X-Message-Number: 26243
Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 10:23:06 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: To Kennita, evolution and cryonics

To Kennita and others:

My own message to Cryonet saying that I wouldn't discuss this matter
with Basie any further may have been lost. It's hardly lost on
me that I had not convinced Basie of anything.

I will say that the subject does bear on cryonics. It deals with
whether or not in practise we can really make people live longer
than they do now, and thus with whether or not cryonics will 
succeed in prolonging our lives. Put simply, efforts to cure
aging would take us nowhere if virtually no one really died 
of aging, but of one disease after another as they grew older
and older. (Guess what: I doubt that strongly). 

As for cryonics, we want to be suspended because we believe that when
awakened, we won't face only a few years of life... which is what
would happen if we don't die of aging in the first place. Yes, if so,
then we'd die in a few years of a disease now totally unknown.

I actually believe that evolution itself is right now working
to extend our lifespans. We're hoping that by explicit research
and cryonics we'll be able to take advantage of this, rather
than just have our descendants become very longlived. That 
point is actually a logical consequence of the evolutionary
theory of aging that I have explained and cited at least one
ref for.

And Kennita, I'm talking to YOU and others, not to Basie. 

              Best wishes and long long life for all,

                   Thomas Donaldson

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