New York Times today reveals that Robin Hanson, one of the smartest bloggers alive, has experienced some marital strain as a result of his quest for immortality. This is very relevant to our recent discussion about the soul’s immortality.
When afflicted by “love”, people are often jealous and possessive. When I was about 10 years old, a pair of local lovers formed a mutual suicide pact and committed suicide together. This sort of “commitment” is glorified by our culture. Tell your wife that you have found a way to freeze yourself and your wealth, and that you’ll come back to earth long after she is dead, and see how she responds. Are you really surprised that she doesn’t support your quest to be a celebrity caveman to some young ladies who won’t be born for centuries? You might as well tell her that she’s a temporary lover who will occupy an infinitesimal fraction of your love life, since your love life will extend immortally.
It should surprise nobody that Christ already dealt with the issue of possessive love among the resurrected, 2,000 years ago. Matthew 22:23-33 says:
That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and have children for him. Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. Finally, the woman died. Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”
Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.
It sounds like Mrs. Hanson has nothing to worry about, and should instead be demanding that her husband pay for her own cryogenic preservation. There is always the issue that the resurrection may not be cryogenic, but subscribing to a cryogenic service is certainly a good way to signal to the future your desire to be reborn.
“There is always the issue that the resurrection may not be cryogenic, but subscribing to a cryogenic service is certainly a good way to signal to the future your desire to be reborn.”
That sounds like a slogan out of P.K. Dick. Have you ever read any of his books?
Yeah, I read “Man in the High Tower”, and *tried* to read “Electric Sheep” when I was younger. I thought “Scanner Darkly” was a good movie, but never saw the book.
Stephen Baxter and Vernor Vinge are two other excellent sci fi writers who touch on themes like this.
I think I might’ve mentioned it to you before, but I read all of the “Chronicles of Thomas Covenant” books as a kid, and when I learned about Philip K. Dick’s life, and his drug-infused alter-ego “Thomas”, I’m convinced the stories were patterned after Dick. The series is scifi and could be summarized as the trippy, religious, psychadelic, schizophrenic adventures of a crazy writer. Not sure if I would like them as an adult, but they were certainly mind-bending.