X-Message-Number: 19456
Date: Wed, 10 Jul 2002 11:49:31 -0400
From: Robin Helweg-Larsen <>
Subject: videos and CDs

Lionel -

Your point about preparing a video testimony of your wishes for cryonic
suspension is well taken.  But how does someone go about making the
video?  You write a script; then you get other cryo people to read it
and make suggestions; then you get a family member to read it and make
suggestions; then where do you go to put it on tape?  Any idea what it
costs?

As for burning a CD, sounds like a good idea, especially because the US
video format is only one of several non-compatible formats in the
world... but, being a tech-illiterate, I have no idea what 'a capture
card and multiple recording codecs' are.

It also raises the question of making our wishes known at 'the other
end' of suspension: when the technology is available to revitalize and
repair and rejuvenate us, related technologies will already be routinely
in use for a lot of other physical modifications and enhancements.

We don't know now what will be 'standard' then.
Do we want to be restored as we were at the prime of our earlier life?
Do we have physical traits that we would like changed?
What about psychological traits?
Do we want to accept blindly the standard recommended modifications
(just as most, but not all, people today automatically accept
vaccinations for themselves and their newborns)?
Do we have religious or ethical concerns that need to be addressed?
Do we want to be made normal by the new society's norms?
What if society has become so diverse that there are no 'norms', only
endless sub-cultures?
Do we want to be given maximum flexibility for future modifications?
Do we want to have, say, enhanced memory-storage and
brain-processing-power built in, even if it involves a radical
transformation of the body?

I'm sure these issues are discussed in some other forum - my point,
though, is that along with a video tape preparation of our wishes *now*
for suspension, we may save ourselves future grief by having an equally
clear expression of the basic direction we would like our
post-suspension treatment to take.

And a further item that should be addressed is, how early in the
development of post-suspension do we want to be revived?
As soon as possible, to minimize the risks of storage (government,
business, terrorist, environmental, etc)?
As late as possible, to minimize the risks of the medical procedures
themselves?

People at 'the other end', as well as the suspension providers of today,
will need guidelines from us when the time comes!  And though guidelines
can be given by a written statement, if there is more power and less
doubt in a videotape or CD presentation, then clearly we should consider
that too.

Robin HL

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=19456