X-Message-Number: 6850
From: Brian Wowk <>
Date: Fri, 6 Sep 1996 11:55:58 -0500
Subject: SCI.CRYONICS Scientific Credibility

Thomas Donaldson writes on CryoNet:

>If the aim of Prometheus is to raise interest in cryonics among those who
>are not now interested, then a scientific research project may or may not
>do that. (I pledged to Prometheus because it would bring substantial
>technological advances to our suspension, not because I thought it would
>raise interest in cryonics. It may do that, it may not, but that is not
>the question I asked).

	Let me begin by saying that I agree with Thomas that *the* reason 
(the best reason) to support Prometheus is to save your life by generating 
a major leap in cryonics technology.  Even if the 700 cryonicists in
the world were the only people in the world (and there was no else to
persuade) we would still need this technology!

	PR benefits, while not *the* reason to support Prometheus, are
still *a* reason to support Prometheus.  Those of us who believe there
will be PR benefits should be able to discuss this without the 
criticism that it's the wrong reason to support Prometheus.  I don't
know anyone who supports Prometheus solely (or even primarily) for
PR reasons. 


>I asked, for instance, just how much of a role scientific opposition to
>cryonics played in our inability to get lots of people to sign up.

	An enormous role, in my opinion.  Here I speak not of
active scientific opposition (which there is very little of)
but of the scientific case for cryonics, which is extremely
speculative and therefore weak in its curent form.  This weakness
undermines cryonics in a myriad of insidious ways.

	The problem with cryonics today is that it's just a bunch 
of talk; we are not really demonstrating *anything*.  Granted, 
the talk may be extremely intelligent and well-reasoned.  But
there just aren't very many extremely intelligent, well-reasoned
people in the world.  Most cryonics discussions begin with two
simple words: SHOW ME.  And that is also where they end as 
long lectures about arcane future technologies then begin, and
people's eyes glaze over.  I've seen this a hundred times now,
on and off the Net.

	Thomas suggests the hypothesis that technology advances
in cryonics have no effect on public relations.  We can test
this hypothesis with a thought experiment: What if TRUE SUSPENDED 
ANIMATION of the entire body existed?  Would there really only
be 700 people in the world who thought this was a useful medical
technology?  I think not.  Prometheus (suspended animation of
the brain) is an intermediate step toward whole-body suspended
animation, and I therefore expect the PR effects to be intermediate
between what we have today and what full suspended animation will
bring.

	Again, I guarantee you this much: Prometheus will change
the cryonics debate from whether cryonics *can* be done to whether
it *should* be done.  And this will be a big change indeed.

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

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