X-Message-Number: 19514
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2002 18:33:33 -0700 (PDT)
From: Scott Badger <>
Subject: Transterrestrial Musings

Here's an excellent post by Rand Simberg that one
could share with skeptics if desired. 

http://www.interglobal.org/weblog/archives/001366.html

I found this site listed as a link on the Alan Boyle
Cosmic Log section of MSNBC (july 12).

http://msnbc.com/news/750150.asp?0dm=C1ALT

And here's another post that has an interesting
perspective on the resistant to cryonics.


Posted by Ken Barnes at July 14, 2002 05:37 AM


Cryonics really disturbs people on a level that is so
deep that it is hard to reveal. It is easy to indulge
in our "yuck factor" explanations of why we are
uncomfortable: it's not natural, it's weird, only
crazy rich people sign up for that. I think that the
real reason that the majority cannot deal with
cryonics, even the intelligent, scientifically
oriented majority, is that it is an out, a chance at
immortality having nothing to do with greatness, an
easy answer to fear of death. We are jealous that some
people will live forever because they were frozen, and
that they only had to have money to achieve it. It
goes against the deeply-ingrained puritan work ethic
and morality that is below the surface of even the
most objective American. On level as deep and
subconscious as speaking English, we believe in the
eventuality of death. Even those of us with no
religious affiliation were raised in a society
permeated with Judeo-Christian views of good and evil,
and that immortality is reserved for God and his Son,
and maybe some other really, really important people,
but that the desire for eternal life in the ordinary
person is sinful and misguided; the only way to have
eternal life is to die on earth. We hate seeing
someone get something for nothing, something we don't
think they deserve--we were bathed in that belief as
babies and fed full on it as children. As adults we
are bound by our work ethic--getting something for
nothing is wrong, we are working, doing as we should,
so should they--and cannot feel comfortable with an
easy way out of death. I would love to hide behind the
scientific shortfalls of cryonics are the reason is
bothers me, but in honesty I know it is that good old
puritan founding father in my subconscious preaching
that immortality should not be so easy, that there
will be catch, and that even if he lives again he will
be damned to all eternity, and that it isn't right
because we've never done it before. My southern
upbringing (though very liberal) is screaming "It's
wrong not to die! Haven't you read your Bible?" 

I know that few people take the time or have the
inclination to delve into the depths of their minds
and uncover their hidden motivations, but my
investigation has made it possible to look at
cryogenics objectively, and see it as interesting and
thought provoking rather than scary and unnatural. 

We just have to leave room in our lives for
independent thought, and room to accept immortally
frozen people can follow.

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