From: E. Shaun Russell (e_shaun@uniserve.com)
Date: Fri Apr 17 1998 - 23:57:25 MDT
Scott Badger wrote:
>I recently discovered that several cryonicists have frozen or plan to freeze
>their pets.
<...snip...>
>Do extropians promote or accept the idea of accelerating the development
of >non-human species and if so...under what circumstances?
To me, the question of animal cryonics is one of "can we?"...not
physically, but psychologically. With humans, the concept of cryonic
reanimation is mostly physical --generally, if a human is expecting to be
cryonically preserved, his reanimation may be quite disorienting and even
frightening, but it is, nonetheless, expected. The problem with freezing
pets (let's say, for the sake of argument, dogs) is that there is (thus
far) no foreseeable way of training them to expect reanimation. Could a
dog, upon reanimation, understand where it is, when it is, why and how? If
not, then the question of ethics is indeed a pertinent one...one that
extends into the realm of volition. Can a dog choose to be cryonically
frozen? Certainly not.
Dogs (and most other animals) don't have the volition needed to make such a
choice. Does this mean that we can choose for them? An interesting thought.
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E. Shaun Russell Musician, Poet, Extropic Artist
==============================> Transhumanities editor for Homo Excelsior
Kineticize your potential. http://www.excelsior.org
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