X-Message-Number: 28829
Date: Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:21:24 -0500
From: Keith Henson <>
Subject: frozen dead guy (singular)

At 10:00 AM 12/28/2006 +0000, Charles Platt wrote

snip

>Marginal ventures have to be practical, otherwise they will
>fail. The odds against cryonics are bad enough already
>without someone risking making them worse.

The problem is with something like cryonics you just can't model what will 
work.  The most successful event in cryonics history was to be accused of 
murder.  (Subsequent major media attention such as Ted Williams didn't do 
nearly as well, perhaps because the first time few people knew that there 
was an organization offering suspension services and now it is well known.)

>More to the point, swimming against the tide is no virtue if
>you can choose an easier path. Human and other resources are
>so scarce and valuable in this field, they should be
>carefully targeted where they have the greatest chance of
>paying off.

That's true if a cryonics organization is *paying* for it.  When someone 
does some activity out of their own recreation budget it's a different 
situation.

>This means picking the low-hanging fruit. Public
>appearances are best made in front of groups which are more
>likely to be predisposed toward cryonics. This is so utterly
>basic, I feel stupid spelling it out. But it's like buying a
>mailing list. You don't buy the mailing list for "Mad"
>magazine, to sell cryonics; you think more in terms of,
>maybe, "Reason," the libertarian magazine, since we know that
>cryonics appeals disproportionately to libertarians. You
>begin close to home and work gradually outward.

Actually, you buy samples of mailing lists and test.  You can also survey 
the membership to see what magazines they read.  I would venture to bet 
that more cryonicists have read Mad than Reason, at least as kids.  Reason 
might do poorly since a high fraction of libertarians know about 
cryonics.  Given how few people cryonics appeals to even among the most 
responsive groups, I doubt any mailing list promotion would return the cost 
of mailing.

>Moreover I suggest that it is actually much more challenging
>to try to promote cryonics in front of smart, focused people
>who are likely to be seriously interested in it, because
>they're going to ask some very sharp questions.

No doubt true.  But those opportunities come along very seldom.

>(My one hour
>presenting cryonics to a room full of dotcom founders,
>including Jeff Bezos, was one of the toughest in my life.)

How many of them signed up?  Zero?

>Going to Frozen Dead Guy Days and giving out cryonics
>literature is not just foolish, it's also very easy. No one
>at the festival is going to take the idea seriously, so the
>worst that can happen to an activist is that you'll be
>ignored. I have no doubt that Kennita had a good time in
>Colorado. I see nothing brave about that.

Nothing wrong with having a good time.  If zero signed up, Kennita is doing 
as well as you did.

snip

Keith Henson

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