[ExI] Ignemus lucem aeternam

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

On Fri, Sep 22, 2023 at 5:24 PM <spike at rainier66.com> wrote:

>
> Tis true however.  Fatherhood definitely pushed that way down on my list
> of priorities.  At some point I may talk to my son about it and if he is
> willing, sign up him first, my bride second, then me.
>
>
### My older daughter Nymeria asked me to sign her up when she was nine
years old. Her mother must have ridiculed me in front of her, judging from
some remarks Nymeria made between age 6 and 9 but whenever Nymeria
mentioned cryonics I was ready to explain my thinking in detail. Finally
she was ready and she asked me to sign her up. Then a few weeks later she
asked me again, so I knew it was serious. Before agreeing to have her
signed up her mother requested that Nymeria produce a written document
explaining why she wants to be a cryonicist. Here is what the nine-year old
girl wrote, without any help, direction or prompting from me:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xk8pOgLJKzDMD9ewY6LLG1g1XSq1VDFV/view?usp=sharing

"I will survive in the future" - even now 9 years later this brings me
tears of joy and pride.

Of the two or three thousand people I talked to about me being a cryonicist
she is the only one who converted to the faith. Was it because, Jesuit
style, I got her while young? Or maybe she inherited my willingness to
resist social pressure? Dunno.

A close friend whom I love like a brother recently remarked that my
cryonics necklace looks weird and I should hide it. I have two titanium
dogtags with the cryonics directions, one of them offering a reward (in
biggest font possible "REWARD $1000") for the person who contacts Alcor if
I am found dead or unconscious, on a bright orange lanyard and with bright
orange silicone rims, rather conspicuous and hard to miss. Of course I want
every first responder to immediately notice the tags, so my chance of
successful suspension would be higher. I always have the tags on and
usually prominently visible rather than tucked under layers of clothing,
even at work at the hospital. I told my friend (in a friendly way) "I am
not ashamed of my faith". He says he will sign up one day but he
procrastinates.

I am willing to share the Good News. I proselytize, in a gentle way. I
smile at the pushback I get from people. I am OK with being seen as a bit
weird if I can spread the newest gospel, νεότερο ευαγγέλιο, and save a few
souls from self-inflicted death.

Spike, how about instead of talking to your son about cryonics, you just
sign up and lead by example? Become a convert and rejoice in the true
faith? Because, yes, cryonics is the True Faith, bolstered by scientific
data, the whole edifice of the predictive model of reality that bears a
spiritual fruit, the justified hope.

As you notice, I am freely using religious metaphors and verbiage here,
even though I am an atheist. It is by design, because cryonics is the one
product of science that can legitimately fill the god-shaped hole in the
human mind that opens as you notice your mortality, this time not with
wishes and confusion but with hard data and sound arguments.

So sign up, good folks, pay the insurance tithe and open the garden of the
future. The galaxy awaits!

Rafal
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20230922/0a149120/attachment.htm>