X-Message-Number: 23529 Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2004 08:00:05 -0500 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: modestly not wanting immortality Hi everyone! The comments by Paul and Kitty Wakfer about life extension, and those of others who want immortality minimized in our material, suffer from one major fault: What is there is going to be seen, whether we try to minimize it or not. Perhaps I respect our audience more than Paul Wakfer does, but once this particular genie has come out of his bottle pushing him back in just won't work. And I'd expect our audience, such as it is, not to agree on the benefits either of cryonics or the potential immortality which it will bring. So we'll not move a thing merely by describing what we're doing with a more modest vocabulary. We might even find ourselves worse off, with some people jumping up and saying that we're trying to hide our real purposes in such modest language. As for those who claim they don't want immortality, fine --- and if we're to be literal, immortality can never be attained because it will take forever to attain it. But I personally would like to live a very long time, far longer than now, because I'd then have hope of doing things which I can only dream about doing now. If that in effect is immortality, fine with me. Best wishes and long long life, Thomas Donaldson PS: and when we really succeed in our endeavor to improve and promote cryonics, I suspect that many more people will feel as I do than will bow to their Gods and accept their own finite desires. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=23529