X-Message-Number: 24833 Date: Sat, 16 Oct 2004 12:21:22 -0500 From: "Bruce J. Klein" <> Subject: Re: CryoNet #24821 - #24825 References: <> In reply to Ben Best's #24825 Thanks for your kind words, Ben. You are a great mind. > I believe that it is self-defeating to attempt to live forever by > presenting one's position as an alternative to religion. I see your "attempting to live forever" and "presenting one's position" as separate. One can focus on living forever as a personal goal, and then work to build friendly relations with religion - at the same time. > I also think that one can never know that one can live forever and > that the belief that one has acheived immortality is likely to reduce > vigilance and hasten death. Agree. Immortality is not a state, it's a process - immortality is a way of life. We could be immortal now, unless we succumb to unwanted forces(aging) or kill ourselves. However, saying that one wants to be immortal doesn't mean there is reduced vigilance. On the contrary, with more life, there is more reason to live, more experiences on how to avoid death and more incentive to preserve knowledge gained. > How impactful would it be to be told that you could only live a > million years rather than a trillion years? Limited lifespan, living 10 more years, or 10 million more years, is irrelevant if death=oblivion. The pursuit of infinite lifespan is the best way to overcome this problem. > No, my problems with immortalism have nothing to do with my being > too mentally weak to be "thinking about 'forever'" . People who spend > their time trying to understand "forever" are far less likely to live 200 > years than people who spend their time trying to solve the practical > problems of cryonics and anti-aging medicine. A computer that cannot > survive 200 years can hardly be said to be executing "infinite loops" > -- except from the point of view of computer jargon. Everyone can't be a philosopher. Practical work needs to be done, and is being done. However, without a clear reason to live forever, there is left to much wiggle room for us to copout on life. Rather than water things down or leave the unanswered questions about afterlife to religion, physical immortality needs be the main goal. Bruce Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=24833