You’ve probably heard something similar from Raymond Burr on an old episode of
Perry Mason : “Objection! Assuming facts not in evidence. Here I’m talking about no
facts of any technology that some think will change the world, but there’s no critical
parts to actually make it work as advertised.
Take cryonics, for example. You’re dying of some incurable disease, or just old age,
and once you die, they start cooling you down and replace your blood with a
cryoprotectant perfusion, and you are ultimately packed in a huge thermos bottle,
wrapped in aluminized mylar, immersed in liquid nitrogen. The tank is so big, the
vacuum layer has to be mechanically maintained and the liquid nitrogen
replenished on a regular basis. In theory, some day a method for reviving you and
a treatment for what killed you will be developed, and you will be thawed out,
blood will replace the perfusion, and you will arise like Lazarus, to take your place
amongst the living. Some are just storing their head, with the idea that a new body
can be cloned, and you can get a group rate in the tank, like embryos or sperm.
Problem is, nobody has developed the technology for reviving people, let alone
attaching an old head to a new body successfully, so the whole thing appears to be
a very energy and material intensive form of embalming. The technology ain’t
there. Alot like what I said about self-driving road vehicles in a previous diary,
and I’m sure we could find other promises of the future. It’s 2019, and rather than
flying cars, we have a raving homonculus playing pResident who rejects all
scientific knowledge.
That’s my FP. What’s yours?