X-Message-Number: 12509
From: Daniel Ust <>
Subject: Re: Normal Cryonicists
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 1999 10:55:39 -0400 

Welcome back Charles Platt!

>As the saying goes: ROTFL. As a journalist I have visited many
>subcultures, from Mensa to hardcore militia movements; and I have found
>more socially dysfunctional, pig-headed, and sometimes downright
>sociopathic misfits in cryonics than anywhere else. Of course, this is
>part of their charm, and provides endless material for good anecdotes.
>But there is a serious side effect. Several years ago I discovered that it
was
>pointless to hold meetings to recruit new members of the Alcor chapter of
>New York, because some of the long-term existing members were so _odd,_
>they scared off more-normal newcomers. The meetings actually served as an
>anti-promotional tool and insured that in this chapter, at least, cryonics
>would retain its stigma. 

My experience is much less and has been along different lines.  I attended a
few Alcor-NY meetings when Brenda Peters was involved and did find much of
what Charles talks about.  (I found it more disturbing that some of the
members were either into cryonics or flirting with it yet consumed greasy,
unhealthy foods right at the meeting.  This made me think they were not
serious about life extension or that they thought since they had cryonics
policies there was no need to do anything else in this area.)

I've participated in two CryoFeast Easts - one in 1997, the other in 1998 -
and noticed that  the cryonics people at the meetings seemed to be either
normal or just typical techo-geeks - no one truly bizarre.  However, the
greenhorns - or, more accurately, non-cryonics people visiting - tended to
be the nut cases.  I won't mention any names, but last year's one had at
least two people who were way out there.  (And I was not one of them!:)

Even so, I do agree the wider point Charles makes above about recruiting.
There were two problems I noted with Alcor-NY.  One was that the freaks
problem.  The other was that most of the meeting was a business meeting.
Ergo, newcomers interested in cryonics got to see minutes read and heard
stuff that had very little to do with selling them on cryonics.

I noticed the same problem with various libertarian meetings I've attended
over the years, which makes me think what should happen is a separate
business meeting should be held and newcomers should not be pressed to
attend those.  Instead, special social or talk meetings should be setup for
that.  The goal should be to familiarize the curious with what cryonics is
all about - not with Robert's Rules of Order.:-)

>>They also tend to be much
>>better educated and better informed than average. 
>
>I would rephrase this as, "They THINK they are much better educated and
>better informed than average."

I agree here.  Each group I've been exposed to - libertarians, Objectivists,
cryonicists, Extropians, transhumanists - tends to think it has some special
insight into reality and that its members got this because they are smarter
than average.  I don't really think this matters much - except that by being
smug, they might tend to overlook intelligence in and ideas from people
outside or critical of their group's ideas.

Cheers!

Daniel Ust
	See more of my drooling at:
http://mars.superlink.net/neptune/ <http://mars.superlink.net/neptune/> 

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