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 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=26243