This Ray Kurzwiel thing sounds interesting....I've never heard of it. Believe me, I know what you are saying. I am very close with my family and deeply in love with my husband. I was just talking to him last night about cryopreservation....he thinks I'm crazy. We're young, so I may still have time to convince him...and myself. Look, this is all really new to me. I can't stop thinking about it....I seriously need to take a break from this website, but I honestly find this idea fascinating. The thought of him and I being able to basically live another whole life in the future is amazing...I never want to be without him. Neither of us are religious, so we don't have a problem with the concept of being revived in the future. But, what if I want to do this and he doesn't? I should just do it anyway? ....my parents are super duper catholic and there's no way they would go for it. If I froze all these people anyway.... and they woke up in the future, would they be mad at me? I know, it's hardly a thing to be mad about if it worked, and if it didn't they would never know. I guess I'm just so use to saying that people have the right to choose...and should be able to make decisions for themselves....but I do see how this could be different. I also feel like if they went through "death" once already- and by that I mean they really thought they were dying...and me seeing them "die".... and then in the future, they were perfectly healthy, but didn't want to be there, they would commit suicide and die again...and I would see them die again.... wow.... I don't know where I'm going with this. my mind is just spinning!! ....like I said, I need a break!
I know what you mean, its all a bit too much if you've just been introduced to the world and philosophy of cryonics and transhumanism. I blew my mind out contemplating all this in high school and stayed up whole nights because of the implications of all it.
This is my overall conclusion:
Note this
only applies to your immediate family: spouse, parents, grandparents, and siblings (if they're not married). If someone from your immediate family dies and does not leave behind any legal documents that explicitly say in specific detail what to do and not do when they die, then legal right of what do to with the body lays in the hands of the surviving members. At that point they can bury, cremate, cryopreserve, or donate the body to science. Without legal documents, regardless of their views in life I would personally give them a second chance in life by having them undergo cryonics, if I have the means and money of course. If (and that's a big if) they are revived and don't want a second chance and are not pursued to live on despite all the beauty that the future would have to offer, I would only then adhere to their final wishes and let them die peacefully if they wish it. It's my hope however that a second chance in life will pursue them to change their minds.
Remember, the future will be an extraordinary different place from today. We can only begin to image the wonderful technologies they will have 20, 50, 100, or even 200 years from now!
Edited by Cyberbrain, 15 October 2009 - 09:15 PM.