X-Message-Number: 12326 From: Tom Jonsson <> Subject: Cryonic research and comment on what Mr. G.Smith writes Date: 25 Aug 1999 15:16:33 +0200 Hello everyone, I'd like to comment on what Mr. G.Smith writes: " >Again, I am discussing the big picture, not merely the classical cryonics >perspective which has included the all-too-seldom challenged assumption of "if >we don't do it, who will?" Sorry, but I think that when all is said and done, >current cryonics research will have proven to have been a waste of time, like >trying to build a television set with finger-paints. " If you are referring to the research concerning the revival procedure and nanotechnology, I can agree with you, but you are wrong if you are meaning the research about freezing techniques, where it is all up to us. In my opinion, we should discuss and brainstorm this subject much more! If you REALLY want to be preserved to the future, you should of course do everything you can to accomplish it, and that is not to sit and wait for neurosuspension to become "big business" in our lifetime. No, we should do what we can to improve the freezing-procedures. We have to be optimistic about this so we believe that we can make the necessary improvements for our cryopreservations, in our lifetime. We can not be sure when Cryonics will be "Big Business", this can take 50, 100, 200, 400 or 1000 years from now, we simply don't know. If we want to have a fair chance to survive cryopreservation we have to do the necessary research now, and that means improving the freezing technique! We can certainly not just sit and wait for better freezing techniques. Just like you said, you can't know how the future will look like. I also have some objections against the point that "Big Business" always leads to better products; sometimes it leads to inferior products, and only higher profits for the companies. Most of the innovations that come up, don't come from big companies, they usually buy the innovations and make big business out of it. New ideas always come from creative peoples like you and me. I worked for Astra (which is Astra/Zeneca today) for a couple of years ago. They hire promising scientists and tell them what to do. Another thing, we could sometimes accomplish the same efforts by our selves for maybe a tenth than it costs for a big company. I worked on cryopreservation within the University with no grants at all for a couple of years. Of course it doesn't work for a longer time and it's also fits smaller "pilot-projects" better. Like some of you on Cryonet, I also like to philosophize about the view of life and the mysteries of the Universe. But we have a lot of time to do that in the future if we can accomplish the reversible cryopreservation for us, in our lifetime. If we can't do it in our lifetime we have to rely on future scientist to repair the damages coursed by the bad cryopreservation that are available today. Like G.Smith says, we can never know what are going to happen in the future, and of course not thrust on that certain things will go our way in the future. I challenge somebody to repeat my successful work on rat brains I did a couple of years ago. Contact me if you are interested and have the possibilities to do it, maybe 21CM? \Tom Jonsson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=12326