X-Message-Number: 1250
Date: 02 Oct 92 03:39:44 EDT
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: Re: cryonics: #1231 - #1232

Keith:

I'm basically happy with your reply to Perry Metzger except on one point,
which I think is WAY too pollyannish. You claim that only a few people will
ever be suspended. I think that's quite quite wrong. True, as time passes
we can expect the RATE PER YEAR of suspensions to fall off; also true, its
very unlikely that we will continue to use simple freezing (well, compar-
atively simple) into the indefinite future, 1000, 2000 years on. But I
doubt very much that we will EVER escape a need to store badly damaged 
people until some future time when we will have the tools and the know-
ledge needed to restore them. You are talking about perfection there, and
true perfection just isn't going to happen. For every form of protection
you can devise for our identity (and therefore our life) there will always
be the rare fiendish accident that breaches it --- and so damages some
unfortunate person in ways for which no method of reversal is known at
the time.
				Best
					Thomas Donaldson

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