X-Message-Number: 5900
Date: Fri, 08 Mar 1996 15:50:25 +0100
From: John de Rivaz <>
Subject: Re: The cryonics debate on uk.legal

In article: <> 
 writes:
> About dealing with those who don't "get" cryonics:
> 
>   I would agree with Saul that it seems a waste of time. We all know that
>   we're not going to convince the British lawyers of anything at all. 
> 
>   But there IS another issue, which depends a lot on just how many people
>   log into Cryonet to listen to the discussions: our arguments might strike
>   a chord in someone who is listening.

This debate is centred on uk.legal with crossposts to sci.cryonics and 
sci.life extension. If you post just to cryonet your article doesn't enter 
the affray unless someone spots it and cross posts it. It is an amazing 
three threads with a few more smaller ones and has attracted some very high 
quality articles. It has already been running nearly a month and could 
continue for years and attract broadcast media attention in due course. 
Posting to uk.law means that people do read it who otherwise wouldn't. 
Cryonics has a fascination for most people, even if they don't think deeply 
about it. They may be made to think more about reading these reasoned 
debates.

We have already had quality media coverage out of all proportion to the 
number of people signed up or even subscribers to the newsletters. The 
reason for this is that the interest in the subject is out of all 
proportion to the actual number of people doing it. [Which applies to a lot 
of things - American wrestling has a big following on television, that 
doesn't mean all those people want to participate in the 
sport/entertainment.]

One of the prime focuses on the uk.legal threads (which I started because I 
perceive that the law is more of a threat to successful cryonics than 
technical considerations) has been to get the "anti-" lawyers actually to 
consider the fundamental issues involved. It is difficult to get people to 
listen, they often jump to a conclusion when you have only said the first 
part of what you were going to say, and miss the point because the only 
bit they heard is modified by the second bit they didn't. The threads are 
not intended to get hundreds of people to sign up, (although they may be 
instrumental in getting one or two to consider it and maybe do so in a few 
years time) but to get nay-sayers sufficiently motivated to give us our 
rights to do our thing, rather than leach away our limited resources in 
side issues. The government's "right" to butcher our bodies (autopsies) and 
other people's "rights" to our money on death are not fundamental issues to 
cryonics in the same way as technical issues, yet they present a very 
serious threat to its success in individual cases.


-- 
Sincerely,     ****************************************       
               * Publisher of        Longevity Report *
John de Rivaz  *                     Fractal Report   *
               *          details on request          *
               ****************************************
In the information age, sharing can increase world wealth enormously,
because giving information does not decrease your information.
          http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JohndeR    
                Fast loading, very few slow pictures


Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=5900