2) ...then what? How do you fit in? I mean, you'd be a curiosity in the new world. You would be to the new world as someone from medieval Europe would be to now.
I feel like I don't really fit into the present world anyway. In fact sometimes I look around and think of the current world perhaps like most people from nowadays would think if they went back to medieval Europe. Sure it isn't stinky and smelly, and we don't live in mud huts in the western world, but I think in absolute terms we still live in a barbaric dark age for the most part even though people would like to believe they are so much more civilized and "enlightened" from the dark ages. True, most people don't believe in witches or go around boiling people to death anymore, but many people are still just as intolerant of those who have different viewpoints(why else would Imminst have to walk on pins and needles regarding public perception?), and there is still no shortage of people willing to kill you because of their religion, and people still kill each other all the time over the stupidest things, and if you don't believe me go teach at an inner city school for a year. There really is no shortage of barbarism, death, and cruelty in the modern world, it is not just as "in your face" as it was in the Middle Ages. Instead of going to the weekly stake burnings at the town square we watch CNN and FOX news. There are no cripples or lepers begging at the town gates, nor are there bodies being hauled away in carts due to plague. Instead the the dead and dying are quietly swept out of sight and out of mind into hospitals and nursing homes. And this is in the West, to say nothing of places like Africa and the Middle East. Okay, I am exaggerating a bit comparing the modern world to the middle ages, but I am not having one of my better days today either so maybe I will feel different in the morning LOL.
It actually occurred to me today that perhaps part of the lure of cryonics for those who want it is that they really don't feel they fit in well in our present day society, and they wish to be revived into a better, more enlightened world of the future where the prevailing attitudes will hopefully more closely resemble their own world view(given that future doesn't occur in their lifetime). I am by no means saying that is the entire reason, but it may play into it, in which case your argument will fall on deaf ears if you are appealing to people who have already made this decision.
We'd be so behind the curve it may be entirely impossible to fit in and learn what was required of us. Especially in the highly specialized world we live in. If you extrapolate on current trends of technology, the "new world's" technology might be akin to magic to today's man. There is a reason why people hypothosize that science is our new religion and scientists are our new high priests. In the future, they may be the only ones able to communicate with our "gods"(of scientific understanding/technology). Our ability to grasp it and fit in would be negligible.
Since you are basing your argument on the assumption of extrapolating future technologies, if you extrapolate current trends in technology, you get Ray Kurzweil's vision of the future. This means that you would only need a brain implant or something, to learn everything you will need to know.
I can see worse things than death. Maybe we'll be used as indefinite "slave/bonded labor" to repay our debts to society upon being revived(don't think this is likely?--most of the world still uses this system, including such economic "giants" as India and China), maybe our organs will be harvested, maybe we'll be put in a zoo as an exhibit. Or being revived in a semi-zombie-like state due to damage to the brain(yes, I've read Alcor's bit about not reviving without being sure that they can "fix" you, but pardon my skepticism--I've yet to see a major, experimental medical procedure happen that hasn't failed dozens of times initially and continue to fail frequently down the road). While some of you may argue there is no fate worse than death, I'm of the school of thought that there are fates worse than death.
*IF* technology becomes advanced enough, I am more optimistic that such a society will not be like what you describe here, or it is highly unlikely. A civilization that is advanced enough to revive cryonics patients will more likely than not have robots to do all the slave labor, they will certainly have no need to make you into a slave. If the world does go to hell in a handbasket it is unlikely you would be revived anyway. In this case, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. To not do it because of some far fetched possibility that is IMO significantly less likely than revival, strikes me as the ultimate in risk aversion, and the winners in life are generally those who are willing to take some risks.
Edited by marcopolo, 19 September 2007 - 09:03 AM.