X-Message-Number: 20662 Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 06:53:38 -0500 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: comments re latest cryonet Hi everyone! I liked Bob Ettinger's modification of Pascal a lot. Frankly I have come around to the belief that the existence of God is irrelevant; we must always make OUR OWN choices, moral and other, no matter how faulty and weak we may be relative to others. Not only that, but it's fundamentally IMPOSSIBLE for us not to make our own choices: the choice to follow one God or another, or one view of God or another, is always one WE make ... every time we make it. As for Yvan's comments re nuclear power, at some stage I'll simply cease to comment on them. However even using just uranium nuclear power is not so expensive that it merely provides a way to convert energy from coal (or whatever) into energy. Yes, it involves a capital cost (like everything), but pays it back with additional energy. As for reactors making plutonium, they're currently politically difficult right now, and that's one major reason Phenix and other attempts have been discontinued. I think their political unpopularity is extremely foolish --- though if we get fusion reactors to make us energy soon enough breeder reactors won't be necessary. (As I'm sure Yvan knows, fusion reactors which almost equal input energy with output energy have already been built). One final note: a while ago I put up a message criticising one approach to nanotechnology and along with that, the notion that "molecular nanotechnology" can repair us. The major proponent of that notion was, and from his web site still is, Ralph Merkle. I would hope that he will pay more attention to the actual damage caused by freezing in future. Repair of that damage may in many cases become unneeded with vitrification, but some patients cannot be vitrified because of their poor condition, and all of those suspended beforehand still deserve serious work on how to rescue them. Best wishes and long long life for all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=20662