X-Message-Number: 24910 From: "mike99" <> Subject: RE: #24902 Hell; biological brains Date: Sat, 23 Oct 2004 17:11:19 -0600 Mike Perry <> wrote: ... > Even though I discount the likelihood of anyone winding up in a state of > eternal punishment, and am not sure there will be much if any place for > "punishment" as we now understand it, there are good reasons, as > I see it, > to choose cryonics over destructive alternatives. One is that I > imagine one > will feel far more in touch with the historical process if successfully > reanimated, and I think that will become important as one lives for > centuries, millennia, and longer. (Keep in mind that to live so long will > require a motive to do so. Feeling that one is interfacing with > history and > helping make it happen is one such motive. This should involve benevolent > interactions with others, with many corresponding rewards to the > well-disposed.) I go into this whole issue in more detail in *Forever for > All*, esp. ch. 13. In addition to Mike's excellent book (which I have recommended before on this list), I would point out that in his book THE PHYSICS OF IMMORTALITY, Frank Tipler has a similar take on hell/purgatory. This state of perdition is neither eternal nor necessary, except insofar the individuals therein refuse to refrain from harming others. Sooner or later, everyone in perdition will learn that they can get to a better place by simply behaving better. Also, the hell that Tipler describes is not a place of torture, but rather a place of sequestration. What's bad about the place is that those in it are separated from the fellowship and enjoyments of the heavens. And that, even without lakes of burning pitch and devils with pitchforks, may be the most painful possible torture. Regards, Michael LaTorra "For any man to abdicate an interest in science is to walk with open eyes towards slavery." -- Jacob Bronowski "Experiences only look special from the inside of the system." -- Eugen Leitl Member: Extropy Institute: www.extropy.org World Transhumanist Association: www.transhumanism.org Alcor Life Extension Foundation: www.alcor.org Society for Technical Communication: www.stc.org Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=24910