X-Message-Number: 20866 Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2003 10:02:43 -0800 (PST) From: Christine Gaspar <> Subject: Re: CryoNet #20847 - #20863 --0-1007566514-1042567363=:44963 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Remember too that Star Trek type sci fi takes place 400 years in our future. To expect that level of technological change now is a bit premature. It seems true that nothing new under the sun has been invented, but it is easy to forget the little things that go into making our day to day easier. 20 years ago one had to yell into the telephone making an overseas call. Now, communications technology is a breeze...15 years ago, cloning was in the realms of science fiction, and those in the scientific community (if I remember correctly) stated that cloning would NEVER be accomplished. How about the internet? When I was a child ( and I am only 29 years old now), we didn't even dream of that. The fact that we can even have this dialogue now is a small miracle. I think that what makes us a little disappointed about the future of science and technology, is that when we dream up grand schemes, or the colonization of other planets, for example, we don't take into account how much science will be required to accomplish that. If you look about the priorities for government spending, science and education are not at the top of the list. Most people have other ideas about how they want to spend their time, and perhaps are not as eager as us for change. In fact I'm willing to bet that most of the general public fears change, and that is also hampering faster technological revolution. Many North Americans are deeply religious, and somehow equate technological marvels and scientific process as tampering with God's will. Just recently I asked a physician whom I work with what she thought of the concept of cryonics. She looked at me as if I had just grown horns and sprouted a forked tongue. We were working together in an ER, and had just put a man on life support. She told me that cryonics was interfering with nature (or the will of God perhaps), and that people should be allowed to die when their time is up. I then asked her what the hell she was thinking, putting this patient on life support...wasn't that interference? She did not have a good answer for that one. Just my rant for the day. Christine Gaspar I don't want to achieve immortality through my work... I want to achieve it through not dying. Woody Allen (1935 - ) --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now --0-1007566514-1042567363=:44963 Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=20866