The Selfish Gene by Richard
Dawkins.) Unless you believe in "spiritual phenomena" like "life after death," and "reincarnation," death is the end of freedom. It is therefore incumbent upon those of us skeptical of "life after death" theories to do our utmost to overcome death - to develop the technologies necessary to achieve biological or physical immortality. Death is the biggest enemy of freedom.
One of the important technologies that will bring about immortality is "nanotechnology" - the technology of the very small, technology that makes possible the manipulation of matter at the atomic and molecular levels. Through nanotechnology, nano-machines will be developed, capable of being injected into the body, finding damaged cells, and repairing them.
Technology in areas like genetics and understanding aging processes will also make major contributions. But one of the most important issues for immortalists to confront is coercion. Coercion is a death-process. Some time ago I wrote as follows to an immortalist friend:
"One of my primary purposes is biological or physical immortality. If it were not for the prospect of immortality, the motivation for creating Terra Libra would have been much less.
The phenomenon of "coercive government" manifests as kinds of "death
machines." The origin of these deaths machines is the contents of
individual minds. As long as a critical percentage of humans carry the "coercive
government meme" in their brains, the "government death machines"
will continue to manifest and wreak their havoc. ("Meme" is to mind
as gene is to body - see
The Selfish Gene by Richard
Dawkins.)
To the extent that immortalists (or aspirant-immortalists) carry the "coercive government meme" in their heads, are they still deathists? If you are blind to coercion - or the more subtle forms of coercion - do you remain a deathist? If you accept coercion in principle - some people have the right to initiate force or violence to impose their will upon others, to overwhelm or violate the will of others, to live off the values created by others - do you then still accept a form of deathism? In practice, is the acceptance of coercion as an organizing or operating principle by those who call themselves "government" the acceptance of deathism? - does such acceptance inexorably result in people killing people?
I'm sure you appreciate the extent to which "government death machines" directly and indirectly destroy human lives. I'm sure you appreciate the magnitude of the resources consumed and wasted destructively by "government death machines." If it were not for this destruction, imagine what resources would be available for immortality R&D.
My interactions with people in the immortalist movement indicate that many of them seem blind to coercion, oblivious to the "government death machines," the "coercive government meme" firmly entrenched in their brains. Are they to this extent deathists and traitors to their own cause? I don't know what is necessary to induce immortalists to wake up to the nature and consequences of "government death machines," and what needs to be done about them. Maybe you can help.
One way of describing Terra Libra is that we replace the "government death machines" with "voluntary life organisms" - alternative currency & banking, private & secure communication systems, voluntary education, etc. In order to do this, we have to induce individuals to replace their "coercive government memes" and other "failure memes" with memes resulting in individual freedom and responsibility, voluntary exchange, personal power, success, health, wealth, etc.
Terra Libra has become spectacularly successful because of the memes of the principals. Our overall strategy for "creating a better world" is probably more advanced than that of any other organization or group. And we are totally open to improving any aspect of it. I am very optimistic about the probability that we will succeed in replacing the "government death machines" with "voluntary life organisms." Your support could produce phenomenal results."
How to Achieve Physical or Biological Immortality
The Benefits of Freedom Step #15
17 Steps to Freedom (Index of Steps)
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to: Freedom Step # 14
Freedom
Step # 16
Copyright at Common Law, West El Paso Information Network, 1997