X-Message-Number: 9724
Date: Sun, 17 May 1998 09:48:21 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: CryoNet #9719 - #9721

To Charles Platt:

Admittedly we can promise nothing with present suspension methods.
BUT if we argue for suspension as a means to cure a presently incurable
disease, especially a disease which AT THAT TIME no one has a clue as
to how to cure, then we can still promise nothing. And if the suspension
method is reversible, then we raise the possibility that they might be
awakened in a far future by strangers who STILL cannot help them.

I'm NOT arguing against improving our suspension methods. We should
do that for exactly the same reasons we should try to cure diseases and
other conditions... and since no one else has come forward to do such
research, it bears on CRYONICISTS to do it. Yet when I consider the logic
of cryonics (as distinct from suspended animation) it's not clear that
the basic situation will really be changed. Sure, many may decide that
it has changed, and so sign up ... but that's not the same. 

And here is a serious question. Suppose that we DO find a reversible 
suspension method. Just when do you think people will use it? (I'm 
assuming, for the sake of the question, that it is not so easily
reversible that people would willingly use it for space travel or
other such adventures). My guess is that they would use it about
the time they would otherwise die (except in cases such as mine,
in which "death" would have happened after my brain was destroyed).
Very few people would simply decide to throw themselves into an 
unknown future while in good health.

To Scott Badger:

I'd be happy if you did such a survey, and if well done it might tell
us something. I will say, though, that most of my donations to cryonics
are going towards research to improve the process. This isn't because
I disapprove of surveys at all, but because cryonics has existed, now,
for over 30 years, and while I've been a cryonicist I've consistently
wanted more research. So go about your survey, and you may find something
interesting. Any means to recruit more cryonicists would have value.

			Best to all, and long long life,

				Thomas Donaldson

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=9724