From: Paul Wakfer (70023.3041@CompuServe.COM)
Date: Tue Dec 10 1996 - 15:42:22 MST
On Mon, 9 Dec 1996 08:22:38, "Peter C. McCluskey" <pcm@rahul.net> wrote:
> 70023.3041@CompuServe.COM (Paul Wakfer) writes:
>>IMO, I do not exaggerate what others have stated, when I say that it is
>>*insane* for anyone who sincerely wants to *see* this wonderful future which
>>everyone on this list is so keen to *talk* about, to sit back and do
>>virtually nothing to promote cryonics and to see that less damaging
>>cryopreservation ...
>You do exaggerate.
Only slightly, for effect.
>You can't know that it's insane without knowing how soon I am likely to need
>cryopreservation and what alternative investments I can make with my time and
>money.
Not so! By being on this list and from your posts (also true for everyone
here), is is clear that you greatly desire to continue to live to see and
experience the very exciting and mentally rewarding future that is strongly
suggested by current developments and trends. Putting some significant amount
of ones income towards strengthening the "safety net" for ones life, is like
insuring against the ultimate catastrophy. A possibility whose consequence is
so important that it is virtually "imcomparable" with most other personal
desires. IMO, the decision to do all one can to save ones life (short of
harshly degrading it) is not open to relative weightings of how likely one is
to need the "safety net".
> If I can double my money in 5 years by investing in semiconductor
>stocks, might it not be better to donate $2000 to cryonics then
>than $1000 now?
Not if 5 years from now you are *dead* (ie. cryopreserved so poorly that your
mental faculties are not recoverable) when the $1000 you and others could have
invested might have been just enough to advance the science of cryopreservation
so that you are recoverable instead.
>If I am healthy enough that I will probably survive until uploading
>is possible, might it not be better to conserve my wealth and
>wait 5 years before deciding whether there is an uploading-related
>investment that will help me more than a cryopreservation investment?
Statistically, you are correct concerning your likelihood of needing
cryopreservtion in the next 5 years. Individually, do you really want to take
that chance with something as important as your *life*?
That you will survive without cryopreservation until uploading is possible, is
IMO highly unlikely. In addition, even after the developement of computer
speed, size, complexity, and software able to handle uploading (many decades
away at best, IMO) the most likely approach to complete mental readout is
destructive scaning of your undamaged frozen brain.
Thanks to Eugene Leitl for his comments on this thread.
-- Paul --
Paul Wakfer
email:70023.3041@compuserve.com phone:909-481-9620 pager:800-805-2870
HELP TO ACHIEVE - PERFECTED SUSPENDED ANIMATION WITHIN 20 YEARS!
Check out the Prometheus Project web site at URL:
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