X-Message-Number: 5725 From: John de Rivaz <> Newsgroups: sci.life-extension,sci.cryonics,uk.legal Subject: Re: Death (was Donaldson MR and Miss Hindley) Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 10:14:17 +0100 Message-ID: <> References: <> <4flato$> In article: <4flato$> (Nick Maclaren) writes: > If, however, it (cryonics) starts to > affect (note: not just use) a significant proportion of society's > resources, then I shall change my mind. Thanks for you post in this debate and for taking the time to air your opinions. Others have replied more ably than I to your other comments, so I would like to reflect on just this one. If resources are spent on funding cryonic suspension, the bulk of these resources are placed into investments, the income form which funds the maintenance of the cryonics capsules or dewars. When money is invested, it is used to provide working capital by industry, which generates real wealth (in the form of products and infra-structure) and provides jobs. That money goes on and on doing this. If resources are merely bequeathed to individuals, they are frequently spend on ephermera, such as holidays or even destuctive activities such as lung smoking. Admittedly this keeps the money in curculation, but as each ephermal item is bought and consumed the total wealth of society is reduced. If resources are confiscates, appropriated (ie taxed) by the government, they are seldom spend on capital projects. Instead they are spend on social engineering projects that just disspiate wealth. Although cryonics is consuming liquid nitrogen, all that is really being lost is the energy consumed in liquifying it, as the gas itself re-circulates through the Earth's atmosphere. I would suggest that this energy is quite small and well repaid by the benefit to society of having the capital available to industry for investment. It could be argued that liquid nitrogen is actually a by-product of making liquid oxygen (which has important industrial uses) and therefore it would be made anyway and just vented to the air if not used. Yes, cryonics may affect a significant part of the worlds resources on day. If it doesn, then I think the effect will be highly beneficial. It will increase overall human progress, and even those at the bottom end of the ladder will benefit. Consider what is available to a poor person today compared to a poor person 100, 200 etc years ago. These additional benefits are the result of progress and industrial growth. Anyhing to speed it up (such as a society that invests more of its savings) will benefit everyone. -- Sincerely, **************************************** * Publisher of Longevity Report * John de Rivaz * Fractal Report * * details on request * **************************************** In the information age, sharing can increase world wealth enormously, because giving information does not decrease your information. http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JohndeR Fast loading, very few slow pictures Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=5725