X-Message-Number: 30300 References: <> From: Kennita Watson <> Subject: Re: Cryonics meets future fatigue Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2008 02:52:21 -0800 Mark Plus wrote: > I have to wonder if the recent expressions of anxiety about how to > run a cryonics organization reflect a deeper, unstated fear: That > technological progress has effectively stagnated or stalled for > intrinsic reasons, so that nobody will ever have the ability to > resuscitate us no matter how many centuries a cryonics organization > can keep pouring liquid nitrogen over our bodies. Not true for me -- I mostly worry that the organizations will self-destruct before the technology is developed. Also, every body that isn't put in LN2 now is a person lost forever, so if the organizations aren't growing, more people are dying. > > For example, cryonicists starting 20 years ago apparently put a lot > of stock in Eric Drexler's ideas as the technological hocus-pocus > to bring us back; but it looks now that Drexlerian nanotech has > joined the ranks of other paleo-future fantasies like space > colonies, flying cars and nuclear power too cheap to meter. The > rush to vitrification implicitly acknowledges nanotech's > infeasibility. Um, no -- vitrification causes less damage, and less damage means you get out of LN2 and back in the game sooner. By the way, I think those other things will probably happen (unless something makes them obsolete), but not in the time frames we'd hoped. Live long and prosper, Kennita -- Register Republican NOW so you can vote for Ron Paul in the primary (http://www.fec.gov/votregis/vr.shtml) then switch back. Also, go to RonPaulBlimp.com -- you could win a ride! Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=30300