X-Message-Number: 19560 From: (William L. Dye) Subject: Letter to the editor about a Ted Williams article Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2002 17:53:20 CDT I wrote a letter to the editor of the local newspaper, in response to an article about the Ted Williams case. The letter was accepted, and came out in print this morning. For those interested, here's a copy: ================================================================== Cryonic Support Exists On July 9, the Journal Star printed a Washington Post article about the alleged cryonic suspension of baseball legend Ted Williams. The reporter, Shankar Vedantam, wrote: "There is nothing in current science to suggest this [revival] will ever be possible." Nothing? The author probably meant well, but it's disappointing that such an obviously erroneous statement slipped past the fact-checkers. Cryonics remains a topic of cold temperatures and hot debate, with highly esteemed researchers and highly visible loonies on both sides. As far as I know, however, there's still only one formal paper on the subject that has managed to survive the crucible of peer review for publication by a major scientific journal. "The Technical Feasibility of Cryonics" was written by Dr. Ralph C. Merkle and published in volume 39 of the journal "Medical Hypotheses." The paper strongly supported cryonics. A published hypothesis is hardly a proof, and perhaps someday the critics will publish their own ideas in peer-reviewed journals, but clearly it is indefensible to state that there is "nothing" in science to support cryonics. There's plenty of good evidence -- both pro and con. The problem is that sometimes you have to commit to a decision before, not after, 100 percent undeniable proof has already crossed the plate. William L. Dye, Lincoln ================================================================== The Journal Star is published in Lincoln, Nebraska, and has a daily circulation of about 77,000. The article apparently originated from The Washington Post, so I sent them a similar letter, but it was rejected. If you wish to read the original article, here's a link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41716-2002Jul8.html If you wish to read Dr. Merkle's paper, it appeared as "The Technical Feasibility of Cryonics", in the journal "Medical Hypothesis", Volume 39, 1992; pages 6-16. A longer version was later printed under the title "The Molecular Repair of the Brain", in Alcor's "Cryonics" magazine, Volume 15, Numbers 1 and 2, in January and April of 1994. The latest update of the full paper should be available online, at: http://www.merkle.com/cryo/techFeas.html --Will William L. Dye Software Enginerd Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=19560