X-Message-Number: 1068 Newsgroups: sci.cryonics From: (Nancy Lebovitz) Subject: Re: The "Life Force" Argument Message-ID: <> References: <> Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 20:14:15 GMT In article <> (kevin.q.brown) writes: > From: Charles Platt <> > How Do We Tackle the "Life Force" Argument? > ------------------------------------------- > >I am married to someone who does not believe that cryonics >can work. I have a literary agent who feels the same way. >Recently I showed my wife and my agent a piece that I had >written to address their skepticism. Briefly, my arguments >ran like this: > ... >From their perspective, a victim of cold-water drowning who >is restored to life never really lost that "life force" and >therefore was not really dead. Conversely, it is impossible >for them to believe that the life force would survive in a >detached head immersed in liquid nitrogen, especially bearing >in mind the damage that results from freezing. Therefore, as >far as they are concerned, cryonics cannot work. I think that this is the weak point--they're going by a feeling of what the life force can tolerate before it gives up on a body. (I may be personifying the life force a little too much.) This is a guess based on very little experience. (It could still be right, of course.) However, since there's no reason to think that any disaster (due to life force or other reasons) will result from trying to revive frozen people, it's worth while to try the experiment of revival. Comes to that, if a frozen person is restored to full chemical functioning but does not regain life, that would tend to suggest that there is physical proof of a life force. This is a pretty interesting outcome. I don't think, given their premises, that you can convince them that cryonics will _work_, but you might be able to convince them that it's a plausible thing to try out. [lots of civilized stuff deleted] Hope this helps, Nancy Lebovitz calligraphic button catalogue availible by email (170K) Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=1068