X-Message-Number: 19996
From: 
Date: Thu, 5 Sep 2002 18:25:47 EDT
Subject: Leonard Zubkoff message #19986

Leonard's death was announced to a stunned crowd at the Hugo Awards Ceremony 
at the World Science Fiction Convention in San Jose, California at the Civic 
Auditorium on the evening of Sept 1, 2002 by Master of Ceremonies and author 
Tad Williams.  I did not know Leonard, although I might have recognized him, 
as he was a science fiction fan of some repute, and we both attended the 
Worldcon regularly.  There was no mention of his being a cryonicist at the 
Worldcon.

However, even though he was not recovered immediately, I find some solace in 
the fact that he hopefully will be cryopreserved.  Of course there is no way 
now to know if any of his memories might survive, but I wonder what the 
members of the Worldcon would have thought if there had been an announcement 
that he had died, and he was undergoing cryopreservation.  

In a related Worldcon event, Ben Best held I think two parties for 
cryopreservation at the Worldcon, I attended the first. It was well received 
in general, there were a lot of looky-loos, as they say, but even the people 
who made disparaging jokes or comments, due to their unease, I think had a 
serious "explain to me how I can cheat death" interest underneath it all.  
Several friends of mine were there, and I spoke to them and discussed a few 
of their objections or questions in a nonconfrontational manner.  I think 
they were surprised I took the matter as a serious option. There were also 
quite a few who came in and spoke to Ben, and took literature and said they 
had a serious interest in cryonics, and wanted more to read and think about.  


I would have to say this is a marked improvement over what I had seen at 
Loscons and other SF conventions in the past where cryonics parties were 
held.  People were much friendlier, and less "creeped out" than they were in 
previous years.  Perhaps the media coverage of Ted Williams and the other 
related media coverage in recent years is reaching a saturation point where, 
at least in the SF community, it no longer is considered lunatic, but merely 
a long shot alternate choice to traditional funerals.  

Congratulations to Ben for his efforts.  Maybe, he made a real difference for 
some people.   In the future, parties with a few more helping hands (and 
friendly people to talk to) I'm sure would be appreciated by Ben, although he 
did a wonderful job.

I would recommend to any cryonics organization, if Leonard Zubkoff was 
cryopreserved, and the matter is public record, that they forward the 
information to the newsletter and publications people at conjose.org.  They 
often publish and mail a "post convention" wrap up newsletter.  Its possible 
the information about Leonard might help spur others to consider cryonics for 
themselves. 

best to all,
Mike Donahue

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