X-Message-Number: 17441 Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2001 08:34:04 -0400 (EDT) From: Charles Platt <> Subject: Plastination It has been pointed out to me that the process of plastination would still depend, for its effectiveness, on good perfusion via an open cardiovascular system (i.e. one that had not become blocked with blood clots). Thus, even if it somehow preserved structure and even chemical neuron states (or an analogue of them), it would not be such an easy answer. I confess I mentioned it not because I thought it sounded like a good idea, but because I think it is a terrible idea. If it did indeed induce "perfect" preservation, which could only be reversed by nanotechnology on a cell-by-cell basis, it would be the ultimate excuse for not bothering to develop reversible vitrification today, and postponing all the problems of resuscitation till some benevolent entities of the future are ready to do it all for us. This still strikes me as the major failing in cryonics: An unsupported conviction that Santa-Claus-like scientists of tomorrow will perform, at virtually no charge, the challenging little chores that we haven't quite succeeded in completing ourselves. Quite apart from the questionable ethics of this attitude, it presents a problem when trying to sell cryonics to cautious potential clients who have a healthily skeptical, as opposed to a diehard optimistic, attitude toward the future. --CP Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=17441