X-Message-Number: 28382
From: "John de Rivaz" <>
References: <>
Subject: Re: Nanotech, space elevator and wealth (and the cost of LN2)
Date: Sun, 3 Sep 2006 11:05:23 +0100

Recently the US and UK spend trillions of dollars on a war justified by 
removing weapons of mass destruction from Iraq. I believe it has recently 
exceed the duration of the Second World War.

"Nature" has weapons of mass destruction. Approximately every 60 to 120 
years every single citizen is exterminated, although not all on the same day 
admittedly.

A "hundred years war" between Britain and France is known to have occurred, 
so a conflict that spans generations is not unheard of. (I cannot see the 
over-population argument working for this war.) In proportion to the wealth 
of the nations at the time, the financial cost could well have been similar.

Therefore surely it ought to be possible to motivate people in charge to 
spend the same order of magnitude over similar periods on projects to 
eliminate ageing, disease and death. Of course a lot of them will fail and 
their funding wasted, but what of the waste in smashing the infrastructure 
of a country to get regime change and then having to built it up again 
whilst some of the citizens try to stop it being rebuilt.

A very small faction of that money funding cryonics would give incentive for 
people to use it rather than regarding it as a fringe activity.

Anyone using cryonics must surely realise that they also have to be an 
extremely honest citizen.

The longer you live the greater chance of mis-deeds catching up with you. 
This must surely be an incentive for authorities to give it approval. I use 
the word "honest" in the broadest sense beyond the word 
legal"  --involvement with a profession that appears to give you the power 
to rip people off in some way could backfire if you live on to a period 
where such behaviour is no longer sanctioned.

This argument could be used to make choices -- if, for example, anyone has 
the choice between two otherwise unknown lawyers and one is a cryonicist and 
one not, then on that basis the cryonicist should be the best choice.
[Hardly a new idea, of course, religions that make people believe in 
immortality won out in terms of government approval over worshipping Zeus 
and Athena and so on.]

As far as a genuinely altruistic government is concerned, that should mean 
that to encourage understanding and use of cryonics should lead to a better 
and more easily managed country.

-- 
Sincerely, John de Rivaz:  http://John.deRivaz.com for websites including
Cryonics Europe, Longevity Report, The Venturists, Porthtowan, Alec Harley
Reeves - inventor, Arthur Bowker - potter, de Rivaz genealogy,  Nomad .. and
more

----- Original Message ----- > Message #28381
> Date: Sat, 02 Sep 2006 11:58:44 -0400
> From: Keith Henson <>
> Subject: Re: Nanotech, space elevator and wealth (and the cost of LN2)
> Incidentally, it is fairly easy, especially if you are in power, to get
> vast sums of money spent on wars.

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