X-Message-Number: 974 Date: 10 Jul 92 16:03:43 EDT From: Garret Smyth <> Subject: CRYONICS Immortality and Luddites A) I must agree with Ralph Merkle about the use of the "i" word. Essentially it is not true, and it will do cryonics no good in the long run to promulgate untruths. B) I'm afraid that machines are quite likely to take over or at least try, because at some point we're going to have machines producing machines. However well we design them random errors will occur. If these are harmful to the machine it will just fail to work, but if useful it will be continued. Biologists call this evolution; don't say it can't happen. I'm sure the dinosaurs thought it wouldn't happen either. Then there's the twisted human mind. Someone might deliberately design a resentful machine. In fact, to a lesser degree its already happened (in software). People have deliberately sat down to produce programs that reproduce, and wipe hard disks on, say, Michaelangelo's birthday. The motivation seems purely that of causing the greatest harm to the greatest number. Garret Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=974