X-Message-Number: 2783
Date:  Thu, 26 May 94 23:00:06 
From: <>
Subject:  CRYONICS Goal of Life

COMMENT ON THE GOAL OF LIFE

Some recent discussion on the net offered the suggestion that the 
goal of existence, for a sentient organism, might be a static, 
ecstatic state. Bob Ettinger, in #2769, offers two reasons for 
rejecting this position, (1) a static being would presumably be 
defenseless, lessening the *probability* of realizing maximum 
feel-good or benefit over infinite time, and (2) a static state, 
however prolonged, would have to seem brief since variation is 
needed to be aware of the passage of time. To these reasons I 
offer a third possibility: that the amount of pleasure that a given, 
finite being could sense must be limited in some way. To 
experience more pleasure would require a bigger brain. You 
would, for example, expect a person to be able to experience 
more feel-good than an earthworm. A more-than-human, by the 
same token, should be capable of more joy or benefit than a 
human even in the best of circumstances. To maximize the feel-
good over time, then, would require a *developing* mind, one that 
knows no ultimate limit to its capacities. *We must become more 
than human.*
	There is an interesting discussion that has a bearing on this 
in the book, *The Religions of Man*, by Huston Smith (Harper & 
Row, 1958, 1965; there is also a later edition). In the chapter on 
Hinduism (which is not just about such things as the caste system 
but has deep and interesting philosophical insights) the three 
goals of a sentient being are identified as (1) infinite existence 
(immortality), (2) infinite knowledge, and (3) infinite bliss. The 
three are not to be considered separately or in isolation but, like 
the braided strands of a rope, are mutually interdependent and 
must all be taken together to form the most meaningful whole. It 
is easy to see how (2) and (3) require (1), for instance. Some of 
the other dependencies are less self-evident, perhaps, but are 
reasonable and consistent with rejecting a static state, however 
pleasurable and prolonged. In effect, along with mere survival, 
unlimited mental development is also required for the unlimited 
bliss that is the goal of sentience. At any given point in time, 
however, we can only experience finite existence, a finite amount 
of knowledge, and a finite state of bliss. The infinite, in each case, 
is only approached in the limit as time goes to infinity. The 
immortal life we aspire to, then, requires unending development 
and not fixation at one level. It remains to be seen if this will be 
possible, cosmologically, but of course we must try to make it so.

Mike Perry

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