X-Message-Number: 923
Subject: Cryonics: Time Travel and potted plants
Date: Tue, 23 Jun 92 09:29:46 -0400
From: 

Thanks to Ed Swank for posting the time travel references.

One thing to beware of in the more speculative resurrection scenarios:
If you're brought back too late, you'll be obsolete.  If Tim Freeman
(as he exists in 1992) is brought back in, say, year 3000, then
perhaps the modifications necessary to make him into a productive
member of society would be so drastic that they would entail a loss of
identity (whatever that means).  So either Tim Freeman is transformed
beyond recognition during resurrection, or Tim Freeman is resurrected
but not transformed into a participant in society.  That is, Tim
Freeman becomes the equivalent of a potted plant.

Neither scenario seems (to me) to be worth participating in, so I want
to be brought back soon.  If time travel takes too long to invent,
then it won't help me get to a place I want to be.

If there is a God or a sufficiently powerful group of
extraterrestrials hiding themselves in the universe, we would already
all be potted plants.  How does one decide what to do when Something
Else is the only being that can do anything important?  I guess one
sould work toward being able to do important things, and hope that
Something Else is willing to tolerate company.

Tim

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=923