X-Message-Number: 6188
From: 
Date: Sun, 12 May 1996 14:32:57 -0400
Subject: Re: CryoNet #6182 - #6187

  For years I've had people tell me that cryonics was crazy because Leary was
associated with it; now we're supposed to care that he's not? NPR gleefully
ran and reran the Leary quote about fearing an awakening in fifty years
"surrounded by people with clipboards"-- as though Leary were some sort of
authority. If he had issued a statement supporting cryonics, they would have
carried that quote too... but not respectfully. What we're seing here is a
media hound getting one last fifteen minutes of fame, even if it kills him.
There never has been any upside for any movement associated with Leary (look
how much he helped those who tried to develop LSD into a usable psych drug,
and his later effects on the L-5 Society), and if anyone is criticizing any
cryonic organizations for not somehow turning him into a positive they are
being rather unreasonable. The only critical deficiency of today's cryo
organizations is that they don't have clients like Bill Gates (who I'm sure
would not criticize cryonicists for being "too serious", but rather the
reverse); they don't need to scour the asylums and talk shows for Learys.
  It is too bad Leary won't be around; he would make it a lot easier to
explain to our great-grand-robots why it took us so long to get off the
planet.

P.S. Does Leary really think anyone will know what a "clipboard" is in fifty
years?


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