“we don’t know what such a being could do (or, indeed, anything else about it), therefore you must prove that such a hypothetical being could not do (whatever magic-equivalent is needed at that point).”
I just said we’re assuming we know it can’t break the laws of physics.
We can tell that if you blow up someone with antimatter, putting them back together would have to involve breaking the speed of light unless you start out controlling the entire surrounding light cone before the person was blown up. If the person was vitrified, there isn’t a similar obvious violation of laws of physics involved in putting them back together.
So it seems like cryonics after death gives you a better chance at being eventually reanimated than antimatter burial after death. With regular burial definitely leaning towards the antimatter option, the causal stuff that needs to be traced back to get you together gets spread too wide. Yet people still argue as if cryonics should be treated just the same as regular burial as long as there’s no demonstrable technology that shows it working for humans.
I’m not sure why it’s a dealbreaker to assume that the technology side will advance into something we can’t fully anticipate. Today’s technology is probably extremely weird from the viewpoint of someone from 1900, but barring the quantum mechanical bits, it’s still based on the laws of physics a physicists from 1900 would be quite familiar with.
Today’s technology is probably extremely weird from the viewpoint of someone from 1900, but barring the quantum mechanical bits, it’s still based on the laws of physics a physicists from 1900 would be quite familiar with.
The GPS depends on relativity. And “barring the quantum mechanical bits” is a hell of an overwhelming exception. (But make that “a physicist from 1930″ and I will agree.)
I just said we’re assuming we know it can’t break the laws of physics.
We can tell that if you blow up someone with antimatter, putting them back together would have to involve breaking the speed of light unless you start out controlling the entire surrounding light cone before the person was blown up. If the person was vitrified, there isn’t a similar obvious violation of laws of physics involved in putting them back together.
So it seems like cryonics after death gives you a better chance at being eventually reanimated than antimatter burial after death. With regular burial definitely leaning towards the antimatter option, the causal stuff that needs to be traced back to get you together gets spread too wide. Yet people still argue as if cryonics should be treated just the same as regular burial as long as there’s no demonstrable technology that shows it working for humans.
I’m not sure why it’s a dealbreaker to assume that the technology side will advance into something we can’t fully anticipate. Today’s technology is probably extremely weird from the viewpoint of someone from 1900, but barring the quantum mechanical bits, it’s still based on the laws of physics a physicists from 1900 would be quite familiar with.
The GPS depends on relativity. And “barring the quantum mechanical bits” is a hell of an overwhelming exception. (But make that “a physicist from 1930″ and I will agree.)