X-Message-Number: 12008
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 10:09:06 -0700
From: Robin Hanson <>
Subject: Re: Betrayal and Abandonment

On 23 Jun 1999 David Pascal wrote:
>Robin Hanson's message nails that cryonics approach right on the noggin.  
>That's exactly what we say:  save yourself, and abandon everybody else.  Of 
>course, it hasn't seemed to work too well these past thirty years.  ...
>So why don't we ever *say* it? ... But we never say it.  We never say, 
>"Cryonics is good for others.  It's good, it's right, for society, for 
>mankind, for the world."  We never say:  "Cryonics is compassion."  We 
never say:  "We're fighting for others.  Why don't you?"  ...

I agree with David that this approach has a lot of promise.  I'll only
caution that "saying" this requires much more than well-phrased web sites
and phamphlets.  Religious organizations and charities have hundreds of 
subtle signals that convince recruits they are this sort of caring people. 
Cryonics organizations, especially given typical personality styles of their
current members, face a huge challenge in acquiring this sort of image. 



Robin Hanson  
     http://hanson.berkeley.edu/   
RWJF Health Policy Scholar             FAX: 510-643-8614 
140 Warren Hall, UC Berkeley, CA 94720-7360 510-643-1884    
after 8/99: Assist. Prof. Economics, George Mason Univ. 

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=12008