[ExI] extropy-chat Digest, Vol 82, Issue 15

[Ben Zaiboc]

> From: Max More <max at maxmore.com>
> To: Extropy-Chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> Subject: [ExI] New York Times piece on cryonics, featuring
> Robin
>     Hanson &  Peggy
> Message-ID: <201007091640.o69Ge75T023636 at andromeda.ziaspace.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii";
> format=flowed
> 
> I highly recommend this article on the deep divergence in
> world view 
> between those (like Robin Hanson -- well known to many of
> us here) 
> who want to live indefinitely long, through cryonic
> suspension if 
> necessary, and those (such as his wife Peggy) who do not
> and don't 
> want others to do so either.
> 
> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/magazine/11cryonics-t.html?pagewanted=all
> 
> Be sure to read the comments too. Prepare to be frustrated,
> outraged, 
> and puzzled, as well as amused at commentators who raise
> issues with 
> no awareness that cryonics advocates have thought about
> them long and 
> deep for many years.

The thing that shocks and depresses me is not the ignorance - we know about that - but the hostility.  Why do so many people have the attitude "you think differently to me, therefore you are my enemy and I must stop you from doing what you want, even if it has no effect on me whatsoever"?

I reckon that anyone whose partner is opposed to their plans for cryonic (or any other type of) suspension should think long and hard about how to make sure their wishes are carried out, and take heed of this very disturbing comment (supported by 74 readers!):

"An easy solution would be to just agree with him all the way to the grave. Then bury or cremate him. He'll never know."

That is chilling.

Ben Zaiboc