(Login bauge) Forum Owner Posted Jul 9, 2001 6:37 PM
Rick Potvin wrote:
>How decomposed a body would you consider preserving
>the remains of?
>
>Let's consider for a moment a decomposing body, in a
>casket, pumped full of mortician's fluids. I supposed
>you'd say that that would be worth your
>consideration.
>
>But if that body had been buried for, say 5 years, in
>what condition would it be? Let's push the envelope
>here and assume that what we have left is nothing but
>skeletal remains and teeth. Would you consider THAT
>worth saving?
>
>How about ashes? If someone has been cremated, would
>you freeze the ashes to prevent even further
>decomposition?
>
>Does you theory accomodate diaries of the deceased?
>Bills and receipts? After all, hard copies of items
>generated by the person is part of the information
>complex left behind by them.
>
>Concievably, then, would it make sense to you to
>freeze a skeleton along with the fellows tax returns?
>This would certainly constitute that there's nothing
>more certain in life than death and taxes!
You wouldn't freeze non biological materials like records, you might store such electronically, but you wouldn't freeze them. As far as tax returns are concerened, there are probably some objectivists that would like to preserve these so that they eventually can claim a refund. ):
>
>Seriously, though, would you freeze a skeletal
>remain? Why or why not?
How would I treat mummies?
It used to be that Europeans brought home mummies and dissected these for fun at parties.
I would offer mummies much more protection,
in the hope that these sometime in the future could be cloned, and that the clones could learn what we know about the time their predecessors lived.
As to all the human remains that lay around in church yards etc, I can foresee a time in the future when humain remains systematically will be dug up,
and attempted cloned or restored.
The challenge is to find ways to accomplish in reality what religious groups so far have taken on faith
that will happen.
As to what to do in the short run:
I leave that up to each individual,
or the nearest kin.
I would like to see a cryonics storage provider, that
stores what people want stored, and that let the issue of whether or not to store something be up to the client, instead of insisting upon taking this decission
for the client.