From: Rick Knight (rknight@platinum.com)
Date: Tue Sep 09 1997 - 10:59:55 MDT
Derek Strong wrote:
Marvin Minsky and Eric Drexler both finally signed up, and that makes
me feel better. But I'm sure each of you can think of countless
intellectual influences whose cryonics membership status is
non-existent or unknown. What can we do about it, if anything?
Rick Knight responds:
I'm curious whether, in either gentleman's case, they were sponsored
for preservation. They are very highly regarded and popular amongst
Extropians/Cryonics enthusiasts. Frankly, if someone said to me,
"You're an incredibly worthwhile human so I'm going to see to it that
instead of being buried or cremated, you'll be in suspended
animation.", I'd kindly accept the gift...with the stipulation that I
only be "reactivated" in the event that the world has become a place I
genuinely want to live an extra-long time in. If it still has
disregard for other humans, this blind market economy (one step up
above ape-like survivalism IMO), and a wanton consumerist mentality,
I'd just as soon not reanimate.
It is my feeling that the expectations of a superior future world and
the expectations of a beyond death existence have similar fleeting
notions of hope and faith attached to them. In the cryonics scenario,
you're relying on the benevolence and capability of your fellow humans
to follow through with that which serves your best interests. There
are only a few humans on the planet I know of who I could honestly and
completely count on and even at that, "outta sight, outta mind."
Faith is faith, my fellow truth seekers. Atheist or fundamentalist,
it's all about how good a spin you can put on it to convince your own
self-constructed perception of how it all works.
It was asked what motivates people to give advice about life when they
are ready (and perhaps willing?) to relinquish theirs to old age or
disease. I'm somehow reminded of the resistence I had to all the
bible-thumping fundamentalists I grew up with. Ideally, they were
followers of the "Prince of Peace" but they were often anything BUT
peaceful. I knew very early on that if there WAS a heaven that lasted
for all eternity, I'd be *damned* if I was going to spend it with
those people. Immortality is a big deal and if I get it, I want it
with my preferred view. Otherwise, I'm content to sit back and see
what's behind the inter-dimension door. Advice in the 11th hour is a
reassessment of what you accomplished and hopefully you did what you
came for (whoop, whoop, metaphysic alert).
Even if there's nothing after life, nothing isn't anything to worry
about if awareness isn't there to perceive it. Once a forever burning
hell was eliminated from my thinking as a subsequent existence to life
on planet Earth, everything else seems like cake.
Rick
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