Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Adriana on May 1, 2012 at 11:11am

Not to burst anyone's bubble, but I find the cryonics article on RationalWiki to be spot on. I'm not opposed to people spending their money on getting frozen, everyone should do what they want with their money; what I'm opposed to is using currently scarce public research money on unproven hypotheses. As for private money, it's a free world. According to the article, there is not much private money flowing to the field. 

Permalink Reply by Ken Wheeler on May 2, 2012 at 9:33am

Isn't every new procedure an unproven hypotheses until it finally comes to fruition?

Yes, I do fully realize that there currently are no scientific procedures to make this process in full a certainty. I also realize that there very well might never be. That, of coarse, sucks but that's the way it is. There's no way to predict the future. I know it's a huge gamble and utilizes Pascal's wager in a way but still contend it's better than the absolute certainty of doing nothing. I find the suggestion that it's "faith" or vain hope for a "miracle" to be offensive. Those two terms refer to an illogical hope for something to happen with absolutely no scientific possibility of it doing so. There ,at least, is a possibility, even how slim it might be, of the proper technologies developing sufficiently for cryonics to be successful.

As it is now it's still very much a pipe dream for myself being that I'm far from wealthy and not ever certain that I'll be even able to afford to "get on the list" so to say. It's an atrocity that people's existence depends on a bunch of worthless paper and numbers stored electronically in accounts. Capitalism is as much of a cancer to humanity as religion is.

Permalink Reply by Chris on May 2, 2012 at 2:18am

At it's worst you would come back like this

Permalink Reply by Marianne on April 30, 2012 at 10:09pm

I'm afraid if I have to continue the bumby road I have travelled so far for eternity, however great in the abstract or for somebody else life is, I opting out when my time here is over....

Permalink Reply by Ken Wheeler on April 30, 2012 at 10:43pm

I really don't understand the willingness to let it end but I guess it's a personal decision for everyone to make. My current situation might not be that great but that makes me more determined to stick around for a better future. We all know how things in the world should be and how it would make life infinitely better. I want to be around when everyone else figures it out and get to enjoy it instead of just dreaming about it and getting pissed.

Permalink Reply by Marianne on May 1, 2012 at 10:44pm

Somehow, the search for immortality reminds me ofthe famous Dorian Gray's Syndrome... He never wanted to age so let alone die...

Dorian Gray Syndrome (DGS) denotes a cultural and societal phenomenon characterized by extreme pride in one's own appearance accompanied by difficulties coping with the aging process and with the requirements of maturation. Sufferers of Dorian Gray Syndrome may be heavy users of cosmetic medical procedures and products in an attempt to preserve their youth. Dorian Gray Syndrome is not recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV).

The name alludes to Oscar Wilde’s famous novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Permalink Reply by Marianne on May 1, 2012 at 10:46pm

I believe that as we are born, we already start the processus towards the  end...

Permalink Reply by Ken Wheeler on May 2, 2012 at 9:37am

Absolutely. In fact Iron Maiden had a line in the song entitled The Clairvoyant from the album Seventh Son of a Seventh Son that states "That as soon as you're born you're dying". :)  Great album by the way.

Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on May 2, 2012 at 10:08am

Mark Twain once wrote:

I don't fear death. I was dead for millions of years before I was born, and I don't see that it inconvenienced me any.

pax vobiscum,
archaeopteryx

Permalink Reply by Ken Wheeler on May 2, 2012 at 10:34am

See my comment somewhere above that states that a person wasn't dead before birth. You just didn't exist yet. Fertilization, cellular growth, etc had never occurred. Until that moment you never were. That line of thought where existence before birth suggests the "spirit" proposition that so many religions try to pass off. So of coarse you can not remember anything before birth.

Permalink Reply by Davy on May 2, 2012 at 10:56am

Machines increase entropy

Life decreases entropy

ergo Life is not machinery.

Permalink Reply by Michel on May 2, 2012 at 11:04am

Machines increase entropy

How so?

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