Life Extension

A first post (as a test) using the Introduction on my personal web site http://philiprhoades.org :

I always thought it was a bit odd to have a personal web site but it is probably the most convenient way for me to summarise
everything. The following info is in some sort of logical order. On the lighter side, I feel like Geoffrey Palmer should be asking me questions on "Grumpy Old Men" - on the more serious side there is this soapbox effort which used to be on Sydney Futurists web page (when I was the organiser):

"This group has been more than ten years in the making. Since I first started getting actively involved in Cryonics (Cryonics Association Of Australasia) I have become convinced that it is not sufficient to just want to have an extended, wonderful life for myself. It was clear that for my personal dreams to have any chance of success that there would have to be some preconditions. If I could not extend a vigorous and worthwhile life in the current instance, and I eventually required a Cryonic Suspension, then if there was going to be any chance of a reanimation of my frozen self in the future, then that was going to require, at least, an advanced technological civilisation that was capable of the reanimation. That fundamental requirement raises issues that go beyond issues of immediate self-interest.

I grew up in a scientific family in the fifties, sixties and seventies during a period of great optimism. Western economies were booming, we sent people to the moon and returned them to Earth, scientific and medical advances (eg the first heart transplant) were gathering pace. However, there were some dark clouds. We were involved in stupid and illegal wars in South East Asia and there were some serious and rapidly growing problems with damage to the natural world - caused, basically, by the rapid expansion of human populations and material consumption.

Humans are clearly going to have to make some existential choices in the near future. The results of the those choices could be, in the extremes, that our species goes on to explore the rest of the universe for millennia to come, or, at the other extreme, complex life on Earth could vanish altogether. I think it is clear that personal survival and growth fundamentally depends on the sociological and biological health of our little planet. If we want to reach an incredibly exciting and interesting future for ourselves we are going to need a good dose of enlightened self-interest for ourselves, for other people and for other species on this planet.

When wars were fought with clubs and spears etc it did not matter too much that some numbers of people removed themselves from the human gene pool. This is not true for the modern world. When bad governments, bad leaders or even just crazy individuals committed to one fairy story or another are capable of returning our species to the Stone Age - or worse, we need to be much more intelligent about how we run the place. I guess this Group is an attempt to have discussions with people who have desires about reaching or seeing a wonderful future and are interested in having discussions/arguments about the best way to get there!"