X-Message-Number: 1895
From: 
Subject: CRYONICS Attacks
Date: Fri,  5 Mar 93 00:49:06 PST

To Cryonet
>From Steve Bridge, President
Alcor Life Extension Foundation
March 4, 1993

In reply to Scott Hinckley's MSG #1876   
      ()


>     Due to the list I have gone from enthusiasm to cautious 
>monitoring in my views on cryonics. I realize that this may be a 
>distorted view of the true state of cryonics, but, 95%+ of the 
>bandwidth here is spent in internal bickering, with probably <1% 
>actual exchange of ideas to improve the field. I expected a 
>wellspring of progressive information on cryonics from this list, it 
>has yet to appear. Instead of careful discussion of how to improve 
>suspensions, based on previous experience, I find personal attacks and 
>mud throwing. Perhaps if I keep reading long enough I may start to 
>truly see hope for advance.


     Scott, none of this kind of internal debate occurred on the net 
at all before about last April.  Before then it really was centered on 
questions about technology and sociology.  One of the best and worst 
things about electronic mail is its immediacy.  One sees something and 
can react immediately, and off goes a possibly ill-considered answer. 
Which generates back another off-the-cuff response.  Also, it appears 
that people stay angrier longer when they are typing something on a 
computer than when they have to handwrite a letter.  I'm not sure if 
it is the part of the brain being used or whether that screen 
radiation really IS turning us all into commie mutant monsters.

     More than any other time in Alcor's history, politics has 
dominated the thoughts of Alcor members.   Perhaps I am naive about 
this, but I think that the majority (though perhaps not all) of the 
commotion is part of answering very important questions about 
cryonics.  Answering technical questions is important and it is useful 
to talk about how to market the idea and sociological questions like 
how would people in the future react to these frozen patients.  But 
just as important is "how does Alcor organize and run itself so that 
it survives into the future as a viable organization?"

     This is a critical question that any company or organization 
must solve to be successful.  It is distressing to many of us that 
this question has to be discussed in such personal nasty tones and 
with the assumption on the parts of some that "if you don't agree with 
my way of seeing things, you are out to destroy Alcor."  I've seen 
*mistakes* called "lies" and I've seen *carelessness* called 
"incompetence" and worse.  This is the dark side of that active, 
independent, and pugnacious attitude that also held us together in our 
battles over the legality of cryonics during the past 5 years.  These 
people care about the right way to do cryonics, even if many have not 
learned good listening or arguing techniques ("good" as in 
"accomplishing something for all", not as in "winning the argument.")

     These battles are not over, I'm sorry to say.  Some people seem 
to take an active delight in them and even I, who decry the way things 
have been done on e-mail this year, occasionally get some 
entertainment from them (when I'm not getting irritated).

     Should these attitudes dissuade you from signing up for cryonic 
suspension?  If you want a Sunday School where everyone is polite to 
each other and follows the flock, this is the wrong time and place.  
If you want a group of people willing to fight for what they believe, 
then you will have to accept a certain level of conflict, even the 
dumb stuff.  I wouldn't want to spend the rest of my life (pre or 
post-suspension) arguing with these people; but I DO want to live.  If 
you want to live, also, then ignore the dumb stuff, recognize that 
even the most argumentative person on the net has a lot of really 
valuable ideas, and concentrate on your own needs.

     Maybe part of the problem is that we need more people like you 
asking the right questions so we can use our brains for something 
besides intrigue.  Please post what YOUR questions are.

     I certainly hope we can move on to more productive pursuits and 
not turn this mailing list into the personal pissing contests I see on 
various Forums on Compuserve (and which, I have been assured, exist on 
other services as well.)

     If you want to see our collective minds at our best, arrange with 
Kevin to get a look at messages on the CryoNet BEFORE last April.  
There were some great arguments then, too, but they were about 
processes and ideas, not about people and personalities.  And make 
sure you keep reading CRYONICS Magazine from Alcor.  The nasty stuff 
is generally dropped, although the true differences and discussions 
are not.

     To others on Cryonet:  I know we will never be one big happy 
family.  But you can see from Scott's posting as from other similar 
messages in the past few weeks, we are not exactly putting our best 
foot forward  -- except to trip someone.  I hope we can all learn to 
bite our tongues (fingernails?) more often when posting here.  And the 
best defense to an unpleasant message is not to ignore it completely 
(which you folks wouldn't do for a thousand dollars a message anyway), 
but to post something reasonable and pertinent -- even if it is on 
another subject.  And especially avoid those, "So you won't answer me, 
eh?  Are you chicken?" dares.  Micro-macho will get you into trouble 
every time.

     Steve Bridge

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=1895