X-Message-Number: 6564
From: Joseph Strout <>
Newsgroups: sci.cryonics
Subject: Re: About Cryonics and Illiteracy
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 12:57:36 -0700
Message-ID: <>
References: <4sjcvd$>

Olaf Henny asks whether one would be able to cope in a future world,
citing difficulties that we might expect Shakespeare or Da Vinci to
experience today.

First, consider that these folks are no worse off than newborns; in fact,
they're probably much better.  You didn't know anything about computers or
automobiles when you were 1, and yet you cope OK today.  Same with
patients revived after a long suspension; they may not know much about
current technology, but they'll learn, with time.

You might object that older people do not learn as rapidly as children.
But this difference is much overstated; with the exception of language,
adults are just as adept (and often more so) at picking up new material as
kids.  (Senile dementia is another matter, of course; but that's a disease
which would presumably be cured.)

Another possible objection is that our patient would already be old, and
would not have much time to adapt.  But if we have the technology to
revive someone in cryonic suspension at all, we'll almost certainly have a
means of coping with age and disease.  So they should have long, fruitful
lives ahead of them, just as anyone born into that age.  Plenty of time to
learn all about computers or whatever gizmos they have then.

Finally, of course, consider that even a confusing life is better than no
life at all.  One can always go into the mountains and become a hermit --
or, if life is unbearable, commit suicide.  (Indeed, *not* making cryonics
arrangements because you fear the future is equivalent to committing
suicide in advance.)

,------------------------------------------------------------------.
|    Joseph J. Strout           Department of Neuroscience, UCSD   |
|               http://www-acs.ucsd.edu/~jstrout/  |
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