From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Thu Feb 21 2002 - 10:46:21 MST
Well, my grandfather died this morning at 11 am. He was a week short of
his 89th birthday. I'm not too put out, since he's been suffering from
alzheimers for several years and has been nearly catatonic for the past
year or so, so its already been a long greiving process. This follows
his wife dying this past fall at age 85. I now have one grandmonster
left, my fathers mother, who is the oldest and most active. She'll be
turning 90 this year, yet still manages several rounds of golf a week as
well as dancing, bridge, and is currently dating two fellows...
I just heard of gramps' death this past minute as mom arrived with the
news, but this morning I decided to bite the bullet and sign up for
cryonic suspension with Alcor.
I've been meaning to do this for a while now, since Sasha Chislenko died
(Steve Witham and I decided then to do it), but the past years economic
circumstances have prevented me from taking action on this. Now that I'm
working again, I decided to send off for the info package from Alcor,
emailed Rudi Hoffman this morning to arrange the life insurance.
I'm also taking a lesson from the statistics of the situation. Grampa
Lorrey died at 69 from a heart attack from a life of smoking. Grampy and
Nan Burnett died in their 80's IMHO rather dismally after becoming less
and less active as they got older. Grandma Lorrey is still going strong
at 90 and is the most active of the bunch. Since her father lived to 99
I expect there is a longevity gene in there as well.
As attendees of Extro5 probably noticed, I'm not in very good physical
shape. Working with computers for years now has certainly impacted my
formerly fit physique. I did buy a mountain bike last year, but I've
slacked off on using it, and I haven't had the funds this winter to
engage in the sport which I've been most active in the past, skiing. So
I've decided to get back in shape as well. This will be a lot of work,
and I hope all my friends take the time to occasionally tell me to get
my lard ass off the computer out to exercise.
Sitting around waiting for the nano-santa isn't going to cut it. I'm 34
now, so I'd have to see the singularity by 2045 or else off myself for
cryosuspension to avoid onset of alzheimers. Despite the best optimism
of some, I think that this is still cutting it a little close. I'd like
another 20 years leeway just in case. In this respect, I think investing
1/20th of my time in getting 4/10ths more life is a sound investment. An
ROI of about 8 to 1. The cryo-policy is a good backup plan to this.
Writing online will still be a big part of my life extension plan, since
studies have shown that those who engage in complex writing longer delay
the onset of alzheimers as well.
Mike Lorrey
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:12:33 MST