X-Message-Number: 1629
Date: 17 Jan 93 01:23:33 EST
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: CRYONICS diplomacy

To: Cryonet 
 
 
 
I laughed over Steve Harris's "statement of cryonic intent." 
But it got me thinking about the limits of ruthless honesty, 
and that in turn prompted me to prepare two "Statements of 
Belief."
 
 
                       FIRST STATEMENT 
 
The thought of death fills me with abject, crawling fear. 
Since I seem incapable of coming to terms with it, I have 
joined Alcor, a tiny group of obsessive extremists who say 
they will wait till I am declared dead, then cut off my head 
and freeze it in the faint hope that it can be brought back 
to life, with a new body, using techniques that do not exist 
and are viewed with amusement by most reputable scientists. 
Most of the people at Alcor have no scientific or medical 
qualifications, and their procedures were devised by a 
dialysis technician in collaboration with a man who taught 
surgery but was not in fact a qualified surgeon. I am aware 
that my chances of resuscitation will be reduced virtually to 
zero if I die alone, or in a hospital which refuses to allow 
access to Alcor, or if I suffer an accident that results in 
autopsy. I am also aware that if Alcor doesn't keep its 
promise to freeze me, or if I am allowed to thaw out, there 
will be nothing I can do about it. Alcor's facility is small 
and overcrowded, and has a home-made look. It is located in 
the highest-risk zone for earthquakes in the Los Angeles 
area. Its income from membership dues is insufficient to 
cover its everyday expenses. Its activist members are 
constantly engaged in internal political warfare. However, in 
my estimation, the other two cryonics providers look even 
worse; so I am taking my chances with Alcor, even though it 
costs me a substantial amount in membership dues, the head-
freezing will cost more than $40,000, and my friends all 
think I'm crazy. I enjoy the fantasy of waking up in a highly 
advanced future where I will have a lifespan without normal 
limits--even though I have no evidence that such a future 
will exist, or that the people living in it will want me 
around. If it turns out to be really awful (if I have brain 
damage, for instance), I guess I can always kill myself--
permanently, this time. 
 
 
                       SECOND STATEMENT 
 
Most people are afraid of dying--so much so, they try not to 
think about it. I have the courage to face the fact of my own 
death, and I have the initiative to do something about it. 
Consequently, I joined Alcor, the largest cryonics 
organization in the world. Experiments by reputable 
scientists have proved that the processes of life depend on 
the viability of cells, and if cells are properly protected, 
a mammalian brain can be partially frozen and subsequently 
revived. Currently, ice damage cannot be completely prevented 
but a noted cryobiologist has made some progress toward 
solving this problem. In the meantime, Eric Drexler, the 
world's leading authority on nanotechnology, has described 
how molecular "robots" could repair damage to individual 
cells, and a spokesman from IBM has stated that 
nanotechnology should be even more important in the next 
century than microelectronics today. Alcor thus has good 
reason to think that it should be possible to "bring people 
back." Alcor is still a relatively small start-up 
organization, but it has set aside more than a million 
dollars to care for its frozen patients, and for the past 
five years, the membership has increased at an exponential 
rate. The current building was purchased by a consortium of 
wealthy and not-so-wealthy Alcor members; it was ample at the 
time, and has been carefully protected against all natural 
disasters (including earthquakes), but is not ideal. There is 
reason to hope that a new building may soon be purchased 
elsewhere. Meanwhile, Alcor's suspension techniques are more 
sophisticated than those used by other cryonics providers, 
having been largely designed by a man who spent many years 
refining techniques used in heart-bypass operations, which 
are directly applicable to cryonics. He taught surgery at 
UCLA Medical Center and authored numerous papers. Alcor 
maintains a 24-hour emergency service, with a team of 
qualified emergency medical technicians able to fly special 
equipment anywhere in the country. To minimize the chance 
that I will undergo an autopsy after I die, or will not 
receive proper treatment to protect me from ischemic injury, 
I wear a medical alert bracelet giving instructions if I am 
found without vital signs. However, statistically, most 
people do not die suddenly; so there is a good chance that 
the Alcor team will reach me in time, and they have an 
excellent record of obtaining cooperation from hospital 
staff. Alcor's people are dedicated, to the point where most 
of them work for little or no pay. It costs me less than $10 
a week for membership, and the actual procedure will be paid 
for out of life insurance. To reduce costs still further, I 
have decided to freeze only my head, since I believe that 
future medicine will be able to clone me a new, young, 
healthy body. I also confidently expect that when I am 
revived, science will not only be able to repair any damage I 
have sustained, but will also have mastered the aging 
process, allowing me to choose a vastly extended lifespan. 
Since the feasibility of cryonics is still unproven, the 
scientific community has been reluctant to endorse it. 
However, several scientists have quietly signed up to be 
frozen, and no one has ever been able to prove that cryonics 
will not work. Since no other option offers me any chance at 
all of extending my life centuries into the future, it seems 
to me I would be a fool not to give it a try. I confidentaly 
expect that as the strangeness of the idea gradually wears 
off, more and more people will share my point of view. 
 
--------
 
The same facts are used in both of these statements. The only 
difference is that the second statement includes many upbeat 
personal opinions, plus some additional, positive facts that 
make the negatives seem less scary. I would be interested to 
hear whether the people who advocate ruthless honesty feel 
that the second statement is "less honest" than the first. 
Personally, I feel no qualms whatsoever about presenting 
cryonics in the upbeat style. 

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