X-Message-Number: 31678
From: Mark Plus <>
Subject: Uh, Ray . . .
Date: Sat, 16 May 2009 21:33:17 -0700


This article makes it sound as if Kurzweil invented cryonics ("crafted a 
contingency plan in case he dies before The Singularity arrives").

From "I, Robot" (Newsweek)
http://www.newsweek.com/id/197812/output/print


   >But even some of Kurzweil's associates secretly think he's a bit off his 
   rocker, and that his ideas are driven more by fear of death than by solid 
   science. "Ray is going through the single most public midlife crisis that any
   male has ever gone through," says one scientist who will be teaching at 
   Singularity University and who asked for anonymity because he didn't want to 
   criticize a colleague publicly. . .


   >The goal of living long enough to experience The Singularity has taken over 
   Kurzweil's life, turning him into a health nut. He's trim and fit, thanks to 
   exercise, a careful diet and loads of supplements. It's also made him 
   wealthier. He's written three books on the subject. His latest, Transcend, 
   released in April, is coauthored with a physician, Terry Grossman, and 
   provides recipesbaked cod, cauliflower with Indian spices, fruit smoothiesand
   tells you what supplements you should be taking. Grossman and Kurzweil sell 
   their own line of supplements, vitamins and nutrition shakes called Ray & 
   Terry's Longevity Products. Kurzweil has even crafted a contingency plan in 
   case he dies before The Singularity arrives. He'll be frozen in liquid 
   nitrogen and put into storage, waiting for technology to rescue him from the 
   grave. Kurzweil also hopes to bring his father back to life by getting DNA 
   from his father's grave site and using a swarm of nanobots to create a new 
   body that is "indistinguishable from the original person." He'll dig up all 
   of his father's old letters and other materials, and download them along with
   his own memories into an artificial-intelligence program to create a 
   "virtual person" . . .


   >He has no doubt. None. He is utterly, completely, 100 percent sure that he 
   is going to live forever. He will be reunited with his beloved father, and 
   they will become immortal and spend eternity together. He is absolutely 
   certain about this. Nothing can talk him out of it. And that, at the end of 
   the day, may be the scariest, or saddest, thing of all.


 

Of course Kurzweil, assuming he does have cryotransport lined up, will need it 
according to the actuarial table, just like the rest of us. Well before then he 
might want to arrange his power of attorney with someone who will cooperate in 
case his spouse at the time or his children find cryonics all icky and plan to 
void his arrangements. Given Kurzweil's history of predicting his transcendence 
of death by the middle of the 21st Century, his relatives could make a plausible
case to a judge to set aside his cryonics contract because he displayed mental 
incompetence when he entered into it, well before his final illness.

Mark Plus






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