From: Damien Broderick (d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Thu May 11 2000 - 22:28:39 MDT
At 12:03 PM 9/05/00 -0700, Max wrote:
>In deference to Sasha and his family, I ask you not to speculate on what
>happened.
I understand, but in view of the outpouring of grief on the list, and
discussions of cryonics options, etc, I do think an adjacent topic needs to
be raised for the long-term benefit of us all.
Reading between the lines, I gather that Sasha took his own life. Even if
he'd had cryonics arrangements in place, I wonder if that fact might have
prevented any cryonics organization from fulfilling his suspension.
Some of us might find it easy to empathize with the bone-deep despair that
can afflict a person, making suicide appear the only or at least the most
plausible escape hatch. I suspect that quite a few people on this list are
prey to such affliction from time to time, because it is exactly those who
are clear-sighted, smart and hence (usually) somewhat alienated from the
rest of society who simultaneously suffer this anguish while strenuously
maintaining the need for dynamic optimism.
Probably the only way to guard against fatal attacks of despair is to live
within a deeply connected community and/or family. Many of us are
profoundly cut off from both. I would hope that we can find our way to
develop such a caring community (and forgive me if, as a geographical
outsider, I'm misrepresenting extropian and >H life in the States, Sweden
and other places). But I also feel there needs to be some
technically-mediated way for a person finding himself or herself in such
wretchedness to step back for a while, allow the passage of time to do its
healing (as it does, I know). Perhaps there are available drugs that do
this without making you stupid and numb. I don't know of any, but then I'm
fairly ignorant of psychopharmacology. Anyone here have anything to add to
my blurry suggestion?
Damien
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