X-Message-Number: 26496 From: "Mark Plus" <> Subject: Re: UK energy rationing and cryonicists' mobility Date: Sun, 03 Jul 2005 17:16:57 -0700 John de Rivaz writes, >Nice try, Mark, but all cryonics requires is one, one way, trip of the person as an item of freight. I cannot imagine that any government would impose rationing so strict that this one flight in an entire lifetime would be prohibited. According to the story in the Telegraph, holders of the energy ration cards can buy more points, but from a fixed stock intended to limit total fossil fuels consumption for the whole country. This practically guarantees a high and rising marginal price for each additional point of energy usage above the basic ration, assuming you can even buy them at all. What if you can't afford the points in a given year to ship a would-be cryonaut to the U.S? And what if the per capita ration for the whole country trends downwards? >Maybe cryonics can cream off the top people as has happened with other >endeavours, but they are not going to be swayed by spurious, irrelevant arguments about energy and similar considerations. "Spurious"? We can empirically observe the world's oil supply system, and it has clearly begun to break down under the strain. Even the mainstream business media have acknowledged this scenario. Oil prices have already reached levels considered "unthinkable" just a couple years ago, so at what price does the situation become non-"spurious"? Indeed, I have to wonder if Peak Oil resembles cryonics in that it violates familiar cognitive categories so that the human brain has trouble processing the idea. The effort seems to cause irrational anxiety and denial in otherwise intelligent people. Manage your risk, not your terror. Mark Plus Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=26496