X-Message-Number: 6797
From: Brian Wowk <>
Date: Fri, 23 Aug 1996 14:23:22 -0500
Subject: Prometheus vs. Public mentality

Brad Templeton writes:

> It is also worth noting that neurosuspension is the best-known,
> least-understood and most-ridiculed aspect of modern cryonics.

	It's not an aspect of cryonics, it's a choice of cryonics.
Anyone who is sincerely interested in cryonics can evaluate each
option according to its own merits.  If someone who doesn't like
neuro persists in arguing about it, that just means they are more 
interested in arguing than in cryonics.  If neuro didn't exist,
these people would just argue about other things.

	No serious signup prospect has ever been lost because of
the mere existence of neuro.  Conversely, hundreds of people
are now signed up, and dozens cryopreserved, who would not have
been if whole-body was the only option. 


> The unfortunate thing about prometheus is that it is of course a
> project for neurosuspension.

	There is nothing about Prometheus that dictates whether
you should go neuro or whole-body.  It's a completely independent
issue.  The Project is equally important to the prospects of
both whole-body and neuro patients. 


> So while it would, if successful, do wonders
> for the credibility of cryonics in some circles, in others it would
> simply add to the ridicule.

	So some people think that a body frozen with severe brain
damage is less ridiculous than a body frozen with no brain damage?
If not the brain, I wonder what bodily organ these people would
have us preserve well to make cryonics less ridiculous? :) 

	You can't please all the people all the time.  You first
and foremost have to pursue the most logical course of action
to save your own life.  If you choose your course well, then
other people of logic, scientific literacy and vision will join you.
These are the people that Prometheus will have the greatest
impact on, and these are the people that really matter.

	There will always be people who oppose cryonics (and options
within cryonics) for all kinds of non-scientific reasons.  Let them
pursue their destiny, and we'll pursue ours.  If cryonics is to
become a science (instead of a religion), then science must always
be the gold standard that guides us. 

***************************************************************************
Brian Wowk          CryoCare Foundation               1-800-TOP-CARE
President           Human Cryopreservation Services   
   http://www.cryocare.org/cryocare/

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