X-Message-Number: 10072
From: 
Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 21:30:43 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: The Big Picture, at least as I see it now.


I like flow charts.  Like many pictoral devices, flow charts can clarify steps 
and streams of 
events or actions.


I envision one flow chart entitled "Achievement of Successful Resuscitation of 
Human Cryonic 

Suspension".  Meanwhile, here we are on this end at the beginning of the 
flowchart in the 

present having debates about what are the steps and sequencing of steps to go 
from where we are, 
to that final step on the "Achievement" flow chart.


Does anyone disagree that somewhere along the way there is going to need to be 
sufficient 
research to find the ways to accomplish "Achievement"?  Don't think so.  


But the question might be better posed regarding how much time and effort (and 
therefor money) 

needs to be applied to research to do the job.  Yet this is unknown and remains 
only 
speculation.  We can't know at this end how much will be required.


However would everyone agree that the more money (= time and effort) that is 
applied to the 
task, the more likely it is we will get the job done?


Now I am aware of efforts to attempt to gather commitment from currently 
involved members of the 

relatively small cryonics community to promote research directly.  And it will 
either be enough 
to do the job or not.


But if the number of individuals personally commited to cryonics were ten times 
greater, then 

the pool of money would be overall potentially greater.  Or if it were 100 
times, so too the 
quantity of funds.  Any disagreement here?  Didn't think so.


Currently the movement grows steadily (if I understand the figures over the last
few years 

correctly).  If we continue, slow and steady, it is clear that the quantity of 
funds will 

eventually rise to the needed level (which is, remember, an unknown) to fund the
amount of 

research to accomplish "Achievement" unless it is "impossible", of course. But 
none of us can 

*ever* know if it is literally "impossible", so this issue is a dead-end and not
on the 
flowchart).


Why will more members make a difference?  Because of Cognitive Dissonance.  
Psychologist Leon 

Fesstinger demonstrated many years ago how people generally form their beliefs 
based first upon 

behaviors (choices) made and then generated "reasons" after the fact 
(rationalizing).  


I am well aware of how many extremely bright intellectuals will find it 
difficult to understand 

why most other people believe what they do in the face of clear, factual 
information to the 

contrary.  However, the fact of *this* matter is that people seldom use an 
untainted process of 

clear reason to arrive at their convictions.  They are more usually drawn into 
behaving (often 

at first in small ways) in manners in harmony with the beliefs they then come to
adopt as their 

own.  Once at that stage, confabulation rules supreme.  (For direct examples, 
ask materialist 

atheists who do not support cryonics why they feel that way.  They don't make a 
lot of sense, 
do they?).


What does this have to do with this flow chart to "Achievement"?  In my opinion,
just about 
everything.


MAYBE if we devote our current meager resources as a small group 100% to ongoing
research we 
will get to "Achievement".

MAYBE it is out of reach at our level.


But MAYBE, when we gather enough members, then that needed level will be more 
easily achieved.


So I can imagine one part of the flow chart which is devoted to leveraging what 
we know to be 

true about human psychology to attract members faster.  The key?  Well, not to 
disparage my more 

learned elder fellow cryonicists who are already a part of the scientific 
establishment, but it 

seems to me that those who have been exposed to your rational arguments in favor
of cryonics 

have been tapped out.  If they were going to join based on your approach, they 
already did.  In 
other words, "they" are YOU.


Granted, if you can somehow legitimize cryonics in the opinion of the mainstream
scientific 

community, the masses will laugh less loudly and come to treat it more 
seriously.  But how long 

will this take?  As I have discussed in earlier posts, the human animal 
(scientists too) have a 

dogged determination to prove that their views are right, generally to the grave
hence the truth 

of the words "dead right").  I think it is worth while to try to win over the 
scientific 

community, I just personally doubt it can happen before it no longer requires 
their acceptance 

(in other words, *after* the Wright brothers were flying, it *then* became 
acceptable to 
consider heavier than air flight as feasible).


And let me venture a guess.  If you have enough money, you can buy the people 
you need to do the 
research desired?  Even if the establishment doesn't "approve"?  


For the rest of the human population (what percentage might that be?  99.9%?), 
the proven path 

of sales psychology (as pioneered by Fesstinger and others) is what has been 
demonstrated to 
work.  (Just turn on your television and look).  


Once someone joins, they will support the movement for precisely the same 
psychological reasons 

a new Republican, a new non-smoker, a new Roman Catholic will be the strongest 
advocate of the 
group he or she has just commited to.  That's not a problem.


The real starting point for this sequence on the flow chart seems to me to be 
what professional 

salespeople call "closing", getting the prospect to make the decision to buy.  
And this, 

according to the experts in that field, remains an issue of emotional desire, 
not reason (as I 
have discussed before as well).


Successful selling requires a willingness to acknowledge the truth about why 
human beings act 

the way they do (and an equal willingness to drop our personal beliefs if these 
clash with what 

works).  People buy all kinds of expensive nonsense every day, every minute.  
Why the hell do 

people need sportscars that can go 200 mph when there is no safe nor legal place
to drive that 

fast?  But look at all those sportscars people keep buying!  And if you don't 
like my example, 

go find ten more out there in the next five minutes.  No, let's be fair.  Find 
at least twenty.


In sales, you either get results or excuses.  If we want the cryonics movement 
to continue to 

grow and grow exponentially, if we want the best shot at having the necessary 
money to fund the 

requisite research to reach "Achievement", we need more membership results. We 
need solid 

emotional appeals lined up and in place to use in discussing cryonics with 
potential members.  


If the very people most intellectuals hold beneath contempt, the millions who 
buy and believe 

the National Enquirer at grocery stands every week, if even a fraction of these 
average folk 

were to be given effective emotional appeals to consider cryonics NOT FOR 
THEMSELVES but for 
those they love and care for, we would have more results.  


It is very dignified to remain intellectually aloof from the methods which are 
most effective in 

terms of motivating human beings.  It is emotionally risky to reach out to even 
a close friend 

or family member and tell them you fear for their life.  The risk of rejection, 
however, is the 
price paid by any successful sales effort.  


If someone doesn't buy into cryonics, don't blame him.  Don't blame your lack of
"proof".  Don't 
blame the testimonials you don't have from the scientific establishment.

These are only excuses.

Go for results.

Go for emotions.

-George Smith

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