X-Message-Number: 6938
From: 
Date: Thu, 19 Sep 1996 13:10:31 -0400
Subject: IS/CI/Visser research

1. I expect soon to unsubscribe to Cryonet, so those who want to reach me
should do so directly. Those who want to keep up with CI and IS developments
and my own offerings should subscribe to THE IMMORTALIST--$25/year to the
Immortalist Society, 24355 Sorrentino Court, Clinton Township MI 48035.

2. We have been asked what donations have been made to CI or/and Alcor
recently  to support Visser-related research.

There have been several promises, some of them with conditions attached.
(Naturally, we will not publicize the names.) That isn't what we want. We
want checks, now.

3. Donation psychology: People vary widely in their approaches, demands, and
expectations. My own approach as a donor is that I contribute if I think the
enterprise is worth while and the sponsors reliable; usually I don't want the
burden of making technical judgments, even if I think I have the competence.

In the role of donee (for the Immortalist Society or Cryonics Institute) I
want to minimize overhead and red tape to the absolute bone. It might or
might not pay to put out reams of plans and engage in long exchanges to
satisfy individual prospective donors about the merits of our strategy. (At
one time, as I recall, Trans Time or ACS tried a direct marketing approach
based on heavy one-to-one, or even many-to-one, salesmanship; it didn't
work.) I'm not going to do it, and unless the directors of IS or CI disagree,
we're not going to do it. Prospective donors will either accept our
broad-based plans or they will not.

4. On the importance of donations to our Visser-related research:

First, the work has begun, and will proceed, with or without donations. We
have our own money, and expect to generate more. But there is so much to be
done, and the time element could be so critical for individual prospective
patients, that it makes sense for you to donate, if you are serious about
cryonics. (IS, CI, Alcor and the Vissers, and their collaborators, and
perhaps others yet to join the Visser team, will try to coordinate research
so far as practicable. If there is some duplication, either on purpose or
accidentally, that isn't bad either, since it provides corroboration and
variation.) 

5. On Platt's #6930: I'll skip some of the spin/counterspin and just
emphasize a couple of points. 

He insists that, if e.g. CI exhibits a revival of a sheep heart from liquid
nitrogen to whatever responsible audience is available--journalists,
scientists, business people, students--scientists generally would not be
impressed, and even he personally would only interpret it to mean the
cryoprotectant is "very interesting stuff."

Again--the mind boggles. It would be another world first, PROVING that the
Visser technique can work with (at least some) larger organs and another
species, and he says, "Don't call it scientific research." In other words,
some minuscule report on a slight improvement in viability of red blood cells
with a variation in glycerine concentraton would be scientific research, if
it is heavily documented; but a spectacular leap in the art is not research
UNLESS it is documented according to standards of the Society for
Cryobiology. 

He attempts to justify this attitude by noting, for example, that the sheep
heart would have an "unknown history and unknown amount of prior damage."
Unbelievable! With ANY history and ANY amount of prior damage, this would
still be a world first. (We would be working with a presumably healthy heart,
but if it were not, the achievement would be all the more impressive.)

Are there scientists sufficiently psycopathic to reject such evidence? Sure.
Would it be better, other things equal, to satisfy the guild's demands? Sure.
But the MAIN thing is to get the proof, if we can, and translate it into
better suspensions for our patients, in minimum time with minimum expense.
That is the bottom line.

6. (Platt again) On CryoCare's option for its members to be stored with CI,
on which Platt insisted:

This seems to be just window dressing. Since not a single CryoCare patient
has chosen storage with CI, I assume that in practice CryoCare pushes
CryoSpan.

TO REPEAT: Those who want to contribute to the Immortalist Society for
Visser-related research are encouraged to do so--right now. (Alcor will speak
for itself.) We want checks in hand, not promises. Tax deductible. Please
search your conscience and do your best.

Robert Ettinger
Cryonics Institute
Immortalist Society
24355 Sorrentino Court
Clinton Township MI 48035


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