X-Message-Number: 9466
From: Olaf Henny <>
Subject: Re: Cooperation, CryoNet #9456 From Saul Kent
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1998 13:39:04 -0700

>        Olaf Henny's (message #9447) includes a quote
>from James Halperin's book "The First Immortal", which
>states that:... (deleted)

When I quoted James Halperson's paragraph, the "...planning and 
teamwork between competing organizations, was a rare luxury in 
twentieth century cryonic suspensions." was just incidental to 
the point I was trying to make, namely the way representatives of  
one cryonics operation tear at the flesh of another with constant 
flaming, as we have experienced during the Timothy Leary debate, 
and which Mr. Halperson has correctly foreseen to continue to 
that fictitious date about two years after his writing.  I would 
like to see us improve on this prediction and heal this festering 
wound within the community, so that the leading brains can 
dedicate their energies toward growth and research instead of 
wasting it in accusation and counter-accusations.  The persistent 
attacks by Mr. Platt on the perfusion methods of CI smack of 
malice and serve no other purpose than alienating any potential 
cryonicists, who are scanning <sci-cryonics> and see his posts 
there.  Mr. Platt had three alternatives:

-  If his concerns were sincere, he could have contacted Mr. 
Ettinger privatly and expressed and discussed them.

-  If he needed a bigger forum, he could have stated them on 
CryoNet and let the subsequent discussion take its course.  He 
did not do that.  Instead he fired a barrage of accusations 
against CI, many prefaced by the terms "I believe..." or "I 
understand...", meaning, that his information was hearsay, but he 
dragged these conjectures out anyway and attacked CI with them, 
forcing Robert Ettinger to defend his organization against 
unsubstantiated claims of deficiencies, which he did with 
admirable patience.

-  He could extend his anti-CI smear campaign to include 
<sci.cryonics>, to grand-stand in front of the widest possible 
audience, inflicting severe damage to the cryonics movement as a 
whole.

Unfortunately Mr. Platt chose the last, most destructive 
alternative to air his views.

I believe, that Mr. Platt has contributed more to cryonics, than 
I will ever be able to, but he has also inflicted severe harm.  
From the relatively short period of my involvement (since the 
early stages of the Timothy Leary 'debate'), I would judge Mr. 
Platt's bottom line as "red".

Having said all that, I am very pleased to hear, that Mr. 
Halperson's (not mine, since I am not insider enough to judge) 
asserted poor cooperation has shown some improvement.

Best,

Olaf

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