X-Message-Number: 14742 Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 03:54:09 -0700 From: Kennita Watson <> Subject: Re: Cold Equations References: <> > From: Lee Corbin <> > Subject: Tom Godwin's Story "The Cold Equations" > ... > 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.... 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. Hardly surprising. As a teen, I had to be emotionally pistol-whipped (by my mom, The Objectivist Who Loved Me) to admit to myself that I would, if it came down to it, kill someone to keep them from killing me. That may, actually, have been the life-changing, worls-view-busting discussion that started me (a la Dorothy's tippy-toe on the point at the beginning of the Yellow Brick Road) on the road to both cryonics and Libertarianism. > > 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. Resourcefulness and commitment, and praise thereof, are wonderful -- as long as you realize that *sometimes* they aren't enough. Incidentally, with some thought, Will and I came up with some things to try: take the fifth patient out of her dewar and squeeze her sleeping bag in with one of the others; neuroconvert (with a chainsaw if necessary) whoever won't fit and pack as needed; neuroconvert as before, press a standard cooler or other container into service, and pour in some of the LN2 from the dewar that's being left behind. There are probably others that I haven't thought of. Of course, all this ignores that the standard whole-body dewar holds four patients -- which ups the ante... Live long and prosper, Kennita -- Kennita Watson | I vote Libertarian. | Find out why. http://www.kennita.com | http://www.lp.org/intro Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=14742