X-Message-Number: 9900
Date:  Sun, 14 Jun 98 00:10:15 
From: Mike Perry <>
Subject: Re: CryoNet #9892

Martin Olah wrote,

> I am curious how 
> cryonics is handled by the skeptic community, if anyone knows.
> 
There is a discussion of cryonics on pp.85-6 of
*Why People Believe Weird 
Things* by Michael Shermer, who is publisher of *Skeptic* magazine, 
host of the Skeptics Lecture Series at Caltech, etc. Three problems
he lists are:

"1. We do not know whether anyone frozen to date or anyone who will 
be frozen in the foreseeable future will ever be successfully 
revived."

"2. The freezing technology appears to do considerable damage to 
brain cells, though the exact nature and extent of such damage have 
yet to be determined since on one has been revived to put it to the 
test."

"3. The entire science of cryonics presently depends on future 
technological developments."

Basically, Shermer wants more evidence cryonics will work before 
taking it seriously (not a position I share, but understandable).

Mike Perry

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