X-Message-Number: 31636 From: Mark Plus <> Subject: Indefensible acceleration-speak Date: Sat, 25 Apr 2009 08:08:17 -0700 In Cryonet #31631, Kat Cotter passes along Dave Kekich's invitation about coming as one's 2068 self based on the premise: >Since the power of our technology is doubling every year now with no end in sight (at least over the next 50 years or so), our tools will be over 1000 times more powerful in only ten years. Sigh. Cryonicists who should know better need to stop saying this. We have enough credibility problems already. Unfortunately Ray Kurzweil and his fans continue to pollute the meme pool with their accelerationist nonsense. I just flew to Tulsa and back on Boeing 737's, 300 series, a model airliner which first went into production in the 1960's. The more recently manufactured ones no doubt incorporate some significant engineering improvements (made possible partly by much more powerful computers, of course); but on the whole they get the job done, and at the same speed, just like the ones airlines flew 40 years ago. (And, of course, they still run on petroleum, despite the stories I've seen since the 1970's about the new fantasy fuels coming out on the market any day now derived from algae and such.) My trip involved moving my 82 year old father with Alzheimer's into a better nursing home. (No, he's made it clear to me that he doesn't want cryotransport. Besides, my sister, also unfriendly to cryonics, has power of attorney over him.) I'd like to know how a "1000 times more powerful" anything would have made a difference to him in the past 10 years, much less in the next 10 years which he probably won't complete. "Around 2010 the world will be at a new orbit in history. . . Life expectancy will be indefinite. Disease and disability will nonexist. Death will be rare and accidental -- but not permanent. We will continuously jettison our obsolescence and grow younger." F.M. Esfandiary, "Up-Wing Priorities" (1981). http://www.box.net/shared/static/ay9lub60ha.pdf http://www.scribd.com/doc/10948503/Up-Wing-Priorities Mark Plus _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live SkyDrive : Get 25 GB of free online storage. http://windowslive.com/online/skydrive?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_skydrive_042009 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=31636