X-Message-Number: 8861 From: Olaf Henny <> Subject: Re: CryoNet #8851; Immortality Date: Thu, 27 Nov 1997 15:49:00 -0800 Re: Immortality vs. Megalife In Message #8851 Joe Strout wrote: >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). Joe, when in a couple of centuries the two of us, you as a mind uploaded construct and I in for of ever patched up flesh get caught in a fire, your circuits will melt about the same time as my brains will boil out. Unless you will have an uploading facility right in your home, I doubt, that you will update it weekly, after all, the probability of dying in an accident will be only once in thousands of years, and excuses "to do it some other day" will be all-prevailing. Even if it is as easy as shaving in the morning, but not as visible, if it remains undone, there is great temptation to delay. What if it is as much bother as going to the dentist or worse yet, as signing up for life insurance. In the latter case I can see myself procrastinating for centuries. :) Here is a chilling thought: What if the above fire catches us in the uploading facility? >:-> >But there's *still* probably no such thing as immortality, because >ultimately the universe will run down. Where is your optimism? By that time we surely will have the capability to hop to another universe, since we have already had plenty practice in switching solar systems and galaxies, which went on the blink on us. >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. Right now I am totally happy with myself, but who knows how I will feel in a couple of millenia? >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. Let's just simple call it attaining megalife (one word to give it more punch). ;-) >Cheers, >-- Joe Cheers to you too, Olaf Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=8861