X-Message-Number: 12479 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: comments for Darwin and Skrecky Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 23:08:21 +1000 (EST) Thanks to Doug Skrecky for his references, which I will look up and evaluate myself. I also note that he is leery of current fixation technology for similar reasons to those which make me leery --- even if entire brains have been fixed. I will say this: I think that the earliest technology to be used in cryonics in a widespread way will be cryopreservation, that this will be followed by the vitrification methods developed by 21st Century Medicine, and that someday we will have a fixative which preserves us without any need to keep the bodies especially cold. (Raising them to a high temperature such as that for combustion, of course, still won't be a good idea!). I'll also hazard the guess that by that time, we'll be much more at home with space travel, and people could be preserved far away from the Sun (or any other star) at very low temperatures. I also note that in his discussion Mike comes close to agreeing with me about the need for more direct experiments before we have a better knowledge of whether or not current vitrification methods will work. I will also say that if Mike chooses to be suspended, by whatever means, his choice by its nature cannot be science. Science concerns knowledge; whenever we act, it helps to have knowledge, yes, but no action can be proved to be successful beforehand. If we're just discussing something, we're dealing with knowledge. If we actually do something, not only can something go wrong that we think we know, but all kinds of unrelated unexpected things might also go wrong. Knowledge and action are not and never will be the same. The two should not be confused. And that's why it would be reasonable (if at all possible) to use the current vitrification methods developed by 21st Century Medicine right now for human cryonic suspension --- while we still don't have full KNOWLEDGE that they will work. Best and long long life to all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=12479