>From: Spudboy100@aol.com
>
>In a message dated 03/18/2000 8:00:14 AM Eastern Standard Time,
>d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au writes:
>
> > The great evolutionary theorist is dead. I suppose we're obliged to
>think
> > of it as evolution in action, as always with death, but fuck evolution
>in
> > that case.
> >
> > Damien
>Yah. Its all fine and dandy to be happy existentialists; until ya get
>whacked by the pain of life. Which is why humans invented religion, to
>buffer
>them, a little, from the pain of loss. Which conversely, can cause more
>pain, because much of religious history has caused great violence and
>misery!
>
>
>To cut to cut to the chase, what I think we need on the list here is more
>attention given to "dearly departed" and omega point physics or suitable
>substitutes. Or maybe we should just settle for what people have always
>done, that is, a mixture of alcohol, maybe drugs, and just straight forward
>denial (non religious) because its too frustrating dwelling on what we
>cannot
>change?
I prefer rational denial. I have always believed, ever since a little tyke,
that I would not have to die. (Maybe this was a cause, or the result, of my
childhood atheism.) Of course I had no idea how I was going to pull this
off, since better men than me had tried and all had failed. But nonetheless
I never believed in, nor feared, my own death. Then, lo and behold, St.
Drexler writes _Engines of Creation_ and suddenly the way out appears. All
I have to do is wait for the nanoguys to do their stuff and I can have a
complete body overhaul every 20 years or so. I think I have a fair shot of
living until 2050 or so, and hopefully the tech will be in place by then.
And even if I miss the tech by a few decades, cryonic suspension finally
seems like a viable alternative.
Death?!? We don't need no stinkin' death!
-Zero
"I like dreams of the future better than the history of the past"
--Thomas Jefferson
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:05:45 MDT