X-Message-Number: 11348
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: Re: CryoNet #11339 - #11347
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 22:36:33 +1100 (EST)

To Chrissie:

As someone who has plainly stated that he does not think resurrecting 
everyone is moral, even if it were possible (and who has also doubted its
possibility in the first place) I feel that I should answer your message.

Clearly not everyone agrees with Mike Perry, not even every cryonicist
or member of Alcor agrees with Mike Perry. Mike is giving his own opinion
on a question which remains important to all of us: just whom should we
seriously think of resurrecting, if we have the ability to do so. You
yourself agree to the importance of this question when you say that many
of those you know would NOT WANT to be resurrected.

As a cryonicist Mike has done one thing many others would find difficult:
for a long time, before parts of this task began to be automated, Mike was
in charge of looking after the dewars containing suspension patients. That 
is not a task requiring much intelligence, though Mike is intelligent (he
too has a PhD), but it was highly necessary. And so Mike did it. Slowly
the task has become increasingly automated, but there must always be 
a human being involved, if only to check that the automatic mechanisms are
behaving as they should. Many intelligent people faced with such a task
would not like it at all, and some would slowly go mad. Mike has done an
important task in really suspending people, and he has not gone mad.

And (sorry, Mike, if I'm wrong here!) I suspect that in those long hours
he's thought exactly on the question of just who might be resurrected if
we could ... for many hours. Neither Mike nor I wish to limit our ability
to resurrect people, though I disagree with him on just how far such
an ability will someday go. Even if someone does not want resurrection,
perhaps if it is provided they would choose differently.

Most of all, you should understand that even officers of Alcor, when
writing on Cryonet, are not stating any official Alcor opinion unless they
say so clearly when they write. And there is considerable divergence of
opinion on the questions we address on Cryonet --- otherwise there would
be no discussion at all. For that matter, so long as I have the right to
express my opinion on these issues I will support the right of Mike to do
so also.

Finally, note that most cryonicists do not post constantly on Cryonet. You
get a selection of opinions, not a single opinion, and often that
selection is in no sense a poll of cryonicists, just the discussions of
those who had something to say. Many cryonicists are just like you, and 
aren't interested in the higher realms we enter when we discuss the 
possibility of resurrecting everyone who ever existed and everyone who 
might have existed, too.

Not only that, but by posting here you state YOUR opinion on the merits of
these discussions. By doing so you are likely to change the direction of
the discussions, too. Cryonet is for all cryonicists and all those 
interested in cryonics; it does not aim to convince anyone of anything,
but will, over time, provide a snapshot of the questions that interest 
some cryonicists at particular times.

I won't argue that you must join Alcor, but even if postings by Alcor 
members put you off, remember that there are other cryonics societies too.
And if you truly want to live a life free of the problems that began when
you were 24, cryonics right now provides a hope of doing so.

			Best wishes and long long life to all,

				Thomas Donaldson

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