X-Message-Number: 3571
Date: Sun, 1 Jan 1995 21:56:42 -0500 (EST)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: CRYONICS:Customer Service


To Jan Coetzee: First of all, if I can manage to spell your name 
correctly, could you attempt to do the same for me?

Second, let me try to respond to your points.

> I think Mr. Plat and his friends are forgetting that the customer is 
> always right. 

If I understand you correctly, you are suggesting that since you are a
potential cryonics customer, I should agree with everything you say. I'm
sorry, but I don't quite see it that way. I do appreciate the importance
of satisfying customers, and indeed I have helped to create a cryonics
organization (CryoCare) in response to some very specific "customer
requirements." If one of our members has a special request, I'll go out of
my way to try to satisfy that requst. But in an open forum such as
CryoNet, if someone makes statements that seem factually wrong, I think it
is quite appropriate for me to dissent. In fact, our customers may respect
us more if we speak out in favor of factual accuracy instead of remaining
diplomatically silent. 

> They have the strange illusion that cryonics will become a 
> fraternity for physicists. 

Many people post messages here, on many different subjects, scientific and
otherwise. That's fine by me. Usually, people tend to tackle issues where
they have some expertise. We all risk making fools of ourselves if we
speak out on issues where we are relatively uninformed. All I suggested
was that there might be an area which you know more about, where you could
be of genuine help to us all. From your previous posts, it looks as if
science is not that area. 

> If cryonics is to attract the average person,
> which will be vital for its survival, it will have to reach out and 
> touch someone. That is the power of religion. 

Cryonics is not a religion (at least, I don't think it should be). 
Cryonics is an entirely rational decision based on available data (at
least, I think it ought to be). I have done my share of "outreach," which
you seem to be unaware of. But it has always been, and will always be, on
a rational basis, consistent with known facts. I think it is misleading,
unwise, and potentially damaging to deal with cryonics in a loose,
speculative fashion.

> I get mail from lurkers. I 
> don't think they are impressed with Mr. Plat and his kind. Maybe he 
> could open a "Cryonics for the Ivy League" and moderate it. 

"Ivy League" has nothing to do with it. Personally, I do not have a
college degree. I do have a concern for accuracy, however.

I wish you had responded to my original points, which were a) each of 
us should be doing what we're best at doing in order to foster the growth 
and strength of cryonics, and b) posts here which contain half-baked 
ideas about science tend to damage the image of cryonics. Surely, this 
should be self-evident?

############################################################
Charles Platt, 1133 Broadway (room 1214), New York, NY 10010
      Voice: 212 929 3983      Fax: 212 929 4467

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