X-Message-Number: 6265 From: John de Rivaz <> Newsgroups: sci.cryonics Subject: "Cold Lazarus" blow to neuropreservation Date: Thu, 23 May 1996 16:57:31 +0100 Message-ID: <> The television plays "Karaoke" and "Cold Lazarus" by Dennis Potter concern the final months of a writer dying from cancer, and the use to which is neuropreserved head is put in the year 2368. Karaoke finished last week, and Cold Lazarus starts on BBC television on Sunday. The Radio Times' introductory article included the following quote from the programme's producton designer Christopher Hobbs: "It's as if the frozen head is imagining the future of the world, so the design is coloured by his sensibilities." Director Renny Rye said: "The whole point of keeping Feeld's head alive is that it is an obscenity. Death is a part of life and when Dennis [Potter] came to face up to it, it turned out that death, like every other phase of life, was an inspiration." Feeld's head is apparently kept alive on a machine so that his thoughts can be plundered by profit crazed entertainment executives. The world is based on growing nanotechnological structures - the flickering computer consoles are housed in living redwood trunks that support the roof while actors zoom around on "auto-cubes" - soupled up half vegetable half machine wheel chairs steered by thought waves. They look like house trained Triffids, according to The Radio Times. Buildings grow like coral, and everything has a lumpy swirly feel to it. Feeld's memories are projected onto a huge 3D screen which is computer simulated using digitised film footage. The world is generally that of BladeRunner - heavily polluted and choked with a forbidding cityscape. Cold Lazarus cost half a million pounds for its special effects, and the script is said to be riddled with nanotechnological jargon. Actor Cieran Hinds said "I was apalling at science at school. The vernacular of cryogenics and biochemistry can be one hell of a mouthful but Potter knew what he was talking about. You just have to say the lines as he wrote them and hope that you're serving his ideas." I wonder how much he really found out about cryonics and the philosophy behind it. This work suggests that he gots his ideas from detractors who knew little. Does anyone know whether he approached any of the cryonics organisations? -- 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=6265