X-Message-Number: 8271 Date: 01 Jun 97 17:56:41 EDT From: "Stephen W. Bridge" <> Subject: Temporal immigrants To CryoNet From Steve Bridge June 1, 1997 Thanks to Peter Merel (Message #8256) for the funny and observant essay on his immigration experiences. A word of warning, though. Don't generalize your San Diego experience to include all of America. You will find as many regional and individual differences in the U.S. in terms of greetings, interaction styles, even toilet fixtures, as you will between the U.S. and Australia. You have many entertaining and/or jarring experiences ahead of you. I was especially intrigued by Peter's comparison between changing countries and changing centuries (via cryonics), since "temporal immigration" has been on my own mind recently. For many years, one of the most common questions about cryonics from both public and media has been, "What about future shock? Won't it be impossible (or inconceivably hard) to adjust to that future world where no one knows you?" First I point out that I plan to know a LOT of people in that future world. Some of my younger friends may survive to that time without requiring biostasis of any kind. I have met or had long phone conversations with 15 of the 35 current Alcor patients and am friends with family members of at least 15 others, not to mention a few current patients of other cryonics organizations. In addition, I would guess that I know perhaps 200 current cryonicists fairly well. But more importantly, the evidence of history suggests that many humans cope well with dislocation, if they are moving to a new location with opportunity and they have the right attitude. Almost everyone in the United States is an immigrant himself (or herself) or the descendant of someone who traveled across an ocean within the past 370 years, leaving behind many or all family members. They often had to change careers, learn a new language -- both spoken and non-verbal, even change religions. In many cases, they found happiness and prosperity from that move, although it took a lot of work and willingness to adjust. Several hundred thousand immigrants per year continue this experience today, with varying results. While many of the current immigrants and many of our ancestors were forced to come to America for one reason or another, a large percentage of them emigrated from their native lands because they were more ambitious or curious or restless than others in their families or villages. They wanted new experiences. The Americans of today are the descendants of such people, and it is quite possible that genetics plays some part in the American thirst for adventure and exploration, including the American development of cryonics. It seems likely to me that the experience of traveling to the future will be no more difficult -- and conceivably LESS so -- than that of our ancestors' journeys to America. For years, I believed that predicting success in revival adaptation for cryonics patients was based strictly on individual factors -- flexibility, ability to learn, cleverness in business, maybe in finding ways to move your current assets into the future. However, recently a friend shared some thoughts which make me want to increase my knowledge in this area. After all, someday there WILL be a field of study to determine how best to help revived cryonauts adjust. Some of us may be among the first patients revived and may be participants or even leaders in that field. The more knowledge acquired now the better. My friend is Virginia Boyle from Chicago. She is a third-generation American (all four grandparents born in Ireland) and is engaged to Roberto, a Mexican immigrant who has lived in Chicago for about 20 years. They work with immigrant communities in the area. Virginia has observed that, among Spanish-speaking groups, immigrants from some countries do much better than others. For instance, Mexicans and Cubans are almost always better off after five years in the U.S. than are Puerto Ricans and immigrants from Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. Her generalization is that Mexicans and Cubans are more "entrepreneurial," Puerto Ricans keep waiting for someone to take care of them, and Central Americans are a combination of shell-shocked from war and so relieved just to find some quiet and a bit of food that their initiative is gone. Whether her specific reasoning is correct or not, it struck me that cryonicists could learn a lot from immigrant experiences. If any of you run across books dealing with these issues, please let me know. I am particularly interested in studies of what national groups have best adjusted and of what characteristics seem to allow for the best individual adjustments. I am also interested in studies of how centenarians (people over 100 years of age) cope with changing times. I do NOT mean books about WHY they lived so long. If we might live for centuries, we might learn from those who have at least lived for one, even taking into account the experiences of aging. Steve Bridge Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=8271