X-Message-Number: 16571
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2001 21:10:46 -0700
From: Olaf Henny <>
Subject: Re Ideas for David Pizer 
References: <>

>Constructing an argument for support of cryonic suspension.
>Your ideas are appreciated.
>By David Pizer

Thank you, David, for your update on VentureVille, which appears
to shape up as a very worthwhile project, although as a Canadian
I unfortunately will not be in a position of becoming a permanent
resident in your community.

The reason I reply to your post has more to do with proliferation
of the idea of cryonics and its acceptance.

(snip)
>However, with these completion dates in mind and since this
>is not so far in the future any more, we are now ready to start working on
>our primary argument for cryonics
>(snip)
>This argument's basic premises have to be true and the form valid and
>sound, and at the same time not too difficult for the nontechnical,
>presently non-immortalist person to understand the basic premises and
>understand why they lead to the conclusion, which is something like "One
>(everyone) ought to get signed up right away."

>This is not an easy task in my opinion, because cryonics has been around so
>long and yet there are so few signed up.  Something is wrong.  Myself, I
>was easily persuaded by just reading a brief article (that was intended to
>poke fun at it), in the newspaper about 20 years ago, and further persuaded
>by the well-done arguments in  "The Prospect of Immortality."  But now
>after being around so long, these things do not seem to be persuading too
>many others.  We need to try to improve.

The present colony of cryonicists consists primarily of
scientists, technologists computer experts engineers and others,
who make daily decisions based on logically evaluating known
factors and extrapolating probabilities on a rational basis.
They all come to the conclusion, that cryonics makes sense, even
though the probability of success may be small or even minute,
simply because accepting death without exploring every avenue
offering hope to avoid it, does not make any sense at all, - at
least not if you enjoy life.

So why are only so few of us signed up?

I believe one of the reason is, that convinced as we ourselves are,
we are not entities on our own, but most of us are members of a
family unit.  Our counterparts in this unit are our wives.  And they
function usually on quite a different plain, one of tradition,
heritage, intuition and soul.  By that measure cryonics is "just
not right".  It contravenes their basic sense of value and order of
life.  [Don t get me wrong.  The vast majority of men are just as
caught up in the  what has to be - has to be  concept, but we are
not married to them! :)]

My wife respects my wishes concerning cryonic suspension and
agrees to my arranging for it, but so far does not want it for
herself.  So where do I get off spending a substantial part of
our family fortune on saving myself and letting her die?

What we need more than anything is find a language, that is
understood by the heart, rather than that brain, which occupies
the centre point of cryonicists' attention.  So far we are like a
monolingual Korean talking with a monolingual Swede.  Both
have a lot to say, but neither understands the other.

We need *interpreters*.  I am calling on the few women in
cryonics, even though they too are mostly scientists or logic-
professionals, they are also nurterers and intuitive as well.
Most of all I am calling on  Deathist Lurker Girl , Who is not
a cryonicist, but an interested observer, to tell us, what would
bring her closer to embracing the  joy of extended healthy
_youthful_ life ?
[It just occurred to me, that youth would then no longer entirely
wasted on the young. :)]

Best,
Olaf

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=16571