richiekgb on the Cult Education Forum writes:
The whole cryonics/Life extension thing is like the religion of the people with a IQ of 140 - its like some kind of technological intelligent design movement to sell dodgy alternative "medicine". Its just a shame that its more vocal supporters don't even seem get what they are selling - just because they think they understand the science behind it all doesnt mean they actually do. Its this kind of "misguided good intentions"which will make the money men at the top rich and them look stupid when the scams and abuse are revealed as we have seen.
One, I'd like to see empirical evidence about these "money men at the top" who've allegedly gotten "rich" off of cryonics. Melody Maxim has stated repeatedly that Saul Kent and Bill Faloon have spent millions of dollars from their own fortunes on cryonics-related projects, with little to show for the expenditure. The waste invites comparison with Meg Whitman's apparently doomed campaign to become California's next governor.
Two, suppose for the sake of argument that cryonicists have taken the wrong approach to the Emergency. I agree with some aspect of that criticism. I have openly questioned a key aspect of current cryonicist thinking, namely, this "nanotechnology" fantasy which has become an opportunity for rent-seeking and and source of phony status for people who can't do, or don't want to do, real engineering. (They probably couldn't turn "nanotechnology" into real engineering any way, if it gets the physics wrong.) I also find it likely that cryonics suffers from a second round of initialization failure, and that it needs another rebooting.
Three, does richiekgb have a better plan? I would like to hear it. Instead his attitude amounts to saying something like, "Don't bother rescuing the miners," or "Don't bother trying to cap the oil well in the Gulf," because, according to him, the impulse to solve those kinds of hard problems serves as a "religion" for people with 140 IQ's.
What nonsense. We have an Emergency, and we need technological solutions for it.
You make some great points regarding the Emergency/Rescue. The Chilean coal miners are still "going to die" as Dale Carrico is fond of reminding me, but it is nonetheless morally good to have saved them.
ReplyDeleteNanobots that only work under a hard vacuum at liquid-helium temperatures would be fine for cryorevival scenarios (or indeed for desktop factories). I move we dub such theoretical entities "cryobots" to distinguish them.