X-Message-Number: 1402 Date: 06 Dec 92 12:49:06 EST From: Charles Platt <> Subject: CRYONICS Cryonics and Environmentalists To: Kevin Brown It occurred to me recently that cryonicists and environmentalists have a surprising amount in common. People who seek to protect species and conserve wilderness areas are, in a sense, trying to stop time and change the rules of evolution. It's normal for species to struggle for dominance, for less successful species to become extinct, and for the planet to be in a dynamic, rather than a static, condition. Yet these are aspects of life that most environmentalists find unacceptable. Some seem motivated by sentimentality, others by fear, and others by a sense of justice--a belief that unnecessary death of animals is wrong, for instance. Either way, it's a set of human concepts being imposed on an ancient, mindless, unjust pattern of existence. The same applies in cryonics: people want to stop time and change the rules of evolution. It is quite normal for us to grow old and die permanently, but this is an aspect of Nature that cryonicists find unacceptable. Some seem motivated by fear, others by a sense of justice--a belief that death is wrong. Once again, we have a set of human concepts being imposed on an ancient, mindless, unjust pattern of existence. Fundamentally, it seems to me, environmentalists and cryonicists are likely to be motivated by a deep appreciation for the value of life. Unfortunately, the environmentalists tend to be very narrow in their definitions of "natural." I suspect they would feel it is quite natural to set up a sanctuary to preserve an obscure species, but not natural at all to set up a few dewars of liquid nitrogen to preserve some human lives. Too bad! Logically, they ought to be good prospects for cryonics. --Charles Platt Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=1402