X-Message-Number: 793 Date: Sat, 2 May 92 13:01:33 EDT From: (Perry E. Metzger) Subject: CRYONICS: Freezing Heads from "Christopher Penrose" <> [...] I am extremely leary of the contemporary practice of cephalic isolation (decapatation) as a means of reducing cryonic body storage costs; Alcor, a consortium of cryonic suspension advocates has already stored isolated and stored human heads at low temperatures. Disposing of most of a patients body can only increase the emotional and neuronal shock that patients receive upon revival. Your statement is misinformed. Any conceivable technology capable of repairing the freezing damage incurred would be able to build a duplicate of your original body if you desired one. Your mad little senario (see below) about people living without bodies are just that, mad. No one would propose such a thing. Consider that the damage done in current cryonic suspension could only be repaired by a technology capable of direct molecular manipulation. The task of taking your DNA and building a new body based on it is hardly more difficult. Couple this with the implications of artificial heart technology successes and a scenario like the following is easily imaginable: Friday May 13, 2034, 10:34am: Elizabeth Taylor was declared brain dead today after a grueling cryonic revival. Elizabeth's isolated head was revived 18 months ago (October 26, 2032). She regained consciousness in April 4th, 2033 after remaining in a deep coma. She complained repeatedly of phantom body sensations and begged for a "real" fleshy body. She experienced multiple strokes, and became violently catatonic in late December 2033. She never regained consciousness, and finally died of a massive stroke this morning. No one is contemplating reviving a person that way. Perry Metzger Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=793