X-Message-Number: 1118 Subject: CRYONICS Re: Cryonics FAQ 9: Glossary Date: Mon, 10 Aug 92 09:21:39 -0400 Message-ID: <> From: I like "cryonicist", "cryonics practitioner", "cryonics fan", and "suspension member" as defined by kqb and E. A. Murphy. I don't like "cryonaut" though. I am concerned that if we use jargon that feeds the self-esteem of naive people, then we'll attract naive people and repel more knowlegable people who assume that we deliberately want to attract the naive people. I can imagine some six year old saying "Gee, ma, I wanna be a cryonaut when I grow up!". Therefore I suggest we eliminate "cryonaut". Unfortunately we can't use "suspended member" because it's a double entendre. "Frozen member" is even worse. (If no one other than me gets the double entendre, then I guess we could use it. But since "suspended member" never appears in the literature, I suspect that many people do get the double entendre.) Cryonics magazine uses "member in suspension" sometimes. That seems to be the same double entendre as "suspended member", although I never noticed it until I wrote "suspended member" in the FAQ and realized I had to reword it. "Member in biostasis" connotes too much faith that they can be revived, as does any use of the word "patient". (I do believe that most of them could be revived, but I don't want to have to argue about jargon with people who don't believe that.) How about "suspendee"? It's a slightly ugly neologism, but at least it doesn't feed the self-esteem and it has only unarguably true connotations, assuming that one has accepted the word "suspend". Tim Freeman Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=1118