X-Message-Number: 19248 From: Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2002 13:51:07 EDT Subject: Re: CryoNet #19211 - #19221 Congratulations to George Smith for hitting the nail on the head when it comes to doomsdayer nonsense about the supply of oil along with all the other so-called 'limits of growth', liberal and environmentalist gospel for the last 20 years. Of course, their original projections forecast a future ice age, not warming, but that was somehow too counter-intuitive so they reversed themselves on the flimsiest wobbly climate data, ignoring statistical reliability and natural variance, not to mention such obvious non-human sources of variance such as sun spot activity and volcanic activity which usually overwhelm human input by orders of magnitude. This is not science but really junk science supported by polls of 'scientists' , even distinguished arrays of Nobelists, who usually have nothing to do with the specialties of relevance to the question at hand. For an eye-opening review of all this doomsday 'science' stuff, read the late great Julian L. Simon's The Ultimate Source 2 [Princeton U Press, 1996]. Believe it or not, fellow cryonauts, this is not at all off topic. Doomsday think promoted by many people with scientific qualifications who should know better, aided and abetted, may I say, by most science fiction writers who continously trash the future for fun and profit, is a huge drag on cryonics promotion. How often do you hear your friends say "where will we put all the people?" or "how will we support everyboby when we know resources are limited and running out?" and "what will be left for future generations?" or perhaps most often and most stupidly, "Why would I want to live in the future?" [implicitly adding, "when global warming will have caused the oceans to flood over the whole earth, when we can't breath the air or drink the water, or feed ourselves."] To me this is all truly catastrophic nonsense. It is also an utterly false conception of where we are really headed based on a very poorly informed conception of where we are now, and a ridiculously idolized view of where we were and what life was like 100, 200, or 2,000 years ago. Cryonicists will have to fight hard to overcome these perceptions and mind-sets, perhaps in some cases allying ourselves with others who we find somewhat strange bedfellows. Can I retain my sanity when I agree with the unelected Texas simpleton that the Kyoto Treaty is a bunch of crap foisted on unsuspecting political leaders by an army of ideologically tainted environment 'scientists?' How do we fight back against this most destructive form of political correctness? Any ideas? Ron Havelock, CI member Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=19248