X-Message-Number: 1295
Date: 11 Oct 92 02:48:57 EDT
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: Re: cryonics: #1289 - #1291

To Edgar Swank:

Since I too work with computers, I too am aware of the idea of keeping
a copy.

However when someone says that ZERO suspensions (suspensions in the broad
sense, not necessarily using low temperatures) will someday be needed,
they are making a VERY strong, virtually religious statement. Perfection
just isn't possible to human beings --- even if they use Nanotechnology
(note the capital letter). In computer terms, I note that despite all the
tape decks and other arrangements we have for storing data, there still
seems to be a need for disk repair software. Hmmm. Again in the case of
computer technology, there's one obvious way backup on disks does NOT
avoid all problems: we call them viruses. That is, the virus may be on
your backup, too, so that as soon as you reload it and restart it, boom,
you lose everything again.

Fundamentally, it seems quite out of the question to me that any techno-
logy will EVER avoid the fiendish, unlikely accident. Sure, all the
problems we NOW know about will be solved, probably by 2100 at least.
But who said that the problems we now know about constitute a complete
set of all the problems with which we'll ever have to deal? Just stating
that proposition makes it look out of the question.

The other side of those unknown problems, of course, is what will make
life in the future interesting. Is there any cryonicist out there who
really believes that we've come almost to the end of science, and soon
will know everything there is to be known? The past record of those who
make such claims has not been such as to create confidence that they
understand very much at all.
				Best and long life,
					Thomas Donaldson

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