> But J. R., does it not require a significant amount of "HOPE" for one
> to put forth the effort required to sign up for cryonics? Or even to
> try find a cure for aging....?
>
> What is it you are trying to say here?
>
> Brent Allsop
Not "trying" to say, Brent. Let me put it this way:
Hope is indeed a common human error.
"Hope is the most treacherous of human fancies." --J. F. Cooper
"Hope is merely disappointment deferred." --W. B. Baldry
Hope is something we will have to climb above. We have no real use for hope.
Hope is for children. He that lives upon hope will die fasting, said Ben
Franklin. And then he added, "Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad
supper." Ralph G. Ingersoll summed it up thus: "Hope is the universal liar."
And before him, Diogenes Laertius wrote, "Hope is a waking dream."
"It is natural for humans to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to
shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren
till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of the wise, engaged in a
great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be the number of
those who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not," asked Patrick
Henry.
"Droll thing life is -- that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a
futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself --
that comes too late -- a crop of inexhaustible regrets." --Joseph Conrad
Hope is for children. Determination marks the adult.
"Hope tries to explain to the ignorant the nature of the unknowable." --A.
Bierce
"The comfortable estate of widowhood is the only hope that keeps up a wife's
spirits."
--John Gay (1685-1732)
Hope is what people do when they want to postpone direct action.
Stay hungry,
--J. R.
Useless hypotheses:
consciousness, phlogiston, philosophy, vitalism, mind, free will, qualia,
analog computing, cultural relativism
Everything that can happen has already happened, not just once,
but an infinite number of times, and will continue to do so forever.
(Everything that can happen = more than anyone can imagine.)
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