X-Message-Number: 10059
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 08:33:35 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: CryoNet #10052 - #10058

Hi everyone!

To Paul Wakfer: It seems to me that you are arguing against Bob Ettinger
mainly because he has a somewhat different notion of what is "scientific"
than you do. I do not know where any standard definition (which doesn't
just have us running about in circles, as with a dictionary) of the
word "scientific" may be found. Forgetting the issue of words, as 
someone who has read a lot of science (including science which may 
someday relate closely to revival from suspensions -- or whatever you 
choose to call them -- ) I think it would be hard to argue that we 
now have no evidence at all for the proposition that cryonics will work.
Now. Sure, we can argue about how much weight to put on that evidence,
how good it is, etc etc, but it still exists.

I will add also that I don't think calculating probabilities is very
meaningful here, but that is a separate question (no, I don't go along
with everything Bob said or says).

Finally I must point out that (if we take the notion literally, rather
than trying to limit it to some future technology which may never 
fully arrive) nanotechnology not only exists now but is in current use.
We see it whenever biochemists design and construct new enzymes to 
perform a job in environments which formerly could not be used, or in
the quite common use of viruses to modify the genetics of lab animals.
And it will come to human beings, too. I've been reporting on its
advances in PERIASTRON for several years now --- perhaps that has not
been realized by many because I confine myself to actual working 
technology rather than theory.

To Brett Corlett: scientists studying aging have examined the 
phenomenon you describe in some depth. In many ways such children do
show the classic signs of aging, but not in all. The notion that aging
comes somehow from our genes is almost obvious; the real problem is
to work out exactly how. The problem is that most people do not 
suffer from the genetic problem of these children, so some other 
genes are involved. In other animals such as C. elegans ge changes
have been found which double lifespan. So far as I know, no one yet
has found similar genes in human beings, but there are people who are
searching.

			Best and long long life to all,

				Thomas Donaldson

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=10059