X-Message-Number: 31262
Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2008 17:26:05 -0700
From: "Charles Platt" <>
Subject: The "cryonics community"

Mark Plus wrote:

> If you want to gamble with the money donated for Mr. O'Rights's

> cryosuspension, at least do it at Don Laughlin's Riverside Resort in Laughlin,
> Nevada, so that it stays within the cryonics community if you lose:

Much as I am fond of Mark, this is one of the strangest statements I
have ever seen him make (assuming it is even half serious). What is
this "cryonics community" which I hear so much about? I thought that
buying cryopreservation coverage was a private transaction; I didn't
know that it is supposed to create affinity between myself and other
people whom I have never met. The idea that if I'm going to throw
money away, I should throw it to them, is very weird indeed, and the
idea of throwing it to Don Laughlin makes no sense at all, since he
shows no sign of ever throwing it back.

I think that the "cryonics community" is a cultish conceit. It
perpetuates an us-vs-them mentality which I see as a real barrier to
the wider acceptance of cryonics. This is not a matter of faith--or at
least, it shouldn't be. It's a treatment option--or at least, it
should be.

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