From: Chris Fedeli (fedeli@email.msn.com)
Date: Mon Apr 19 1999 - 03:12:01 MDT
Emlyn wrote:
>
>"It's not suprising that you don't sign up for cryonics - I
wonder if
>anyone on this list actually has? It's like setting up your
gravesite.
>While many people actually do buy plots of land, etc, just
for that
>purpose, I'd be VERY suprised if people on this list are
amongst their
>number.
but later she qualified this with:
>What I meant was that, psychologically, cryonics feels like
arranging
>your own funeral. I support using cryonics, I think its a
good last
>option, but to actually address it in your life must be
like arranging
>your own burial site.
>
>Or is it like getting life insurance?
Actually, when I signed up for cryonic susupension my
expereince of the psychological dimension was something of a
rush. It was probably similar to the feeling expereinced by
those who joined the American Communist Party back in the
1920's - a twinge of excitement at having associated
yourself with a tiny group who shares a radical vision.
But that excitement fades, since cryonicists share little
else in common with early communists. No one assigned me a
contact person, or asked me to perform subversive acts of
psychological terrorism against the establishment. Cryonics
(and transhumanism in general) does not have the qualities
of the mass movements of old, since it does not ask its
memebers to submerge their identities into a 'cause' which
is greater then themselves. Instead, the cause is ourselves
: it is an ethic centered around self-preservation and
enhancement.
But still, I would maintain that signing up for cryonics is
one of the most important acts that many of us on this list
can do to help advance transhumanism in the world. Being a
signed-up suspension member with a cryonics outfit is, to
use the old expression, putting your money where your mouth
is. It's easy to spout transhuman memes to your friends,
but filling out that dreadful paperwork and arranging a life
insurance contract demonstrates a willingness for some kind
of lasting personal committment to the extropian
weltanshauung. [and yes Emlyn, that part of the sign-up
feels exactly like doing annoying paperwork :) ]
Call it a symbolic act. For many of us on this list,
'symbolic' would be the only way to look at is, since I know
a number of people are relatively certain that they'll never
need to resort to the ice to extend their own lives long
enough to become post-humans.
Ignoring the holes in that reasoning, join a cryonics
organization just to get that little bracelet that you can
wag in people's faces to show how radical you are. And to
show them that transhumanism isn't just a bunch of talk.
Chris Fedeli
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