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 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=1250