X-Message-Number: 25891 From: "John de Rivaz" <> Subject: resentment of limits and the passage of time Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2005 11:56:21 +0100 On http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4385459.stm Dr Rowan Williams is quoted as saying: >>Quite a lot of our contemporary culture is actually shot through with a resentment of limits and the passage of time, anger at what we can't do, fear or even disgust at growing old.<< If people didn't have anger at what they can't do, then humans would be no different than other animals, living short brutal lives naked and restricted to areas of the planet where the climate permitted such an existence. Most of what we take for granted today was once considered impossible, and indeed invented by people who were eccentrics in their day. see "Strange Brains and Genius" by Dr Clifford Pickover: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0306457849/longevitybooksA/ I can recall being told that video recording is impossible, that no individual would ever own a computer (considering one of a specification that today even the dustman would refuse to take away), and that it was silly to consider using PCM to transmit or record entertainment material (the latter by PCM's inventor). There must be a period of "anger at the seemingly impossible" before people are motivated to make it possible. Jesus healed the sick and "raised" those considered by their contemporaries to be dead. Today, cryonics makes it possible for those with the advantages of future technology to restore those that are considered by their contemporaries (eg doctors, pathologists, lawyers etc) to be dead. Cryonicists do not claim to be able to "raise people from the dead". But they are making the process easier for those in the future who may have this ability. -- Sincerely, John de Rivaz: http://John.deRivaz.com for websites including Cryonics Europe, Longevity Report, The Venturists, Porthtowan, Alec Harley Reeves - inventor, Arthur Bowker - potter, de Rivaz genealogy, Nomad .. and more Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=25891