X-Message-Number: 18961
From: 
Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 11:31:23 EDT
Subject: new diseases?

Thomas Donaldson often says that cryonics will be needed even in the era of 
"immortality," since new diseases may arrive which remain incurable for a 
time. With a single exception, this seems unlikely to me, for the following 
reason.

At some point we will have full, detailed knowledge of normal anatomy and 
physiology, and our indwelling nanobots will be able to spot any 
abnormalities and eliminate them, or at least report them for investigation, 
in plenty of time.

The exception concerns "psychic" diseases or disorders of thought or emotion, 
caused not by inimical substances or organisms, but perhaps by vicious memes 
that make the victim dangerous to himself or others. An obvious example would 
be yet another radical religious cult. But again, such things seem likely to 
fade away in a robust future.

Robert Ettinger
Cryonics Institute
Immortalist Society
www.cryonics.org  

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