X-Message-Number: 14741
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 01:25:05 -0700
From: Lee Corbin <>
Subject: Tom Godwin's Story "The Cold Equations"

In #14731 john grigg writes

>Lee, ever read the tragic science fiction shortstory called
>"The Cold Equation[s]" which gave no way out but one for a
>horrific situation?  I recommend it to everyone.

Hi, John.  As you know by now, Kennita brought up the same
story.  Yes, I read it back in 1967.  It was written by Ray
Bradbury under the psuedonym "Tom Godwin".

You're right, and it is indeed a marvelous story that shows
that sometimes very hard decisions do have to be made.  Now
I have always been bothered (as much as you, probably) by
people who are so excessively sentimental that they have a
hard time facing reality.  Normally, I think that those people
actually end up behaving the way that the rest of us do when
the chips are down, but they certainly whine a lot beforehand.
The kind of pacifist who loudly asserts overly general
principles that no one really could or would follow is the 
standard example.  But given the nature of the people reading
this list ---rather hard-boiled cryonicists (at least from the
perspective of the general population), some story like "The
Cold Equations" is hardly necessary reading.  We're already
in the 99th percentile of people who can make "cold" decisions.

And from time to time we do need to remind ourselves that in real
situations, some extra effort often succeeds in allowing one
to avoid an extremely gruesome choice.  When a hypothetical
question is uninteresting (and besides the point), like "which
cryonicist would you save?", I think it best to use it as an
occasion to praise resourcefulness and commitment instead.

Lee

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