X-Message-Number: 8851
Date: Wed, 26 Nov 1997 09:13:59 -0800
From: "Joseph J. Strout" <>
Subject: immortality etc.

In Cryomsg #8846, Olaf Henny wrote:

>I have always assumed, that the aim was to achieve an *indefinite
>lifespan*.  That is a BIG difference. Even with MNT and
>perfection in cryonics, we will never achieve immortality.
>There are many causes of accidental death, which will not permit
>cryopreservation or restoration through MNT, such as death by
>fire, or when rescue in remote areas is not possible in time to
>prevent destructive decomposition.

But if you'll pardon my $0.02 worth, you're neglecting mind uploading.
Once you're uploaded, you can make frequent (probably weekly) backups.  I
expect there will be a large backup industry (already fairly healthy today)
which will guarantee your data against loss due to natural disaster, war,
etc.  So none of the above scenarios would lose you more than a week (and a
good knock on a biological head can do much worse than that).

Among an uploaded population, the only major cause of death will be
suicide.  (Hmm, and perhaps breakdown due to tampering with one's brain
circuitry.)

But there's *still* probably no such thing as immortality, because
ultimately the universe will run down.  But more to the point, as time
increases to infinity, the probability that you will commit suicide or
transform into something significantly different (e.g., a group mind or
whatever) approaches 1.

So I agree that we shouldn't speak of immortality, but instead of an
indefinate lifespan or a cure for aging (or some better word, as Will has
proposed).  Usually when I talk to people about cryonics, I talk about
living a few hundred years longer.  Everyone's crystal ball grows cloudy
well before that time scale anyway.

Cheers,
-- Joe

,------------------------------------------------------------------.
|    Joseph J. Strout           Department of Neuroscience, UCSD   |
|               http://www-acs.ucsd.edu/~jstrout/  |
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