X-Message-Number: 3664
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 22:01:53 -0500 (EST)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: CRYONICS:Pseudoscience


Today I received a call on the CryoCare 800 number from a woman who 
was surprised--maybe even a little shocked--that I had no knowledge of, 
or interest in, morphic fields and the use of radio waves to accelerate 
wound healing. She went on at some length on these subjects, and claimed 
that she herself had induced tissue regeneration via radio waves. "I'm 
sorry," I said finally, "I'm really not very interested in this kind of 
fringe science."

"Fringe science!" She laughed loudly. "What do you think cryonics is?"

And this is exactly the problem. We are still thought of as being on the
fringes of science, or being downright pseudoscience, and we will not make
much progress until this perception can be revised. This means, please
note, that all cryonicists will continue to suffer a greater risk of
permanent death (as a result of poor treatment by unsympathetic doctors,
courts, law enforcement, local officials, etc.) so long as cryonics is
stigmatized. Therefore, for those of us who are signed up, our lives may
depend on de-stigmatizing cryonics. 

Yvan Bozzonetti has received a nice letter from "Daedelus." I'm happy for 
him. For those who aren't familiar with "Daedelus," he writes a playful 
column full of wry humor, and everyone understands that Daedelus is a 
professional journalist, NOT a professional scientist, and his column IS 
NOT SUPPOSED TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY. 

By contrast, the original purpose of CryoNet, as I understand it, was to
present cryonics to the net-reading public in a basically serious 
context. This is one of only four or five "showcases" for cryonics (the 
other showcases being magazines put out by cryonics organizations, and 
the cryonics news group on Usenet). In no other forums can we feel that 
there is any guarantee of cryonics being presented fairly and seriously.

It occurs to me that Y.B. may not realize this. To him, cryonics may be 
one big joke; the same kind of stuff that he reads about in Daedelus. As 
a result, he is confused that we don't all slap him on the back and enjoy 
a good laugh about his experiments in "pseudoscience" (which is the term 
he has used himself in his most recent post).

The fact is, Y.B., many people here--probably the majority--do take
cryonics seriously, and we feel we have excellent reasons for doing so. 
Take a look at the level of scientific discussion in (for instance) the
fact book from Alcor, or the shorter booklet from CryoCare, and you will
see that there is not a trace of pseudoscience. 

We do not have the luxury to indulge in Daedelus-style pseudoscience
jokes, because our scientific legitimacy is precarious at best, and we
don't want to encourage people to take it any less seriously than they do
already. To some extent, our future lives depend on this. 

Sorry not to share the joke, but perhaps now you see why. 

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


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