Yes, death is an interest of mine. Years ago, when I got married, there were many deaths among family and friends. There were so many deaths, my wife and I joked about our marriage ending the same way. Unfortunately, we were correct. Many deaths in a few short years, with hers as the final death in the line. So yes, I have a morbid interest in death.
My interest this evening is Cryonics or the freezing of human or animal bodies with the “possibility” of bringing them back to life.
Why? Currently there is no known reversal method, so why do it now. It costs a lot of money to keep a body/head in a ‘suspended’ state, and there is no and may never be a reversal method. Sound like someone is playing with the emotions of people near death, or their families.
Even if there ever is a reversal process in the next 50 to 100 years, why would anyone want to revive the “dead” people? There are complaints of over population now, do we really want to have an alternative way to put more bodies on the planet. We do well enough now with the usual approach (having babies — explanation for those who weren’t sure what method is used). I can’t see that happening, unless they want something.
How will you fit in? The future will be different than life now, how will you cope? 25 years ago, personal computers were in their infancy. Now just about everyone has one. What changes will occur in the next 25 years? Next 50? Next 100? 200? If you are having trouble with text messaging on a cell phone, or wonder about all these people with things hanging out of their ears, will you be able to cope with things going on around you in the future?
And the real thing I wonder about is what is the ego of a person who wants to be frozen and thawed later. I’m not saying anything about family decisions (later…), but about a persons desire to put off death to be cured at a later date. Is anyone really that important?
And about a family that decides to keep one of their relatives, do they love/need the person so much to try to keep them around, or is it a comfort that just maybe? I could never see doing this for myself or for someone I care about. I think there would be too much anguish on both sides if and/or when the body can be thawed.
And I haven’t even touched on any religious aspects of this. I think that may be the start of a different post. Many things I would have to wrap my mind around for that…
You ask “Is anyone really that important?” and I certainly do think so, especially me. If you do not think so, that logically follows from your admitted “morbid interest in death”. Instead of that, I and quite a few others have an “avid interest in life”. Go ahead and die if you want, but don’t try to say that others should not exercise their choice to take a chance, howbeit remote, of extended life.
If you think death is so important, why wait? Suicide now. One less person not interested in life, clogging up the planet population-wise, which you state is a concern. Well, you can decide for yourself if I was being facetious in those remarks, but regardless, even most religions (another concern of yours) would not advocate ending one’s life before it ends itself, and most support advancements in medicine (heart transplants, blood transfusions, whatnot) that help prolong life. Yet you are worried about whether cryonics might prove able to prolong life. Think about what is wrong with that position.
Well, A. Survivor, you are entitled to your opinion, and since this is my blog, so am I.
My morbid fascination in death is due to the death of 2 parents, a grandparent, a brother and my dear wife in a matter of 3 years time. NOWHERE did I say I wanted to leave life.
If they come up with good science and a proven method of thawing out the bodies good, then the whole discussion would be different. But right now, it is all based on the hope that someone will do that. And the cost of that hope could be quite high for the family of the cryonically preserved. You are betting a fortune that someone can and will develop this science, and that our crude way of handling the bodies now will allow those future developments to work.
Your current dreams may not be the dreams of the future. You only have to look at what was important 25 years ago to determine that what you dream now will not be the dreams of the future or now.
Right now you think you are important enough to have this procedure, the real question you need to ask is “Will you be important enough to someone in the future to have this procedure reversed?” My guess, knowing a little bit about human nature is that once your living family and friends are gone, nobody will be there to care about bringing you back. Unless of course you are holding in your head the solution to some crisis of the future. You should hope you have that backup plan.
When my time on this Earth is finished, I am ready for whatever path I travel next. There is comfort in the journey, but all journeys come to an end.
One more point, is currently they only use Cryonic preservation on the legally dead. My initial point on the religious aspect of this (which I am still thinking about), is that there are a lot of religions that may frown on bringing someone back to life. It would compromise the entire aspect of the rewards of the afterlife.
Forgot my manners there for a bit. A. Survivor welcome to my blog!