X-Message-Number: 12642
From: "George Smith" <>
References: <>
Subject: Cryonics is NOT a "gamble".
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 09:56:11 -0700

In message #12635, Mike Darwin wrote:
>
>
> I think where "we" differ is not on what might be possible, because I
think
> that almost anything that acts within the broad confines of what we
> CURRENTLY understand as physical law is possible. What you are really
> asking me is more like: "Mike, don't you think it is PROBABLE (to the
point
> worth gambling people's lives on) that such and such is so....?"
> <snip>

The suggestion that cryonics is a"gamble" has been a popular one.

Yet, it seems to me that there really is NO gamble here.

If cryonics fails , the individual simply STAYS DEAD.

If cryonics works, the individual REVIVES.

Right now those who are NOT signed up for suspension will simply DIE and
STAY DEAD.

Those who DO sign up have INVESTED IN THE POSSIBILITY they will be revived
if they should die.

This is not a "gamble".

Why?

NO ONE KNOWS NOW what we will be able to do in the future.

That's why we preserve what we can in liquid nitrogen.

Some folks can BELIEVE they know what will prove possible.

They do not KNOW.

They are only GUESSING.

BECAUSE we DON'T know, we can CHOOSE the option for survival: cryonics.

If you don't choose cryonics, you ARE choosing death.

There are no odds. It is a 100% choice either way.  Not a gamble.  A
certainty.

Ladies and Gentlemen, if you do NOT sign up for cryonics there is NO gamble.
It is identical to playing Russian roulette with a pistol which has EVERY
chamber loaded.

If you DO sign up for cryonics if is also NOT gambling.  Strapping on a
parachute before BEING FORCED to jump from a plane is PREPARATION AND
INVESTING, not gambling.

True the chute might not open.

But the plane WILL crash anyway.

INVEST a parachute.

It is a better choice if you want to live.

The alternative is CERTAIN death.

If someone on the plane as it is about to crash says to you, "Look, I
believe based on careful parachute research that your chute won't work", HOW
SHOULD YOU RESPOND?

SHOULD YOU CONSIDER YOUR ONLY OPTION TO DYING A "GAMBLE"?

SHOULD YOU NOT PUT ON THE CHUTE?

And, if I am wrong and it really IS a "gamble", please remember:

IT'S THE ONLY OTHER GAME IN TOWN.

George Smith
http://www.cryonics.org
"Never tell me the odds" - Hans Solo, "Star Wars"

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