From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Wed Jan 23 2002 - 16:49:11 MST
Randy Smith wrote:
>
> >From: Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com>
> > > Harvey said:
> > > > Mike Lorrey said:
> > > > But at what cost, Harvey? Because medical care costs money, every
> >dollar
> > > > spent is x.xx hours of someone's life spent laboring for themselves or
> > > > for the government. Why slave away x hours of your life when you are
> > > > only going to get a fraction of that back in increased life span?
> > >
> > > Because I value my lifespan more than money. I want to live longer and
> >keep
> > > working if I can. Why die early to save a little dough?
> >
> >I think you miss the point, Harvey: "work" is, by definition, time
> >spent in pursuits other than what would be one's first choice of
> >what to do with that time. If you work for 12 hours to earn enough
> >to increase your lifespan by only 8 hours, then you haven't really
> >increased your "life" span at all--just your "work" span. You've
> >actually lost 4 hours of "life"--life is doing what /you/ want with
> >your time.
> >
>
> An interesting and thoughful point.
Thanks, and thanks to Lee for 'splainin' it better.
>
> However, how do you explain situations like the WWII Nazi concentration camp
> gas chambers, where those inline to be gassed, when their turn came to enter
> the dreaded chamber, would grab the person in line behind them, and throw
> that person into the gas chamber in their stead. With the armed guards
> blocking escape, those throwers gained a few seconds of life, but just a few
> seconds, and cringing, tearful, fearful seconds...not exactly quality time
> with the grandkids, either....it was a very common occurrence, however.....
>
> Our "visceral" understanding of life is far different than our
> "philosophical" understanding of life...guess which one I value more...
Gas chamber episodes of "Kill HIM, not ME!" panic are essentially a very
instinctual, subconcious response that I very much doubt that many
people would commit unless they had already been subjected to a few
years of concentration camp level torture...
For every such instance of cowardice, I can recite many more of courage
in the face of death (been there twice already myself) where people save
other's lives at great risk to their own without a seconds concious
thought.
As for my own life extension plans, I'd rather invest my life savings in
cryonic suspension than in staving off the 'old timers disease' for a
year or two. I've just gone through a year of dealing with the
grandmonsters at the end stage (grandma Burnett died a couple months ago
after years of light senility and recent hip and arm fractures, and
grandpa Burnett is still a nearly comatose alzheimers patient here in
town, and likely will be for several years), and as my grandma Lorrey
said recently, "If I ever get like that, take me out behind the barn and
shoot me."
In my case, shoot me full of suspension fluid.
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