From: dht@cs.mu.OZ.AU (Joyous Dave baby)
Subject: Re: Why will they want you?
Organization: Computer Science, University of Melbourne, Australia
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 11:48:37 GMT

evans-ron@CS.YALE.EDU (Ronald Hale-Evans) writes:

>I will list a few reasons why people in a future
>society might want to revive cryonicists:

>1. Historical value.

I certainly hope not.

Cryonics should never be used as means of verifying history, because
everyone is biased.

For e.g., if you freeze someone today, and that person comes back to
life 1000 years later... when a lot of the historical records need to
be verified, and people ask him,

a) which country was the leader of the world in the 90's...
if that person is an American, he/she will say USA,
if that person is a Japanese, he/she will say Japan.

b) which religion was the dominate religion...
if that person is from Iran, he'll say Islam, since it's the fastest
  growing religion, and is currently second biggest religion.
if that person is an European, he'll probably say Catholism.
if that person is an American, he'll probably say Baptist.

c) which language was the dominate language...
if that person is Chinese, he'll say Mandarin...
if that person is British, he'll say English.

d) which political system is the most preferred...
if that person is an ordinary farmer in Central China, or a Greek from
  poor family, or a starving Russian, he'll probably say Communism.
if that person is an American, he'll probably say Communism is a failure.

e) was life enjoyable in the 90's...
if that person is an outcast Indian, he'll probably say life is hell...
if that person is a Swiss, he'll probably say life is heaven....

f) etc, etc, etc....

we CANNOT rely on one person (which has been frozen) to verify history,
because he will be biased depending on his:
1) country of residence...
2) religious background...
3) ethnic background...
4) political beliefs...
5) economic background....
6) and other personal biases, and his/her personalities...
7) etc, etc...

I personally think if it has to be fair, then, for every white rich Chrisitan
American who was frozen for historical reasons, a poor white American,
a black, a Japanese, an Arab, a rich Greek, a poor Greek, a rich European,
a poor European, a rich Chinese, a poor Chinese, a Afrikana, a rich Indian,
a outcast Indian, a Russian, etc, etc, etc, etc..... (the list goes on)...
should also be frozen to be able to have a *better* (but not necessary
correct) verification of history.... however, I somehow can't see how
the above could ever happen.

Also, a person who has been frozen for so many years will probably die
*very quickly* when they come back to life because of:
1) he doesn't know *anyone*...
2) he might not even speak the language...
3) there will be new diseases which he's incapable of resisting...
4) *huge* cultural shock to the new world...
5) he has to learn everything again...
6) he'll probably be stupid compared to the future humans, and that would
   cause a lot of problems for his psychological well-being... since he
   might not be able to find a friend (do you think you can be a *close*
   friend to a mentally retarded?  honestly)
7) people of the future might decide to chop him up for experiment!  :-)
8) and who knows what political system or religion will they be using in
   the future???

For his own sake, he should live his life at the time that he's been
given and growing up with (by his parents, by God, whatever), rather than
trying to take a big step into the future, 'cause there is a big price to
pay in the future!!!  Think about it!  Think of the new diseases!  Think
of the isolation, the loneliness!  Think of the emotional shock!

-- 
Yes, the above was not written by me, it was an alien who hacked into my
account.  The alien is from the planet Pluto which has no atmosphere, and
hardly any sunlight; and that's why he is hacking Earth.  I'm a victim!!!
Alien said to me, "Lighten up, I promised I won't do a 'rm -rf *'!!!!" :)
Newsgroups: sci.cryonics