X-Message-Number: 10796 From: "James Y." <> Subject: Re: CryoNet #10786 - #10794 Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 19:41:02 -0500 > P.S. Did anyone see the segment on Alcor on 48 Hours last >Thursday night? I heard it was very positive. > I saw it, and I would not characterize it as positive. The portion that I recall showed Linda Chamberlain (I think, apologies if I got the spelling or person wrong) briefly describing the suspension procedure. The commentator said "It sounds high-tech, but it is actually more high-school." They then cut to a cryobiologist (I presume) in his lab, and his comments were very close to: "It's a pipe dream. It will never work. These people are never coming back. The damage is far too extensive," and of course the obligatory hamburger comment was thrown in. There was no counter-argument. There was no one pointing out that this guy can no more anticipate all future technologies than Francis Bacon could have anticipated semiconductors. There was no-one pointing out that as long as there is still enough information remaining to reconstruct the pre-damaged state of the brain, some future technology will be able to. I don't suppose there is much one can do when the journalists have an agenda, but I would hope that a routine part of a press-visit would be to pre-empt the inevitable hamburger argument and at least make sure the counter-argument is articulated. Regards, James Y. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=10796