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

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