X-Message-Number: 15217 From: "George Smith" <> References: <> Subject: A WARNING to new readers of the Cryonet Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2000 18:00:24 -0800 For those of you new to the Cryonet, welcome! ...And a very important WARNING. You might want to be careful about one thing when you are reading the posts here. You usually need to add the words "IN MY OPINION" to most of the statements you read presented, especially those seemingly offered as proven facts about the future. Cryonics is reliant upon the future and no one posting here can prove what will happen in the future. After all, it hasn't happened yet, right? That's why it's the future. As we end the 20th Century it is important to remember the lessons of history. And what does history teach us about scientific predictions regarding the future? If you look back 100 years ago the predictions of most learned scientists alive then turned out to be DEAD WRONG about just about EVERYTHING that happened since then. Hard to believe they could be THAT wrong, but that's their proven track record. Remember that "Man will never fly", "Space flight is bunk", "To exceed forty miles an hour would kill you", and on and on. These were the steadfast predictions of past scientists regarding the future in just THIS century, the twentieth century. So beware of the posters here who portray their current OPINIONS as FACTS. These are still only opinions. And these PRESENT DAY "scientific" opinions will probably be wrong too if their past track record continues. No one can be certain. Why is this important to you as you read these posts? It is important because cryonics is based entirely on an optimistic assumption that FUTURE technology will be able to restore those suspended by cryonics NOW. It requires assuming that the future will do what we can't do (or sometimes even imagine) right now. If you forget this, you have missed the main point. And anytime someone posts their OPINION about the future as if it is a FACT, just take it with a large grain of salt and remember to add the words... "IN MY OPINION". For some reason the most pessimistic writers regarding cryonics seem to almost consistenly fail to add those qualifying and clarifying words, "IN MY OPINION". There are many opinions regarding whether cryonics will work or not, but one thing is clear - it can only work for YOU if you sign up for it.. Something is better than nothing. And that's MY opinion! So best wishes to everyone on a new century and millenium. I hope everyone reading these words will be with me when we celebrate the NEXT one! Long Life, George Smith CI member http://www.cryonics.org "Lifejackets won't work. Don't indulge in false hope by putting one on!" - overheard on the Titanic Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=15217