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From att!icus!dasys1!tbetz Wed Apr 19 10:28:24 1989
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Date: Tue, 18 Apr 89 19:17:13 EDT
From:  (TOM BETZ)
Message-Id: <>
To: icus!att!ho4cad!kqb
Subject: Re: CRYONICS mailing list #75 - Re: fate of individual survival
Status: RO

Kevin,  assaults you for your suggestions re: technological
mind transfer.  While I would personally react in much the same manner were
you to come at me with that hardware, neither he nor I should be permitted
to lock others out of this option.

I think he's taking your suggestion too personally, and not
looking at the Big Picture.

|Subject: CRYONICS - Re: Individual Survival
|In article #72, kqb writes:
|>Editorial / Opinion - The Fate of Individual Survival
|[...]
[ SF References deleted... reality is generally far stranger than,
and always different from, how it is anticipated in SF. ] 

|To be short - I don't buy it. Let me ask you: would you rather control your
|own destiny, or give up some or all of the responsibility for your thoughts
|and life to some metapsychic octopus with a secret agenda?

Yep.  But would you foreclose the option of others to do as they
will?  I wouldn't.

|I don't think I'm paranoid, but if you tell me that Buddha himself would like 
|an option on a corner of my skull, be prepared for an armed response. I love 
|being me. I get very close to the other people I love, too. But while they 
|occupy the largest part of my heart, my head is my own exclusive stamping 
|ground. ...

But if one you loved had the option to keep living in you,
wouldn't you think once about permitting them that option, by
volunteering a piece of your time?  I'd think about it...
probably wouldn't do it, selfish as I am, but I'd think about it.

|I'm leery of your "high bandwidth direct brain / computer interconnection".
|The RISKs of such an interconnection are beyond estimation. If you ever come 
|at me with your circuit boards, soldering iron and machete, I'll fight to the 
|death. I mean, haven't you ever wished you could shut your ears the same way 
|you shut your eyes? What if you couldn't shut your eyes, either? If your 
|reality was absolutely defined by someone else?  Even Orwell didn't let the 
|bastards inside your skull. The whole thing sounds like existentialist hell, 
|and I don't credit it. No-one could be stupid enough to let themselves in for 

|such bargain-basement soul obliteration. I, personally, would rather be safely
|and irrevocably dead.

I don't believe that stupidity would be the only excuse a person
might find for such a deal.  There are millions who suicide
every year.  Wouldn't it be great if they were able to make a
useful contribution to society while obliterating themselves?
As each must have the right to choose suicide, each must have the
option to offer through their suicide the survival of another.

If technology should one day permit it, who are we to naysay it?

A body is a terrible thing to waste.

--
    "Still I sing bonny boys, bonny mad boys,       |  Tom Betz, 114 Woodworth 
           Bedlam boys are bonny,                   |  Yonkers, NY 10701-2509
  For they all go bare, and they live by the air,   |      (914) 375-1510
And they want nor drink nor money." - Steeleye Span | cmcl2!hombre!dasys1!tbetz

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