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What does your family think about your Immortalist or life-extensionis


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#1 Dmitri

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Posted 28 September 2008 - 04:22 AM


..t pursuit (seems this part was cut off from the subject line)

I have to admit that I haven't told many from my family or friends that I'm a life extenionist, I'm afraid they'll think I'm crazy for having such beliefs. When I mentioned the subject to some of my cousins and sister their reply was "why would anyone want to live forever, it'd probably get boring and lonely"? I also mentioned this once on another website forum that deals with film and people there called me a disgusting, vile and vain person, they said people should age with grace. One of the members replied with "are you insane? Young and beautiful forever?

So, my question is do you let people know you're into life extension? What reactions have you had if you have and does your family support or even practice it themselves?


Edited by Dmitri, 28 September 2008 - 04:45 AM.


#2 Luna

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Posted 28 September 2008 - 06:00 AM

My family takes it as pointless, silly thing.
They believe "nature" is in control and stuff I work to avoid are "normal" and people just need to accept that.

They do not support any of my ideas and wishes for life, they even attempt to annoy me about that, which is ridiculous.
But my family is also not the normal type of family as you could see in one of my older posts around here, so I really never take them serious ;)

#3 cyborgdreamer

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Posted 28 September 2008 - 09:16 PM

My family says they understand but would rather spend their time thinking about practical things.

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#4 VictorBjoerk

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Posted 28 September 2008 - 09:34 PM

why should someone think someone are crazy just because they want to prolong their lifes. I for sure do let people know what I think about aging and involuntary death.

#5 Shannon Vyff

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Posted 28 September 2008 - 09:36 PM

I'm an only child, which makes my parents more supportive I think. They don't have several children to choose from, or subconsciously think in their mind which is more 'on-track' or normal. That is pure supposition though... ;)

My family, as in my three young children ages 12, 9 and 7 all think it is normal because they've been raised being cryonicists and hearing of the possibilities humanity have, as seen possible by scientists and forward thinkers now--all their lives :).

I only have one grandparent still alive, she is conservative Presbyterian (the religion I was raised in, I've been a UU for 8 years and am raising my children in the UU tradition where I'm quite active on our board and as a teacher), she feels that it is up to God and agrees that it may work (ending aging, or even cryonics) but I'm afraid she leaves it up to her particular reverend to let her know what God thinks (I've sent two different UU sermons to her that talk about cryonics and life extension, Hughes and Rev. Peter Christianson-both cryonicists) she agrees with them, but gives more weight to her church's Rev.

My mother and my father both have said at different times that they would do cryonics, but also at times monetary concerns have come into play as reasons that they have not (they are both divorced and re-married). I still have hopes they will be able to though.

#6 Cyberbrain

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Posted 28 September 2008 - 09:43 PM

My father doesn't like the idea of life extension (thinks it's science fiction and not practical) but he doesn't mind that I'm an immortalist.
My mother is religious and doesn't approve of it one bit. Most of my family and relatives don't like the prospect of life extension due to
either left or right wing bio-luddism. Overall, they don't support my ideas of transhumanism (cryonics, singularity, etc). Like a closet
atheist, I consider myself a closet transhumanist.

I can only hope through time, as technology progresses they will undergo a paradigm shift just like I have.

#7 Cyberbrain

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Posted 28 September 2008 - 09:49 PM

I'm an only child, which makes my parents more supportive I think. They don't have several children to choose from, or subconsciously think in their mind which is more 'on-track' or normal. That is pure supposition though... ;)

My family, as in my three young children ages 12, 9 and 7 all think it is normal because they've been raised being cryonicists and hearing of the possibilities humanity have, as seen possible by scientists and forward thinkers now--all their lives :).

I only have one grandparent still alive, she is conservative Presbyterian (the religion I was raised in, I've been a UU for 8 years and am raising my children in the UU tradition where I'm quite active on our board and as a teacher), she feels that it is up to God and agrees that it may work (ending aging, or even cryonics) but I'm afraid she leaves it up to her particular reverend to let her know what God thinks (I've sent two different UU sermons to her that talk about cryonics and life extension, Hughes and Rev. Peter Christianson-both cryonicists) she agrees with them, but gives more weight to her church's Rev.

My mother and my father both have said at different times that they would do cryonics, but also at times monetary concerns have come into play as reasons that they have not (they are both divorced and re-married). I still have hopes they will be able to though.

You're SO lucky your family supports life extension Shannon!

But I agree that monetary concerns are also a problem. My father expressed some interest in living a long time, but he'd rather give his life insurance money to his kids than to himself for cryonics. I try to convince my parents I'd rather be poor and have them live longer than not having them at all. I wish there was some way to convince my parents.

Edited by Kostas, 28 September 2008 - 09:50 PM.


#8 Shannon Vyff

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Posted 28 September 2008 - 10:06 PM

That is what my dad said too! (recently after his re-marriage) Now, if you are an only child, it is easier to say that--but he re-married and his wife has a grown daughter, with two children, all of whom could really use the money-- so $28,000 is a lot, and his new wife is against it for that reason--won't support him being a member. This is exceedingly sad to me, my father is the reason I'm a cryonicist --he raised me with sci-fi, and supported me signing when I was 19.

My mother's new husband though is interested (he has no kids), they are staunch environmentalists and worry that there already need to be less people, plus they don't want to use a lot of electricity because most current ways of producing electricity harm the environment. I've explained that the liquid nitrogen used to keep you cold, uses hardly any electricity when being made, the actual preservation upkeep uses no electricity and your carbon footprint could be covered by your Cryonics organization covering it with money you left for the purpose, currently it is only a few quarters a year, less than a dollar. I feel for the 'we need less humans' argument, I say that we should be able to spread equality, education and resources better in the future--and this problem may also change after space travel has advanced to the level of colonization of other planets... One could asses this argument in the future, if cryonics works. Of course, many want to leave their money to non-profits they support because they don't know if cryonics will work. I say, get a large life insurance policy so you can leave 5 times the amount of your preservation to your children or non-profits you support, or both (as I'm doing ;) )--also your money into cryonics helps with the research of organ preservation which benefits the living now who need better ways of getting donated organs to them when they are in need in the hospital...

I love talking to people about cryonics, they usually agree that it sounds like a good idea--but then I see that they never really get around to signing up :)

#9 lunarsolarpower

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Posted 28 September 2008 - 10:06 PM

I couldn't help it. You guys reminded me of this:



#10 bacopa

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Posted 28 September 2008 - 10:21 PM

My parents are both liberal, my mom just died, but both supported me in my imminst views. Like many others here my dad would do Cryonics if it weren't for the money. It's crazy it's like money is more important than life with most people. But both parents would probably have no problem living forever though. How could anyone chastise you for wanting to live longer or forever makes no sense I want to hurt people like this.

#11 s123

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Posted 28 September 2008 - 10:38 PM

Everyone who knows me knows that I want to live forever. Some people find it strange (including my parents). When I first talked about my calorie restriction diet with friends at the university they were all interested but they all said that they wouldn't be able to follow it. I gave a lecture about SENS at the university of Ghent and everybody was quite interested including the professor, who has confirmed that he will also come to the lecture of Aubrey. This year I've talked to a lot of people about the lecture of Aubrey (I've even talked about it in front of the whole class just after the les) and most where positive about it (not that they all will become immoralists but they didn't laugh with it or so).

Edited by s123, 28 September 2008 - 10:39 PM.


#12 elwalvador

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Posted 28 September 2008 - 10:48 PM

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.c...></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.c...kUQ&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

How did you embed that youtube vid?



(edited by Matthias: use the video-tag: )
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-2Xw-GNkUQ[/video]

Edited by Matthias, 30 September 2008 - 11:17 AM.


#13 forever freedom

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Posted 28 September 2008 - 11:41 PM

My family is clueless (ALL my family is hardcore christian, not just my parents), i don't even mention i'm an immortalist, although i did mention that i want to extend my lifespan for as long as possible.

If the fact that i became the only atheist in the family already freaked them all out, wait when the time comes when i start taking 100+ supps a day/going through hardcore CRON...

#14 lunarsolarpower

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Posted 29 September 2008 - 07:11 AM

How did you embed that youtube vid?


Put the entire embed code from youtube inside the brackets that appear when you click the Posted Image button while composing your message.

#15 Mind

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Posted 29 September 2008 - 09:59 PM

Maybe 1/3 of my friends know I am an immortalist and/or want to live a loooonnnng time. It is a fair mixture of acceptance and odd looks. It is a tough thing to decide: who to tell and when.

#16 VictorBjoerk

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Posted 29 September 2008 - 10:34 PM

It's bad that the pro-aging trance is so widespread........

#17 Shannon Vyff

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Posted 30 September 2008 - 01:41 AM

thanks lunarsolarpower! That video was my bedtime story to the kids tonight :)

Now, I'm hoping you saw it recently and then thought of us, not that you read the thread then went looking for monkeys!

But, darn it--I'm not a monkey--I'm an ape! Very animal yes, and hope to someday be a very frozen one--possibly a space-faring synthetic body with remnants of its monkey, I mean ape, mind :)

#18 Shannon Vyff

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Posted 30 September 2008 - 01:49 AM

doubletake! shoot Mind, only 1/3 of your friends--wow, I can't think of any friend that don't know about my support and integration in the extreme life extension community and am a cryonicist-support Methuselah, know what that is--etc. etc. etc. I'm not sure I can think of any casual acquaintances that don't know about it :)

#19 Johan

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Posted 30 September 2008 - 05:40 AM

Neither my family nor any of my friends know about it. They do know that I want to perform research on aging, but not things like CR, or SENS for that matter. They'd probably go crazy if they found out I'm a CRONie.

#20 Luna

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Posted 30 September 2008 - 06:12 AM

Speaking of friends, pretty much all of my friends knows I want to live forever (and no less).
Some seem to be very understanding but sometimes feel it's weird (while at the same time show much interest), unfortunently most oppose the idea, think it is weird and even try to convince me out of it using reasons like "you'll be bored" "you will not like it when you have it" and "part of life"..

I actually even "lost" some "friends" because of that, not sure why, but when they heard about it they decide to stay away.
Well, welcome to Israel I guess :)
I just recently saw on the news a debate, was quite shocking, they talked about a politician from about 20 years ago and they said
"Well, she tried to get the stuff she believed in into the main steam, like evolution, that earth is not made in 7 days, science and all those sort of stuff, it just didn't work, and how could it? this is not we believe"
When I heard that I was actually quite shocked, a high ranked politician claims so bold our government does not approve of science in any way and the people on the news and the rest of the politicians there agreeing with her.. was just shocking..

#21 Karomesis

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Posted 02 October 2008 - 01:43 AM

I've sold them :)

I'm a sales guy by nature and everyone I meet I talk to about why science is important for the alleviation of the suffering associated with aging. Chronological aging is fine, just not biological. The Tythonis argument occurs in a few skeptics, but by explaining that old age does not have to correlate to misery and watching ones loved family/freinds die, they concede.

This is exactly what I want to do after I cash out of my startup.....sell EVERYONE who is skeptical, thereby increasing public support 100 fold and increasing the speed we cure this shit once and for all. I'll work for a pittance or free, as this cause is one I will literally go to my grave fighting for.

the people with memes I usually ignore, as they will have to come to the realization that a cure can be found themselves. Or perhaps they harbor religious reasons for opposition. But the vast majority will come to their senses if they're sold well. as they say in sales....ABC...always be closing. :)

#22 Dmitri

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Posted 02 October 2008 - 03:55 AM

I've sold them :)

I'm a sales guy by nature and everyone I meet I talk to about why science is important for the alleviation of the suffering associated with aging. Chronological aging is fine, just not biological. The Tythonis argument occurs in a few skeptics, but by explaining that old age does not have to correlate to misery and watching ones loved family/freinds die, they concede.

This is exactly what I want to do after I cash out of my startup.....sell EVERYONE who is skeptical, thereby increasing public support 100 fold and increasing the speed we cure this shit once and for all. I'll work for a pittance or free, as this cause is one I will literally go to my grave fighting for.

the people with memes I usually ignore, as they will have to come to the realization that a cure can be found themselves. Or perhaps they harbor religious reasons for opposition. But the vast majority will come to their senses if they're sold well. as they say in sales....ABC...always be closing. :)


Ok so I told my parents about research on life extension and they said it was interesting, my mother said she wouldn’t want to live forever, but I’m sure if they discovered a method of rejuvenating the body she wouldn’t hesitate to try it at least once; she buys all these anti-wrinkle creams after all. My father said he wouldn’t mind living a 100 more years but that he wouldn’t want to live forever. Despite this I didn’t tell them I would like to live forever, but I did tell them I would try any of those treatments to extend my life so I assume that’s a step forward.

#23 eternaltraveler

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Posted 02 October 2008 - 04:34 AM

i tell everyone

immortalism is the least of my eccentricity :)

#24 brokenportal

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Posted 02 October 2008 - 06:36 AM

When I didnt know of any life extension organizations, when there werent any life extension organizations, and not even one other person that was a life extensionist that I could find, I remember thinking that maybe I should just make up some efforts that are going on, to make it sound more official so I could get people to convert more easily and start helping.

Now that we do have the structure going, use it, it works. People are psycological machines and there are buttons you can push. People follow things for lots of different reasons, that you can use to your advantage. Like appeals to authority, or crowd mentality to name just a few. Describe it as though it is a crowd, a movement, a big thing, talk about the authorities. Such as, my favorite one that I have found is pretty effective at cracking open the pro aging trance is, mention how the cause has been growing, making quite a few media appearences in the last year and a half or so, colbert, ted talks, alex jones, barbara walters special, etc... there are lots of other techniques I use, thats just one. If anybody is having a hard time with it and is looking for more ideas then let me know.

We should maybe hold a bi weekly informal debate with a non life extensionist in the ustream channel for that purpose. We could all use it to pick up on techniques used by the life extensionist, and the life extensionist themself could use it to hone their technigues and linguistical maneuverability and knowledge of the subject.

And keep mentioning it, if you cant find a way to crack somebodies pro aging trance open in any particular instance, still dont pass up that opportunity to at least vocalize it so it enters there head. Because from what I hear, and it makes sense, a person needs to hear about a concept from around three or four fairly legitamate sources before they beginning beleiving it or lending any credence to it.

I used to face nearly 100 percent resistence, but Ive been finding ways in this last year and a half or so that are working. Come to think of it, Ive converted a lot of my friends in that time too.

I have not told any of my family yet, although since my tests on my friends have been working out, I am building up to get that done here pretty soon too. Any time now really, I just have to formulate the game plan here pretty soon when I have the time and focus to do it.

#25 forever freedom

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Posted 02 October 2008 - 06:48 AM

great ideas, brokenportal.

#26 Ben

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Posted 02 October 2008 - 06:58 AM

My father is anti-science and strongly believes in non-empirical, anecdotal sources of information. That said he's a staunch atheist, whereas I am the opposite in that respect, so it's interesting. As such however he opposes extreme life extension for many of the reasons most uneducated people mention off the cuff like: boredom, lack of resources etc.

My mother is slowly starting to come on board with a lot of the health changes that I've made in my life, that she can see already having a positive affect on me. I think she wants to share in that but doesn't take the life extension side of things too seriously.

Most of my friends who I tell have a similar off the cuff reaction to my dad's. I do have one friend however that I took the time to explain explain things to. Interestingly, yet not surprisingly, they now support life extension and want to know more about what they can do.

I see the major problem with acceptance as being a lack of education and I guess that the same can be said for a lot of issues.



In summary, generally pretty negative, though, are we as a group doing enough to really get the message out there? And can we really be that surprised?

#27 Luna

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Posted 02 October 2008 - 07:51 AM

are we as a group doing enough to really get the message out there? And can we really be that surprised?


It will be surprising if we survive, a pleasant type of surprise of course.
But no, I think we can do a lot more than what we are doing now, then again it might be because I am from Israel and I rarely hear of anything of the sort in this country.

#28 bio123

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Posted 04 October 2008 - 03:32 AM

however he opposes extreme life extension for many of the reasons most uneducated people mention off the cuff like: boredom, lack of resources etc.


I think boredom will always be a major objection for poorly educated people. As an analogy, if you were only allowed to
own one old pc which only ran a few simple programs and couldn't install any more, you'd soon get bored with it and be
ready to throw it away wouldn't you? (Think: a large proportion of the population.) Whereas if you had a nice modern
one which ran many different programs and were always installing new and more exciting ones, it would be a lot more interesting
and be much more valuable to you. (Think: educated, enquiring minds.) Most of us probably know some poorly educated older
people who still tell the same jokes and stories they told thirty or forty years ago - the ones I know usually appear to find time
hanging heavy on their hands (certainly they bore me out of my mind anyway! :) ) Imagine living like that for several centuries...




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