X-Message-Number: 20662
Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 06:53:38 -0500
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: comments re latest cryonet

Hi everyone!

I liked Bob Ettinger's modification of Pascal a lot. Frankly I have
come around to the belief that the existence of God is irrelevant;
we must always make OUR OWN choices, moral and other, no matter
how faulty and weak we may be relative to others. Not only  that,
but it's fundamentally IMPOSSIBLE for us not to make our own
choices: the choice to follow one God or another, or one view of
God or another, is always one WE make ... every time we make it.

As for Yvan's comments re nuclear power, at some stage I'll 
simply cease to comment on them. However even using just uranium
nuclear power is not so expensive that it merely provides a
way to convert energy from coal (or whatever) into energy. Yes,
it involves a capital cost (like everything), but pays it back
with additional energy. As for reactors making plutonium,
they're currently politically difficult right now, and that's
one major reason Phenix and other attempts have been discontinued.
I think their political unpopularity is extremely foolish ---
though if we get fusion reactors to make us energy soon enough
breeder reactors won't be necessary. (As I'm sure Yvan knows,
fusion reactors which almost equal input energy with output
energy have already been built).

One final note: a while ago I put up a message criticising
one approach to nanotechnology and along with that, the 
notion that "molecular nanotechnology" can repair us. The
major proponent of that notion was, and from his web site
still is, Ralph Merkle. I would hope that he will pay more
attention to the actual damage caused by freezing in future.
Repair of that damage may in many cases become unneeded 
with vitrification, but some patients cannot be vitrified
because of their poor condition, and all of those suspended
beforehand still deserve serious work on how to rescue
them.

             Best wishes and long long life for all,

                  Thomas Donaldson

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