X-Message-Number: 17378
Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2001 11:55:11 -0400 (EDT)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: TimeShip

I'm glad that John Grigg has raised the topic of Timeship. While I hate to
interfere with John's characteristic positivism, we might ask ourselves
why it is worth spending $millions on a gargantuan boondoggle--the
latter-day equivalent of an Egyptian pyramid--when the process of
reversible cryopreservation is not yet perfected and there is great
need for additional money to achieve that goal.

My nightmare scenario is to drive past the huge TimeShip building, knowing
that the people in it are imperfectly preserved and have suffered an
unknown degree of cellular damage, because money was squandered on a fancy
building.

The desire to house cryonics in an impressive structure has been, I would
say, a sickness in cryonics ever since the early 1970s. It is yet another
manifestation of the old theory that wealthy people can be induced to
invest in cryonics if we make it look better. This theory does not
explain why Don Laughlin (founder of the town Laughlin, in Nevada, and
worth maybe $400 million) signed up for cryonics when Alcor was operating
out of a small building in Riverside with bare concrete floors and
salvaged second-hand furniture. (Incidentally, Mr. Laughlin has made no
secret of his commitment to cryonics.)

I have always been convinced that the primary factor, inducing smart,
practical people to sign up, is functional credibility. In other words,
does cryonics work? To spend huge sums of money on a glitzy building,
which includes such flourishes as a mirrored promenade where one can
achieve an ethereal experience by wandering through clouds of liquid
nitrogen vapor, seems misguided, to me, when the same amount of money
could take us a long way toward perfecting a procedure that can be proved
to save lives.

Fair disclosure: For a brief time I was a director and president of Stasis
Foundation, which is a company that channels money to the TimeShip
project. Also I participated in visits and discussions with architectural
consultants. After I realized that TimeShip had a chance of actually going
beyond the planning stage, I quit, for various reasons. I am not
questioning the sincere motives of Bill Faloon, a prime mover of the
project, or of Steven Valentine, the architect. I just disagree with their
priorities.

==CP

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