X-Message-Number: 22948
Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2003 14:01:55 -0500 (EST)
From: Dan Hitt <>
Subject: mouthpieces, deep throats, and Mother Theresa (your 22943)

Hi Flavonoid,

Thanks for posting message 22943 to the Thanksgiving cryonet:

   I might also mention that wealth does not necessarily enable good
   decisions about who should be a manager, any more than a high level
   of technical expertise or intellect necessarily makes a good
   manager.  In each of those scenarios, just the opposite frequently
   occurs.

   Now, where in the cryonics archives have we seen similar instances
   of Charles Platt jumping to the defense of Saul Kent or seeming
   suspiciously to be acting as his mouthpiece?

First, let me say that by being a source for facts (or conjectures, or
even just assertions) i think you're providing a service.  Even if you
say something wrong, then it provides an opportunity for the record to
be clarified.  On the other hand, maybe you are indeed "well
informed".  Perhaps the catastrophes our little community suffered in
the 1970s could have been prevented had we had a deep throat like the
larger society did.

Furthermore, although i admire Charles for his work in defense of the
first amendment and other matters, i certainly don't agree with all of
his positions or assessments of cryonics leaders, or even his
interpretations of data (for example and for reference, he made some
micrographs of tissue samples frozen by different methods available on
cryonet a while back: he had a certain interpretation of them which i
didn't agree with).

But saying he's jumping to Saul Kent's defense or acting like Saul's
mouthpiece sounds like accusing him of supporting Mother Theresa.

Saul Kent is the one who said "if you don't like any of the current
cryonics organizations, then go out and found one of your own".  And he
has followed the spirit of his own advice.  My understanding is that
he was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but was just another
sleepwalker until he was in his 40s, and decided that if there was
going to be progress in life extension, he'd have to make it happen.
So he founded his vitamin and supplement organization, and made money
in order to do good work (promote life extension).  [And in fact
all by itself, the life extension foundation (http://www.lef.org),
is a tremendous public service.]

I will be very happy if by the time i deanimate i've done 0.1% as
much as he's done in solving the most important problem confronting
humans as individuals and as a species: unnecessary death.

Further, i think the evidence indicates that he (and Bill Falloon)
has excellent judgment both scientifically and in dealing with the
world we have to deal with (not the world we want to deal with).
Somehow he (they) made the Life Extension Foundation happen,
bringing together theory, practice, and getting the cooperation
of the larger society.

This is not to say that he's incapable of error: from my position
of extreme ignorance it looks like the Suspended Animation matter
wasn't handled just right---but making no mistakes basically means
you haven't done anything.  (And maybe SA was handled in the best
way possible, perhaps Mike Darwin's techniques that have been
reported here were for some reason not applicable.)

So if Saul is somehow influencing decisions on who should be a manager
it would seem to be prima facie positive: in fact, it would be more
evidence that Saul is a productive, capable, and active person.

And if Charles really is acting as Saul's mouthpiece (which i sort of
doubt---cryonicists are often wrong but seldom puppets) then he's
chosen well.

But please do correct me where i'm wrong, or just clarify if you feel
like it.  I certainly make more than my share of mistakes, and the
fact that we don't have a party line is or should be a source of
strength not of weakness.

dan

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