X-Message-Number: 16994
Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2001 14:12:29 -0700
From: 
Subject: INHERENT VALUE

July 15, 2001

Re: Do We Have Inherent Value / Will Future Generations Want to Revive 
      Us?

In the very asking of the questions is much of the answer. At best,
based on what we know, not on what we may speculate or even
intelligently theorize, there is doubt as to an affirmative answer to
either question. Both questions are ego based, and central to an ego
based entity is the primacy of self survival and well being, regardless
of how one perceives them best served.

In whose interest is it to have frozen humans regarded as having
inherent value and for whose ends does a "yes" to the revival question
have importance? The frozen ones for sure, but what about the yet to be
living?

By asking the questions, there is an implied possibility that the future
may be similarly ego based, and, we are trying to convince us or them,
that in fact we do have inherent value and that it is in the coming
generations' very own selfish interest to care about us.  But will our
survival be a high priority in the future?  It not only has to have
scientific, intellectual value, and moral value but the future will
certainly want to be sure that whoever they revive wont be a threat to
them. 

A positive answer becomes even less likely should the future evolve into
a non ego based society. We would be the odd men out, the ones with the
inbred antisocial mentality. Hasn't that what recorded history has
taught us to this point, and worse, that many humans seem able and
willing to harm others, mentally or physically,  if for no other reason
than they can do it and get away with it. Will the future be able to
weed out the good from the bad amongst us, be willing and able to
diagnose and cure the societally harmful, or will they likely say,
"screw it, the risk is not worth the effort or the reward". 

Back to the present. Who lives at the bare essentials of survival, with
the only luxury being financial preparation for suspension, and spends
the rest of their resource to eliminate the suffering or death of our
other fellow humans ..  fellow humans of inherent value? Quite few, and
these few may be the modern day equivalent of the missing link, in terms
of morality and view of self. Why should we expect any more from the
future than we are prepared to do today? ( The simplistic answer that "
the future will have so much technology and life resources that
expending a bit of it on us will be insignificant to their budget" is
fanciful and wishful thinking).

What will motivate them to take a chance with us .  to invest in us . to
either find it in their interest if they be ego based .. or at least not
to find us a threat if they have evolved?

Technology will have likely evolved to the point whereby our memories
and live motives will be readable. Those who make the first cut may be
those who are free of evil deeds, such as murder, free of evil
motivations such as 
"my own life and well being no matter what the price" and free of taking
pleasure from others misery.  A James Halperin type of truth machine
will likely exist. Those who make the first cut will be perceived at
least as rehabilitatable. 

Perhaps it would be wise to put the following statement, in writing,
among our suspension documents. "It is my wish to be revived and
reincorporated back into society only in the circumstance that such
activity will not at that time be deemed likely to cause harm to myself
or others". 

It is possible, that under several of the paths that the life extension
movement may take, that cryonics organizations of great wealth and the
moral imperative to take care of its own few frozen may exist. These
organizations will necessarily be part of some far greater societal
structure, and have to live within and abide by its rules, laws, and
policies. They will, if for no other reason than their mission, (perhaps
like that of Alcors', which is the preservation of individual lives),
want to be reasonably certain that those under their care will not prove
to be an "embarrassment' when they start to revive us.

Mike Darwin wrote a compelling cryonet piece concerning the importance
of ones reputation in the old days. I suggest that our individual and
collective reputations, as perceived and understood by the future, will
have a great influence on how we will be treated. Part of the way this
will be known and analyzed is in the very way we treat others, right
here on the bits and bytes of our very own public forum, the cryonet.

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