X-Message-Number: 22601 Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2003 22:55:11 -0400 (EDT) Subject: apostles From: "Charles Platt" <> Regarding Peter Merel's speculation that cryonics could benefit from some more people with apostle-style fervor: Well, yes and no. First we should question whether this scheme would work. Remember that Robert Ettinger wrote not one book but two, the second being "Man Into Superman" as I recall (I am traveling right now and can't check the title easily). Of course it would be presumptuous of me to second-guess the author's motives, but it looked to me as if "Man into Superman" was aimed along the lines that Peter has in mind; and it didn't gather many (if any) hardcore adherents. Second, an adoption of the apostolic approach would be a tacit admission that we are engaged in a faith-based rather than a science-based endeavor. This could discourage more people than it might attract. It would certainly discourage me. Third, while apostles will devote a great deal of time and energy for "the cause" (whatever the cause may be) their dedication can be dangerous, especially in a field where we are dealing with delicate situations. For instance, I would not want a hardcore apostle making any critical decisions regarding last-minute cases or legal paperwork. The root cause of almost all problems in cryonics is that the endeavor was begun prematurely. Instead of waiting till all aspects were proven, the gifted amateurs plowed ahead in any way they could. This made sense if one wishes to take a chance to save a life, but still, it created a lot of problems. I believe the answer to this situation is to proceed as quickly as possible toward the targets that have been obvious for more than thirty years: Reversible cryopreservation of an organ such as a kidney, followed by reversible cryopreservation of a brain. I am fully aware that these are nontrivial tasks. But lack of public interest in research into human cryopreservation is much harder for me to understand than lack of public interest in cryonics. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=22601