X-Message-Number: 23317 Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2004 19:11:45 -0800 From: James Swayze <> Subject: Some thoughts to ponder References: <> >Message #23276 >From: >Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2004 13:36:00 EST >Subject: A Cure for Everything? > > > <snip> > >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. > This is what I've always believed. Even for me as bad as it sometimes gets, and it can and does get really bad. I've often had people exclaim, "I don't know how you do it, if it were me I don't think I could have lasted..." or words to this effect. This may well be true for a small percentage of the population but I truly feel for most we do put aside adversity after an initial period of complaint. Survival is too important to always be self absorbed in how bad one's life is at the moment to moment level. We occupy ourselves with tasks either for survival or entertainment, sometimes blurring the lines between these and we ignore the pain, displeasure, loneliness and even constantly feeling the illness or whatever and we keep on keeping on. I do and I must. Too much awaits me to give in now. forget which philosopher it was that said this but he contemplated on the tortures f hell and posited that even those imagined in his medieval times would be after enough time converted to pleasurable by the human mind and will to survive. I cannot say the pain and ill feeling I endure daily approaches anything remotely near pleasurable but I am able to not think about it all the time and let whatever else comes to mind distract me from it. Contemplating adventures with my cryo friends is one pleasant distraction. > >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. > It would, I would conjecture, have to be rare indeed in such a time as the future we envision for someone to choose such an end but it brings to mind something that I have been pondering. Should we as a society, as I picture us becoming, as an intellectual beyond current human means society, and keeping in mind the possibility of infinitesimal tweaking of brain activity both chemical and neuro-electronic -- where depression should surely by then be banished, allow someone to end their life on the grounds they are displeased with current reality? How might reality change that could make their complaint moot in time, even a comparably short time? Could their desire ever be considered wholly rational? This is of course considering aside for this argument such things as rationally choosing euthanasia to say avoid something like further brain damage from something akin to prion disease as such things by then should be curable. Would we simply say they have the right to such autonomy regardless of how unprofitable it would truly be for themselves, their family, their friends, and yes, the whole of society? Would we perhaps commit someone to suspension rather than allow their permanent loss when they might actually at a later time be grateful for not being allowed to have been lost to oblivion by less than rational and hasty choice? After all, how would we judge a decision to be hasty in a time when change would be so dynamic as to make any length of time from seconds to thousands of years not enough time to make such a permanent decision upon? I haven't formed yet a solid lasting personal view on this. For myself, for now at least, I know I would demand autonomy, damn the consequences no one rules me but me! Even still, I can imagine being grateful possibly if saved from a rash decision to find myself awaking in a completely different reality from the one that might have prompted such an act. James -- Member: Cryonics Institute of Michigan http://www.cryonics.org The Immortalist Society http://www.cryonics.org/info.html The Society for Venturism http://www.venturist.org Immortality Institute http://www.imminst.org Methuselah Foundation http://www.methuselahfoundation.org Methuselah Mouse Prize http://www.methuselahmouse.org [Give $$$ for life!] Marijuana Policy Project http://www.mpp.org American Civil Liberties Union http://www.aclu.org Nat. Resources Defense Council http://www.nrdc.org Act For Change http://www.actforchange.org People for American Way http://www.pfaw.org MY WEBSITE: http://www.davidpascal.com/swayze/ Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=23317