X-Message-Number: 8071 Date: Mon, 14 Apr 1997 12:40:09 -0400 (EDT) From: Charles Platt <> Subject: CRYONICS Science Fiction Wish Fulfilment To Mike Perry and others who show such enthusiasm for the future: I'm sorry, but a lot of your text reads like science-fiction wish fulfilment to me. I can enjoy this kind of thing (indeed, I have read a lot and written some); but only if we all understand that it IS FICTION. When I read about our need to "shape and govern" the world of the future by transforming ourselves into some kind of Extropianized super beings, I find this very hard to take seriously. Most of us have trouble merely shaping and governing our personal lives on a daily basis, let alone the world of the future. Kevin Brown's recent comment (quoted below) seems to be a polite reminder (perhaps too polite to attract anyone's attention) that there are some more serious, practical matters requiring our immediate attention as cryonicists. I tend to agree. --CP Kevin Q. Brown, #8054, wrote: >It's important to improve our cryopreservation technology >today so that we can be revived _before_ we no longer >are interesting as people. And Mike Perry responded, in part: Reanimation by such beings, though, could be different from what we think. We might be made into advanced continuers from the beginning, for instance, or uploaded into a "nursery school" in which we'll have to spend a few subjective centuries to "grow up" and get "adjusted." In all, I think we're better off to get into our more-advanced existence as soon as possble, and be among those who'll shape and govern the world we'll inhabit, rather than having to "catch up" even with superhuman help. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=8071