X-Message-Number: 23276
From: 
Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2004 13:36:00 EST
Subject: A Cure for Everything?

Content-Language: en

A CURE FOR EVERYTHING?
 
No, I don   t mean the old joke that death cures everything, although it 

certainly does make your problems go away. If you don   t exist, you don   t 
have 
problems.
 
What I mean is related to the purported    reasons    for rejecting cryonics, 

attributed to various people including Fred Pohl, Arthur Clarke, and Isaac 
Asimov

   all of whom agreed that cryonics might work. In every case, we see a failure
   of nerve, imagination, or simple logic. (Pohl and Asimov were instrumental in 

the publication of The Prospect of Immortality   Pohl through publicity, Asimov
by vetting it for scientific kashruth.)
 

Asimov   s    reason      or one of his reported reasons   was that radical life
extension is bad, because it would freeze in positions of power the old, 

entrenched fogies who would resist progress and block the ascension of younger 
people. 
But it is clearly preposterous to imagine that old people will be incapable of 

growth and even retrofitting. It   s as nonsensical an argument as that of Swift
   s Struldgrugs. Sure, Struldbrugs would be unhappy, but they are merely 
convenient fictions.
 
Clarke has said that we become new people every decade or so anyway, so why 

bother? But if that argument didn   t persuade Clarke to give up many years ago,
why should it now?
 
Pohl has said that he wouldn   t want to face a future stripped of his friends 

and family and familiar milieu. I think he probably declined Alcor   s offer of

a free suspension because he couldn   t afford it for all his family. Aside from
the fact that some of our friends and relatives will be there (see following 
message also), the displaced person syndrome is another tired blunder of 
logic, as follows.
 
First, displaced people throughout history have seldom committed suicide and 
often made successful adjustments. In WWII, stone age aborigines from the 
south Pacific adjusted to life in New York city (which is more than I think I 
could do).
 
Second, the problem is clearly physiological in large part. Young people are 
likely to endure almost any hardship and persevere, because they have the 
health and the hormones. 
 
Third, to the extent that fear or despondency are psychological rather than 
chemical, there are many methods even now that sometimes help. Mae used to say 

we can choose whether to be cheerful or gloomy. That   s often easier said than
done, but there is some truth in it. Most of us, most of the time, faced with 
adversity, will piss and moan for a while and then get on with it.
 
Fourth and finally, nothing whatever is known for sure to be incurable. Our 
resuscitees will awaken to a world of wonders, among which will CERTAINLY be 

greatly enhanced techniques for rehabilitation. And of course the suicide option
will presumably remain open if you decide the brave new world isn   t brave 
enough   or a further period of suspended animation.
 
Robert Ettinger
 


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