X-Message-Number: 12503
Date: Mon, 4 Oct 1999 11:12:21 -0700 (MST)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: Normal Cryonicists

I'm glad I returned to sample CryoNet just for the entertainment value of
this statement by Robert Ettinger: 

> There are really far fewer unbalanced people in cryonics than you might
> expect in a movement as revolutionary as ours. If you attend meetings of
> any of the organizations--highly recommended--you will find, with
> inevitable exceptions, that most are very solid citizens with a very
> conventional range of views on most topics. 

As the saying goes: ROTFL. As a journalist I have visited many
subcultures, from Mensa to hardcore militia movements; and I have found
more socially dysfunctional, pig-headed, and sometimes downright
sociopathic misfits in cryonics than anywhere else. Of course, this is
part of their charm, and provides endless material for good anecdotes. But
there is a serious side effect. Several years ago I discovered that it was
pointless to hold meetings to recruit new members of the Alcor chapter of
New York, because some of the long-term existing members were so _odd,_
they scared off more-normal newcomers. The meetings actually served as an
anti-promotional tool and insured that in this chapter, at least, cryonics
would retain its stigma. 

Quite possibly, CI is different. I haven't been to any of their meetings. 
CI members could be as "normal" as a meeting of the local chapter of the
Lions or the Elks, for all I know. But based on my experience of every
other subset of cryonicists during the past ten years, I'm skeptical. 

> They also tend to be much
> better educated and better informed than average. 

I would rephrase this as, "They THINK they are much better educated and
better informed than average." 

PS. For the record, personally I'm well aware that I am nowhere near the
center of any imaginable bell curve. 

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