From: Randy (cryon@mindspring.com)
Date: Mon Apr 12 1999 - 14:00:12 MDT
I am hardly qualified to give anything close to an expert opinion on
this, and perhaps not even a very knowledgeable opinion, and although
I am very interested in the advances of science, my compelling
interest in this area is whether this idea of nanotech and/or science
in general will ever be able to revive cryonicists. From that
perspective, I don't really care all that much about what are the
ultimate limit of the capabilities of nano-related science, but
whether that upper limit will be sufficient for the revival of
cryonicists. "Good enough" is the operative phrase here.
It seems to me, Lyle, after skimming over your article, that your
perspective seems, ultimately, to be *static.* And in that sense, I
agree with you, that it seems quite possible that the creations of man
will never be nearly as capable as man himself--at any particular
given time. However, will you agree that man himself, as a group, will
be ever more capable of performing more and more complex work--as time
goes on?
Time, you see, from my empirical observations, does indeed go on, and
on, and on. :-)
For any given time window, your ideas seem sensible. But, taken from a
perspective of 200 years down the road, doesn't it seem likely that
the creations of man, while not nearly as capable of doing what man,
in the aggregate, is capable of at that particular time X, may well be
more capable than man *was* in the aggregate at some time in the past,
say X-100 years.
And so therefore, in order for man's creations to accomplish what man
himself is capable of doing, it is only necessary for a sufficient
amount of time to pass. Theoretically, speaking of course. But then as
I pointed out earlier, my main concern is only whether science will
ultimately be *sufficient* for a certain, limited goal.
************************************************
Randy
Cryonics: Gateway to the Future?
http://www.mindspring.com/~cryon/cryonics/cryopage1.html
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