X-Message-Number: 3252
From: 
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 94 23:48:37 EDT
Subject: SCI. CRYONICS Fox, motivation

Brent Fox has asked for my comments on whether most people in cryonics are
"self-actualizing" or whether they are "ordinary, everyday people.".

I doubt that my comments on this topic--or anybody's, for that matter--will
have much practical value, but I'll give my personal impressions briefly.

Many people in cryonics--most in the Cryonics Institute whom I have met--seem
rather ordinary by most criteria, although usually better educated and more
intelligent than average. 

Until recently, I also had the impression that many were unsuccessful in life
BY THEIR OWN STANDARDS--that is, had failed to achieve as much as they
thought they could or ought. Recently, however, a few big-rich people seem to
have joined, which may or may not tend to discount this notion.

Certainly they tend to be independent or at least minority thinkers,
relatively many being Libertarians. Certainly they must be willing to
question authority. Certainly--almost by definition--they are not comfortable
in the intellectual/cultural mainstream, since this includes submission to
mortality. If "ordinary" means average, by definition
cryonicists/immortalists are not ordinary, since we form a tiny minority.

But I doubt very much that any psychological analysis will provide any new
strategies in advancing immortalism. At any rate, none of the many
psychologists in cryonics has been much help in improving strategy so far,
although Jack Erfurt had some wrinkles that may help a little. 

We have many types of arrows in our quiver--simple survival, greed,
fellowship, idealism, amibtion, rebellion, lovingkindness, adventure,
curiosity, on and on. We just have to keep firing them all.

Robert Ettinger
Cryonics Institute
Immortalist Society

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