X-Message-Number: 24941 Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 10:18:03 -0400 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: CryoNet #24935 - #24939 For "Basie": Your comment (to the effect that not all people will want immortality) has a simple answer: all such people will die out (relatively) soon, anyway. Those who live much longer have selective advantages over those who only live a short time: both aged and infants would be far less of a burden than they are with us, aged because no one would age, infants because we could maintain our numbers with a far lower birthrate. Elementary schools would exist, but there might be only one in an entire solar system. And nothing keeps those who don't now want immortality from converting, either. I was not being optimistic so much as trying to see how a true (virtual) immortal would feel about such issues. I might even be wrong (shock! horror!). And note that I specifically pointed out that immortals would hardly give up self-defense, either... though their technology for self-defense would be both far more sophisticated and less damaging to those to whom it is applied than ours. And yes, my science fiction book TALES OF SKASTOWE, in a sense, goes into this issue more deeply than I have done here. Best wishes and long long life to all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=24941