X-Message-Number: 18523 Date: Fri, 08 Feb 2002 19:23:25 -0800 From: James Bryan Swayze <> Subject: Kass and Blueprinting humanity References: <> > Message #18504 > Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2002 03:37:56 -0800 > From: "John Grigg" <> > Subject: Hello to Toby Christensen <snippage> > > The cryonics community has shown it can be very caring. Though more money needs to be raised, quite a bit of money was donated to assist James Swayze toward getting a cryonics policy. I am still astonished by the generosity shown so far. I'm still amazed myself, John. To Toby: Regarding your comment about wanting to just appreciate being able to fully use your mind without hindrances I can say as one who has used his mind fully without *apparent* hindrances... I want more! Furthermore, though my IQ was tested in childhood to be 160 it's not enough! I'm certainly no Einstein and would love to be able to appreciate the thoughts he could have with so clear a command of mathematics. I cringe at math but am able to visualize gadgets instantly in dynamic 3D, certainly a talent but I at least can imagine there is much more. I'll be first in line for godlike enhancements. How can we know what is the absolute blueprint for the perfect mind? I say we can never know. I believe there will always be room for improvement... this is evolution whether self directed or not. This segues with the comments from bioethicist Kass also in discussion here on cryonet. It is said from studies of Einstein's brain that 1.) he had more glial cells than most mortals and 2.) he had a lesion in an area related to math skills. Would that I had such a lesion and likewise so many more glial cells. However, did said lesion limit Einstein elsewhere? Who knows? In the thirty's there was an awful experiment where babies were left alone and never touched and cooed and loved and well, nurtured, during a particularly crucial period of time for early development. They nearly all against all statistical variance became retarded. It was discovered that the nurturing refused these babies normally helps build dendritic pathways with numerous branches increasing capabilities of making vastly more numerous connections (thoughts/ideas) over the spindly ones the nurturing deficited babies were capable of. In building the perfect mind just what would be the optimum amount of nurturing, out of the myriad other variables also contributing, to approach another Einstein? If we found that x number of hours at times w, z and y in a 24 hour period were optimal, would someone cry UNNATURAL? Certainly so! What Kass and his unimaginative ilk seem to not get is that it *IS* natural for human beings to use tools. Simply put, tool use *IS* technology and technology always alters the environment. If our mortality is in the set called "environment" then it will get ALTERED, period. Furthermore, continual improvement is also the *NATURE* of tool use or technology and so likewise to the above in the set of "environment". If continual improvement implies some transcendance of what is currently the definition of what is *HUMANITY*, and it does, then "transhumanity" *IS* inevitable and so *NATURAL*. It seems we are destined to become godlike in the sense of supertechnology appears to the simpler or unadvanced or merely uneducated being as magical. (Caps used in lieu of Italics) One can either accept the fact that transcending the current definition ofr human being is inevitable and help design the future or be flattened by it when it steamrolls over one. Note what happened to other "HUMAN" species, either the Neaderthal or Homo Erectus or even further removed... all considered "HUMAN", no? > I wish there was a special "superfund" which could provide funding to people who are unable to work and/or qualify for life tinsurance. Considering how many people are in need out there, it might be very hard to decide which ones to help. This may be in the making already with the cooperation being fostered between Cryonic Institute's Save Swayze Fund and the Society for Venturism's Cryonics Assistance Fund. At least I hope so. I also wish to again welcome Toby and urge him not to settle for mere normalcy, afterall who defines normalcy? James -- My website: http://www.davidpascal.com/swayze A collection of photos of me and some of my artwork: http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4292752723&code=2039335&mode=invite A radio interview on Dr. J's ChangeSurfer Radio program with me and the father of cryonics Prof. Robert Ettinger, author of "The Prospect of Immortality": http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=3728 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=18523