Frankenstein’s Revenge? Silicon Valley Cryonics Museum
“If there were machines which bore a resemblance to our body and imitated our actions…we should always have two very certain tests by which to recognise…they were not real men.” – Descartes
In any case, we need to ask ourselves: Who is really the monster? The creature or its creator?
Cryonics “captivates the hearts and minds of many in Silicon Valley” says Canadian author Heather Pringle. I imagine the future will have a Silicon Valley Cryonics Museum. Unlike, “Madame Tussauds” and “The Hollywood Wax Museum” famous historical figures, actors, and celebrities, the Bay Area may showcase frozen techies and science CEOs evading the Chair.
Life & Death of the New “Salesmen”
“The man who creates personal interest is the man who gets ahead.” – Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman
“Death of a Salesman” is my favorite Arthur Miller play. Being described at the time as a “powerful tragedy,” pretty much sums up the story. Of course, I see it more as an ironic dark comedy. Suddenly, the eager consuming participant becomes the spectator in the life and death of the producer, the new salesman.
My June 25, 2019 paper, “Icing the Tech Grid,” I propose the solution to tech and social media monopolies rests not on “breaking up” a company but in “breaking it down.” DOJ and Congress are acting under the wrong premise: “break them up.”
Regulators may toy with the idea of “breaking up” a monopoly, but if they were to think like an engineer, they would know the difference between “breaking things up” and “breaking them down.”
Who are the “them”? The founders, investors, lawyers, and company staff? Company employees are in tens of thousands, but Users are in the billions.
Basically, the companies’ connected users and their data makes the structure valuable and integral in its present liquid form. Online companies in the “cloud” are in a steam form with a connect-ability to provide a liquid platform.
Threatening to flash freeze them to bricks of ice requires enforcing hard antitrust laws. But to do so means icing the grid – and no one wants that. Breaking it down to a solid form, ice, puts it in a vulnerable state similar to that of a “brick and mortar” business opened to be “broken down” or smashed to pieces.
Technically speaking “breaking them down” solves the problem of big and powerful. Practically speaking, governments need the platforms in liquid state and the users connected. What’s the point of pushing 5G if users are not connected to platforms, networks or e-consuming via their smartphones?
Look, you’re not going to beat Tom Brady at his own game. So you challenge him off the football field. Silver bullet against companies? Key is to “ice them” or wait till their Founders get iced.
Putting Them on Ice
October is the month of the dead. While some go for ice cold beer, “Techies go for ice-cold afterlife.”
Reportedly, Peter Thiel, co-founder and former CEO of the online payments system PayPal, is said to have financially supported organizations that look to address the frailties of diseases.
“Luke Nosek, 27, a high-profile Silicon Valley executive who most recently was PayPal’s vice president of marketing, thinks of it as a wager” was reported two decades ago by Jessica Guynn and Ellen Lee in the CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Today, other PayPal employees may be delving into similar ventures. According to Sens.org
“Jonathan Cain is a co-founder of the 20 Under 20 Thiel Fellowship, which identifies and nurtures the tech visionaries of tomorrow. He serves as a principal at Thiel Capital and sits on the boards of the SENS Research Foundation and the Seasteading Institute, which works to further the long-term growth of the seasteading movement. “
However, what some see as concerning is these individuals’ influence on governmental agencies and the rest of society. Especially those who do not entertain their views and may see their actions as potentially dangerous. Consider that “Before joining the Thiel Foundation and Thiel Capital, Jonathan served as speechwriter to the Secretary of Health and Human Services.”
To a larger degree, James O’Neill “helped lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as the principal associate deputy secretary. His responsibilities included overseeing policy and regulations at NIH, FDA, and CDC and he led two major reforms of FDA. He also supported the creation of the Armed Forces Institute for Regenerative Medicine, served on the steering committee of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, and represented the United States on the U.S. delegation to the World Health Assembly.”
Speaking of “science” and extending life, a 2014 PR Newswire Release “Human Longevity Inc. (HLI) Launched to Promote Healthy Aging Using Advances in Genomics and Stem Cell Therapies.” Its co-founder J. Craig Venter stated:
“Using the combined power of our core areas of expertise—genomics, informatics, and stem cell therapies, we are tackling one of the greatest medical/scientific and societal challenges—aging and aging related diseases…HLI is going to change the way medicine is practiced…which we believe will lower healthcare costs.” Venter, What the f*%!?
Public got Obama Care and PBMs pushing high priced treatment drugs not cures. But Venter did admit, “Our goal is not necessarily lengthening life, but extending a healthier, high performing, more productive life span.”
Really, government contracted these characters to influence public health policies and call the shots? Conflict of interest or does this just fu@$%! stink?
In the end, all these techies, finance, and science “gurus” seem to offer is long term treatments and long term ICE COLD body bags.
Prepped and Priced to be Iced?
So how does this work and how much does it cost? Guynn and Lee’s interviews give us an idea:
“Around his left wrist Tad Hogg wears a bracelet engraved with an emergency number to call in case he dies. Hogg, a 43-year-old research scientist with Hewlett-Packard Co., only takes it off at night to sleep. “It’s like wearing a watch,” he said.”
So who gets the “the call” and picks up Hogg? “Hogg is a member of Alcor Life Extension Foundation, the largest organization supplying cryonics services. When he dies, his body will be immediately packed in ice and flown to Scottsdale, Ariz., where his head will be surgically removed, injected with preservatives, placed in a large metal vat and cooled in liquid nitrogen.”
Price to be preserved? Well, if you compare it to your fruit preserves, it’s going to cost you. “Cryonics isn’t exactly cheap, though it would be a small price to pay for eternal life. Alcor charges about $120,000 for a full-body suspension and storage or $50,000 for the head only.”
Rebirth of Dr. Frankenstein’s Monster?
Aristotle’s and Descartes’ philosophical words of the “good life” and “mind and body” come to mind. So while most of us strive for living a good life, these techies strive for immortality.
Problem is their investment in these ventures comes at our expense: Human experiments and profits from User’s data. I imagine none of these future “ice cubes” are organ donors. But I bet they’d be happy to take yours. Except perhaps your brain.
Consider that “Hogg believes the sub-zero temperatures will preserve his mind — thoughts, feelings, memories, knowledge — until medical and scientific advances can bring him back to life.”
Hogg, have you no heart? But the question remains since the days of Descartes: Are mind and body separate entities.
Of course, the ultimate core question is: Can the mind exist without the brain? Well, that depends on whose or what mind. That is, human, sentient being, or artificial intelligent.
Even if a body can be brought back to life, can its brain? And if not, perhaps that of another. No doubt there is many a scientist that has tried. But has one succeeded as Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein?
The Nineteenth century may have been Europe’s and the Twentieth century the US.
But the 21st Century belongs to China.
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Guynn and Lee note that “Once frozen, anything could happen…the cryonics organization could run out of money and shut down, the corpses thawed and buried…who’s to say future generations will want to bring a bunch of geeks on ice back to life?”
They add that Pringle points out a lot can go wrong “when the dead are unable to lift a finger to defend themselves.” Poetic justice?
Ironically, the need to believe is no different for some in tech and science as it is for those with blind faith. In seeking immortality these immoral beings may likely find the best they could do was to create their “second life” or an avatar playing games. Not real enough for you?
Descartes would be taken aback to discover that the concept of machines being or not being “real men” would prove to be unreasonable in an unrealistic world and its immoral methods. Only in the presence of death can one come close to “real men.”
Lastly, “Who knows what (future generations) will make of all these 21st century mummies? Pringle wrote in “The Mummy Congress.” Funny is it not? As the world experiences global warming it’s nice to know it’s gotten and will be getting brutally cold for some.
It is said that revenge is best served cold. Or, Payback for the “PayPals” and “Revenge of the Nerds.” Look out for cryonic computer cry babies wearing the “Bracelet.” Imagine what the future may bring to remind us of the past, a Silicon Valley Cryonics Museum.
Or, large versions of tech bobble heads we can order from Google or add to our cart in Amazon and share with our family and friends on Facebook. Apple, got an App for that? Gates, think MACROsoft.
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