X-Message-Number: 26380
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 09:33:05 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: Comments to Seidel & Basie msgs

For Bill Seidel:

I know very well how you feel but saying that most people can't think
seems a bit strong. I suspect that they problem is that most people
don't WANT to think about death, because they believe no way exists
to avoid it. The only way to convince such people of the merits of
cryonics requires them to first think about death itself; not a 
strategy likely to work.

For CoetzeeBasie:

(By the way, what is your real name? In the normal first name - last
name format).

As for the ethics of creating consciousness, people do that all the
time when they produce children. If we're ever able to create a
conscious machine (I've raised problems even on Cryonet about doing
that with any present computer no matter how large) I see no ethical
problems in doing so. I do see problems as to whether or not doing
so would be very wise, though not for any kind of conscious device,
only for some kinds.

And if the basics of ethics comes from the decision not to do
unwise acts, then it's unethical. However I'd add that such grounds
for ethics seem not to fit the acts we think of as ethical versus
unethical. Perhaps if we were all immortal and would meet with 
the same people many times, such a criterion might fit well, but     
at least now we aren't (yet) immortal.

          Best wishes and long long life for all,

               Thomas Donaldson

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=26380