will thwart the process are high enough before one starts to consider practicalities such as whether the person is found in time, or whether they are cremated in a travel accident resulting in fire and so on. The odds of all this providing a problem for a specific individual do not feature at all in any estimation as to whether any **unspecified** individual gets cryopreserved. We know that the chances of this happening are exactly 100%, because it has been observed already to *have happened*. There are chances that those already cryopreserved will be destroyed by people with a money or personal career aggrandisement motive, as is being attempted right now in France. There are chances that some disaster will overcome those concentrations of cryopreserved people in the USA in the future. All of this stands before the physical problems of undoing cryopreservation damage and reversing ageing and the cause of death, enormous problems in themselves. So yes, none of us can bask in a "sure and certain knowledge" of a life after cryopreservation. But with the alternative being so much worse, it is still worth signing up and hoping for the best. -- Sincerely, John de Rivaz: http://www.deRivaz.com : http://www.AlecHarleyReeves.com http://www.longevity-report.com : http://www.autopsychoice.com : http://www.cryonics-europe.org http://www.porthtowan.com Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=18913