X-Message-Number: 6858
Date: 09 Sep 96 04:27:53 EDT
From: Paul Wakfer <>
Subject: Prometheus: Our Best Hope
The current round of accusations and recriminations should serve as an
object lesson concerning the bankruptcy of present day cryonics and the
critical need for something like the Prometheus Project to divert us from our
current path to nowhere. I remain signed up not because I have any real
expectation that any of today's organizations will be able to get me through
to the future, but simply because as Thomas Donaldson said it's "the only
game in town". As did Thomas, I urge those who are signed up to remain so and
those who are not signed up to do so. I do this acknowledging only the
smallest of chances (ie. < 0.1%) that such action will extend your life,
because *some* chance is better than *no* chance. So I say to Mr. Friedlander
and to Ken Greenwood (who is a Prometheus pledger by the way), don't give up
the ship because of a few rotten planks in the hull. Instead let us all get
to work and encase both the many good planks and the few rotten ones in
strong and uncorrodible stainless steel. Then we can all, good and bad, sail
across the dangerously capricious sea to the promised land of the future.
For those who didn't understand before, I hope the last week has made it
as clear to you as it has been to me for some time that the *reason* that
cryonics does not work is that WE HAVE NO OBJECTIVE PRODUCT. Any group which
is not selling a product whose claims are verifiable is selling FAITH.
Therefore, It will attract, you guessed it, TRUE BELIEVERS. No matter how
skeptical or rational or scientifically objective you are before you join and
become involved, *after* you join it is virtually impossible to *not* become
some kind of true believer. Aren't we all told that "after you're signed up
you feel such a sense of relief that now you have a chance at extended life"?
I felt the same thing myself, and I've also been promoting cryonics by
talking about this. The trouble, however, is that this is too much like
saying and feeling "I'm saved!" It promotes complacency in the status quote,
and reduces concern about the minimal chance that one actually has gained. In
addition, once one is signed up one, quite naturally, wishes to do whatever
one can to strengthen and promote the organization one has signed up with.
Few of us have the courage and integrity to continually convey all the
negatives of cryonics in balance with its positives as did Mike Darwin - much
to his credit - for many years in _Cryonics_". Since none of the groups are
run as profitable businesses and none of them sell any product which has been
proven to work, there are virtually no objective standards for their behavior
in almost any area. The proper course of action in almost any situation
becomes simply a "matter of opinion". And in "matters of opinion", those who
win are not the objective scientists or the highly professional, but "the
best debaters". So our leaders becomes become, not the most objectively
productive people, but "the best debaters". If you have noticed that this is
beginning to sound just like government politics, congratulations, you're
starting to get the picture! Yes, our organizations have become very similar
to political parties.
The goal of the Prometheus Project is to provide us with just such an
objective product. No, it will not be a final answer to all our problems. No
one has said that it will be. What it *can* do is to provide for us some
verifiable standard to which we can relate each of our cryonics cases. In my
opinion this change, in itself will revolutionize the cryonics movement and
make it into a real industry.
Once again, I urge all of you to join with me to make this sorely needed
change actually happen, and by doing so to vastly increase your personal
chance of getting to the future.
-- Paul --
!!!!! REVERSIBLE BRAIN CRYOPRESERVATION *CAN* BE ACHIEVED IN 10 YEARS !!!!!
Paul Wakfer email: Voice/Fax: Pager:
US: 1220 E Washington St #24, Colton, CA 92324 909-481-9620 800-805-2870
Canada: 238 Davenport Rd #240, Toronto, ON M5R 1J6 416-968-6291 416-446-9461
(Currently in California)
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