X-Message-Number: 13788 From: "John de Rivaz" <> References: <> Subject: The Donaldson Definition Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 14:18:32 +0100 Maybe the smart thing to do here would be to coin a few *non pejorative* and *short* words to describe people such as Mr Platt who remain active in cryonics while not being signed up for cryopreservation procedures. The word "cryonicist" does imply that the person performs cryopreservations rather than someone who is able and willing to receive one. You do not call someone who submits to surgery from a dental surgeon "a dentist" - it is the dental surgeon himself who is referred to as "a dentist". The other party is referred to as "a patient" or more completely "a dental patient". Unfortunately a couple of words. The difficulty is to create short words that describe 1 someone who performs cryopreservations - "cryonicist" seems most apt apart from its other usage 2 someone who is part of the management of a cryonics organisation 3 someone who is active writing about, promoting, and discussing cryopreservations (eg Mr Platt) 4 someone who is willing to be cryopreserved and has made the appropriate arrangements A further difficulty is that there can be people who can be described by more than one of these. -- Sincerely, John de Rivaz my homepage links to Longevity Report, Fractal Report, my singles club for people in Cornwall, music, Inventors' report, an autobio and various other projects: http://geocities.yahoo.com/longevityrpt ----- Original Message ----- > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message #13769 > Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 06:30:03 -0400 (EDT) > From: Charles Platt <> > Subject: The Donaldson Definition > > > You are a cryonicist if and only if you have made preparations, both > > legal and financial, to assure that you will be cryonically suspended > > after your legal death. > > With Thomas's customary air of certainty, I gather he has defined a new > word in the English language. > > Unfortunately, he has skipped over a few people (such as myself, and some > friends of mine) who remain active in cryonics while not being signed up > for cryopreservation procedures. > > Conversely, he includes people who are signed up, but because of their > location (or other perverse human factors), have little chance of being > cryopreserved in a timely or successful manner. > > I don't think definitions are quite as simple as Thomas seems to imagine-- > certainly not in a field so notorious for irrational human behavior. > > --CP Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=13788