X-Message-Number: 4895 Date: Wed, 20 Sep 1995 23:03:19 -0700 (PDT) From: Doug Skrecky <> Subject: cryonics verus mummification The attitude of many cryobiologists to cryonicists is one of incredulity and disdain. The competing idea of mummification has likewise been mercilessly slammed in turn by some cryonicists. Let us admit that all of these negative attitudes have their basis in fact. However ideas do not exist in a vaccuum. Frozen storage and mummification have as their competition only rotting or burning. Little hope of ressurrection starts to look good when contrasted with no hope at all. In turn the competition between the cryonics and mummification ideas involves the difference between short and long term planning. Where cryonics is weak in its long-term preservation prospects, mummification is very strong. The main worry of cryonics is financial concerns. In contrast mummification teamed with (say) a heavily armored titanium time capsule, buried in the permafrost has no financial or other concerns. Cryonics may turn-out to be a short-term fad. Mummification may outlast our very civilization itself. If an advanced nanotechnology suitable for reviving corpses is ever developed mummification, unlike cryonics can be guarenteed to preserve your body till that time. On that basis I claim that there can be no doubt at all that mummification is a vastly superior concept in comparison to cryonics. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=4895