X-Message-Number: 20866
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2003 10:02:43 -0800 (PST)
From: Christine Gaspar <>
Subject: Re: CryoNet #20847 - #20863

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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 - )


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