X-Message-Number: 25213
From: 
Date: Sat, 4 Dec 2004 10:25:23 EST
Subject: CI policy re uploading

"Valera Retyunin" writes in part:


> I fear that at some point people with a liking for  comforting
>abstractions and re-definitions may make up a majority on the  CI board of
>directors and decide to duplicate my mum or dad instead of  reanimating them.
>I don't want them to be killed, even in such a  wonderful futuristic manner
>as uploading, and even if I got electronic or  biological copies of them in
>return. Are there any safeguards against  attempts by "benevolent" uploaders
>in authority within cryonics  organisations to finish... sorry, upload off
>cryonics  patients?



First, nothing about the future is absolutely guaranteed.  However, in the CI 
by-laws (see web site) you can read that our purposes include  "the freezing 
of human bodies and maintenance of them in the hope of eventual  revival," and 
this article can only be amended by unanimous vote of the  membership. Of 
course, it is theoretically possible that "revival" could be  construed to 

include uploading, but many other hazards are much more significant  than the 
remote 
possibility of such an interpretation and  action.
 
Further, I think RBR wrote of the danger that uploading  might become cheaper 
than biological revival, but I think that  highly unlikely. "Uploading" will 
become possible, if ever, only after  something very like the "singularity" or 
"spike"--and that implies extremely low  cost for just about anything at all, 
because we will have AI and assemblers,  advanced nanotech etc. 
 
Remember too that wishful thinkers don't have to do anything at all. In the  
most extreme version of wishful thinking, everyone will be resurrected in  
"Heaven" at the Omega Point, or perhaps is already immortal through the  

existence of duplicates or emulations somewhere/sometime..Those who  actually 
join CI 
and contract for suspension are those who rely on survival in  the meat, and 

it would be a gross breach of faith to substitute something else.  I think Mike
Perry agrees on this. 
 
In short, I think the fear of being uploaded rather than  repaired is very 
far-fetched and one of the least of our  worries.
 
Robert Ettinger






 Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII"

[ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] 

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=25213