X-Message-Number: 24464
Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2004 10:08:52 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: Extending lifespan NONBIOLOGICALLY??

To James Swayze (and possibly others):

I note that for your request for life extension approaches specifically
excludes BIOTECH APPROACHES!!!???!!! What on Earth or in the sky is
your reason to exclude biotechnology or even just plain medicine? Or
is it that the sites you are gathering material for make that exclusion?

It seems to me to be a quite wrongheaded and irrational restriction.
I could have sent you lots of stuff, and I'm sure that others on
Cryonet could also have sent you lots of stuff, all of which involved
biotechnology. I actually wrote a book on drugs which increased
lifespans (A GUIDE TO ANTIAGING DRUGS) which was organized to allow
updates etc so that as long as I (or perhaps someone else) updates
it it will remain current. 

Moreover, by restricting your question to NONbiological methods, you
make the problem a lot harder to solve. Some have certainly argued
that to revive someone from freezing nonbiological methods will be
needed, but life extension is hardly just the discovery of better
cryonic suspension methods. In case you haven't noticed, we're all
biological creatures, and replacing our biological tissues (including,
if I take your meaning, our brains themselves) by nonbiological
systems involves solution of several open scientific questions: how
does our consciousness work, how do our memories work, etc etc. If
you really wish to take that approach, then best of luck to you;
but if you do so you may find those who don't exclude biological
methods actually growing younger while you're still trying to 
turn yourself into a metal and ceramic creature (yes, this may not
be literally accurate, but I'm making a point).

It's not that I think a nonbiological approach cannot work. But I
do think that it will work much better if we include all approaches
rather than restricting ourselves. And creating nonbiological
life forms, even ones capable of doing primitive things like
survival in the world at large (rather than specialized environments
we make for them) is nontrivial --- even though it's the first
kind of thing you need to do before you go on to transform 
yourself.

                 Best wishes and long long life to all,

                      Thomas Donaldson

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