X-Message-Number: 10106 Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1998 09:09:28 -0400 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: CryoNet #10098 - #10103 Hi everyone! This is an addendum to what I said about signing up even if you're young, in the previous Cryonet. Even now the time of death is movable to some extent. Many people remember the deaths of both Franco (Dictator of Spain, perhaps the last Fascist) and Tito (Dictator of Yugoslavia, and we know what's happened to Yugoslavia since then). If you followed the paper you would have noticed that each man was taking an incredibly long time on dying. That was not accidental. There are ways to keep people alive now even if they lack a heart. Not comfortable or happy, but alive. There are ways to prevent people from dying even if virtually all their body organs have ceased to work. These methods don't work indefinitely, and they are a kind of caricature of immortality, but if you suffered an accident and had cooperating physicians, it would very likely prove easy to arrange that you remain alive until a rescue team reaches you (that is, if your accident is in a city or nearby --- if you go off to the middle of the Sahara and THEN suffer an accident, sorry). The one case in which we lack the technology to keep you alive would be that in which somehow, by accident, your brain was destroyed. But then no amount of technology could help you. You are then DEAD --- even by the tests of 2500 AD. Or 3000 AD. (yes, some cryonicists want preservation of whatever remains; others believe that something can be created from the collective memories of those who knew you. No doubt both can be done, but I myself have serious problems with whether this would be at all close enough to you to be you, which is what you probably want). So when someone asks about sudden "death", point out what could be done if necessary to keep you around for long enough. Of course, you'd have to make those arrangements in advance, or set things up so that someone can do so FOR you. None of this would be at all automatic. But it is still simply false that sudden accidents will necessarily prevent a good suspension. So this is an addendum to what I have to say for those who are young, and blithely believe they are immune (at least for now) from any kind of death for which cryonics will help. Best and long long life, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=10106