X-Message-Number: 20981 Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 04:56:50 -0500 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: CryoNet #20963 - #20971 This message is for James Swayze: In your reply to me you raised a second issue, fundamentally that of whether we could use a suitable technology to make someone perfect. I said no, and said that I would answer you in a separate message. Your comment here, after all, wasn't really about molecular nanotechnological repair. I am not claiming that we cannot make improvements, not at all. I am claiming that we will not achieve PERFECTION, two very different issues. And many fundamental problems get in the way of perfection. First, the easiest one is ERRORS. Not all errors are immediately clear. Those errors we can fix. But some are obscure enough that we only find out about them after we've used our technological device(s) several times. The occurrence of such errors comes basically from entropy, but their multiplicity includes many things that we felt sure would not happen and others we did not imagine COULD happen. Second, we may fail to see all the consequences of a change to ourselves or others. Suppose you decided that you wanted the ability to read others' minds. You had thought about it and did not feel uncomfortable with other people having the same ability. But that's not the way it turned out. Others objected violently to your ability, so you form a group of those who also have that ability. And so you go off with this group and discover, to your dismay, that you all are losing your individuality... Third, we may mistake what we wanted. No one has ever proven or even claimed that all our desires and wants are consistent. Basically we live (or try to live) in circumstances in which their inconsistency doesn't show itself. One thing that can happen if we change ourselves is that our inconsistency shows itself. Suppose you wanted skin that made you invulnerable to attack. However that skin also turns out to make it uncomfortable for anyone who wants to stroke you out of love for you. Even if we went as far as to invent a changeable form of skin, sometimes hard, sometimes soft, that would leave the choice of just which form up to you (or your hormones?), neither of which could always be guaranteed to the right. Fundamentally I doubt that we'll ever achieve perfection not just because all previous attempts have ludicrously failed, but because as human beings we are already far too changeable to ever become perfect. Perfection is an attribute of diamonds, not of people. Best wishes and long long life for all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=20981