X-Message-Number: 20248 From: "John de Rivaz" <> References: <> Subject: Re: the inevitability of progress Date: Thu, 3 Oct 2002 10:59:20 +0100 > From: > > Regarding the inevitability of progress, I stand by my previous post, but my > comments have been misinterpreted. It is quite possible that our present > very fragile cryonics movement could be wiped out by malevolent forces at any > time. We have no reason to be sanguine about that! However, in the long run > the essential ideas of cryonics will not be erased from human memory. Once > written and recorded, then widely disseminated, it is essentially impossible > to stamp out ideas, even though it has been tried often enough. This certainly makes sense. If cryonics is "stamped out" and existing patients killed, and eventually it is discovered that the process could have worked, then the descendants of those responsible for the killing will find themselves on the same footing as the descendants of other mass murderers. It should be noted, and made widely known as possible, than some descendants of well known mass murderers have decided voluntarily to edit their genes out of the human race by not themselves breeding. Some people, including those who may be rabidly against cryopreservation, are comforted by the notion that they will live on in their descendants. No one will hold it against them if they merely express their views against cryonics, but if they impose them by violence then they risk that their descendants will eventually cease to exist. There is a big difference between merely expressing your views and imposing them by violence upon other people, and the latter actions have fortunately usually been held in revulsion by society at large. Even if such actions are accepted for a short time (eg dictator states) eventually society turns against them. On the most fundamental level, the laws against rape are a good example of this revulsion. I expect that compulsory autopsy will disappear as common practise eventually, not because of cryonics, but because of this overall revulsion. -- 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=20248