X-Message-Number: 12321
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 23:22:55 -0700
From: Mike Perry <>
Subject: Adam Hunter's Questions

Here are Adam Hunter's questions (#12311) with some brief answers.

1.  In any way does cryonics provide the same sort of psychological
comfort that religion provides for some people?  Have you just replaced
heaven with the future?

To me it does, though as part of a  larger picture that includes other
possibilities besides cryonics (one simple one being the thought that we may
never have to be frozen at all--but there are others not so simple). To me
"heaven" is something we'll have to construct for ourselves.

2.  Since you plan to live forever, what are your long term goals?  How
do you look at life differently than somebody who expects to live a
short life span?

I can't speak for all those who expect to live only a short time (and seem
content with this). A short answer to "what are your long term goals" might
be suggested in Bob Ettinger's saying, "the purpose of life is to discover
the purpose of life." At least, I hope to survive, without end, in a world
where others survive without end as well. Life as I see it is an end in
itself, and that provides a focus for ones activities and interests. I have
a longer answer to this in my recently completed book, *Forever for All*,
which I hope to have in print soon.

3.  Are any of you afraid of your bodies falling into the wrong hands
after your frozen?  It is possible that you might be reanimated as some
kind of lab animal?   

I'm not afraid of this sort of thing. One can spin endless scenarios of bad
things that *might* happen in the future, but I don't worry over these much.
There is a chapter in my book, "Will the Good Prevail?" that addresses these
issues, with a generally positive conclusion. In the case of a "lab animal"
you have to ask why anyone would do that. Why would someone in a world of
the future where creatures probably can be made to order, go to the trouble
instead of using someone from the past recovered with some difficulty? Would
those who'll bring us out of frozen sleep be so advanced that we would seem
like rats or mice by comparison? Not impossible, I'd say, but even then I'd
expect them to treat us better than we treat our lab animals. I could go
into the reasons why but will stop for now.

Mike Perry

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