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/ Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=6850