Hello everyone,
I was fascinated by questions Adam Hunter put to the list members on cryonet and so ask all of you to consider what your answers would be! I put my own answers in parentheses. I look forward to reading how the rest of you would reply to his thought provoking questions.
He wrote:
From: Adam Hunter <adam@monsterbymistake.com>
Subject: questions
I have a couple of questions for the people on this list who plan to be frozen:
(I do see how the heaven replaced with the future analogy could be used! I
do think cryonics does provide psychological comfort for people; no question
about it! I believe in God and an afterlife but I do not like the shortness
of the human lifespan. I want to stick around longer in the flesh to see
how things turn out down here! I also do not have absolute perfect
knowledge of my spiritual beliefs though I do not go on "blind faith". I
have had emotional and spiritual experiences that indicate to me my beliefs
are correct. These are personal and important to me. Yet I admit I like a
back-up way to help extend me into the future. I am in a sense hedging my
bets but I realize that death in the end WILL find me even if it takes ages.
I just want at least a few extra centuries of life and youth. I do not
feel that life was fair to me the first time around due to learning
disabilities, clinical depression, a.d.d. and poverty I have had to endure.
So I want a second chance to have the life I always wanted. I am only 32
years old and already feeling the chill of age barely touching me.)
2. Since you plan to live forever, what are your long term goals?
(My long term goals should I be successfully reanimated are to adapt to the
world I find myself in and enjoy it as much as I can. I fully expect to
find a world that is far kinder and more prosperous then the one we inhabit
right now. Not a utopia but a wonderful, wonderful place still compared to
the present. My goals will be then to learn a new profession, reunite with
my then mate or find a new partner, acquire some wealth, gain a handsome and
perfected body (no more learning disabilities, depression or a.d.d.!) make
lots of new friends, reunite with old friends from my pre-animation days,
learn about and enjoy the new activities and pastimes of the new era, try to
do some good deeds and be of service where I can, travel into space and get
to know and appreciate the incredible women that will inhabit the late 21st
century! I am very angry about the hand life dealt me and so I see cryonics
as a means to get the life I wanted. It is so unfair for only a relative
few at present to have the good-looks, health, good family nurturing and
high intelligence. I want a world where everyone gets there chance.)
How do you look at life differently than somebody who expects to live a short life span?
(I feel even if I don't do everything I had wanted to in the near-term it is
alright. Also it makes me feel less frustrated about my limitations in life
due to my learning disabilities, a.d.d. and depression. And also my near
wasted youth due to these problems and a father who was not there ever as I
was raised in poverty does not seem so totally bad because I feel I may get
another chance as a mere mortal.)
2. Are any of you afraid of your bodies falling into the wrong hands after your frozen? It is possible that you might be reanimated as some kind of lab animal.
(I am afraid of an earthquake, hurricane, terrorist attack or some such
event destroying my frozen body. I will not be stored in California! lol
Unless we have a major social breakdown I do not see my body being abused.
A limited nuclear war with a military take-over in this country as the
result could possibly result in such an event but I hope this would not
happen.)
-adam
(I enjoyed pondering your questions!
Sincerely,
John Grigg)