X-Message-Number: 549 Date: 16 Nov 91 15:44:26 EST From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: Part 1 answer to #531 Dear Kevin: I have not been able to find a copy of the first part of my message. What follows is my reconstruction: Answer to #531: I have not found any science fiction author yet who creates a scenario containing cryonics which is consistent or shows any signs of knowledge of what cryonicists are saying and doing. Since you brought up L. Niven specifically, I shall discuss him as an example: 1. "Society unwilling to revive the 'corpsicles'": One tenet held very firmly among Alcor members and (by personal acquaintance) members of other cryonics societies is that it is the CRYONICS SOCIETY (or its successors, assigns, etc) that will be responsible for reviving its patients, NOT society in general. So long as cryonics societies exist, THEY will be doing the revival, whether or not "society in general" is willing to help. And the determination to keep patients in storage and work towards their revival is already very strong: recall that in the Dora Kent case at least 5 cryonicists were willing to go to jail rather than reveal her location. Furthermore, there's good reason to believe that cryonics societies will continue to exist for a very long time. True, we may live for longer and longer, and have ever better ways to protect ourselves against accidents, etc. But that does not mean that the death and accident rate can EVER become ZERO --- common sense should tell you that. Even more, if you expect to live for 5000 years, any accident which can happen to you only once every 1000 years becomes a matter for very serious concern. The motivation for cryonics will not go away. So long as this remains, the members of a cryonics society will want to revive the patients in their care because to fail to do so puts their own future suspension and revival in question: a good self-interested motive. Could there be political action which destroyed cryonics everywhere? Right now, that is to me the main danger, whether this action was aimed specifically at cryonics or they just happened to be in the vicinity. It also points up the merit of neuropreservation, which has already saved Dora Kent. HOWEVER, Niven's scenario falls down here too: if the cryonics societies are destroyed, their patients will soon follow. So just how can it happen that they remain available for "society in general" to have any opinions at all about reviving them? Or for that matter, USING them? Mr. Niven should think out much more carefully the settings in which he places his science fiction stories. The TECHNOLOGY may certainly be reasonable and believable, but he shows a stunning inability to think out its consequences. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=549