X-Message-Number: 13190 Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2000 10:37:09 -0500 (EST) From: Charles Platt <> Subject: The Religion Argument > Here I disagree. Yes, you don't have product to sell in the sense of a car > or a better mousetrap. But religious leaders and politicians also "sell" > people products that don't exist. Religions are even further out than > cryonics because of what they promise. You seem to forget that almost all religions are founded on the Word of a Prophet, perpetuated via a Book. This is regarded as absolutely firm evidence. We don't have quite the same thing in cryonics; Bob Ettinger comes closest, but with all due respect, he doesn't have quite the same charismatic status as Jesus. It is conceivable we could go the mystical route with some success: Abandon any idea of promoting cryonics in an ethical, scientifically valid manner, and start a cult based around a mythic figure (Curtis Henderson, perhaps) who ACTUALLY DID restore people to life using some secretly developed protocol, out in a disused Titan missile silo south of Tucson--until the Government used Black Helicopters to shut him down. We still have fragments of his writings, guarded at an undisclosed location, and available only to those who have proved themselves worthy of viewing the sacred text. Presumbly, to be worthy, you have to tithe 10 percent of your income for a few years, and undergo many sessions of indoctrination--uh, I mean auditing--uh, orientation--before you are allowed to progress to the inner sanctum. You think this sounds ridiculous? Check out the Book of Mormon some time, or Scientology advanced teachings. I am convinced that with a suitable leader, the above scenario would make a lot more money and attract a lot more converts than any cryonics organization constituted as currently constituted. Sometimes I genuinely feel that this is the way to go. Why? Because it debases cryonics to a level that many people seem to want. You want to waste time in theological discussions about uploading? You want easy instant answers instead of the hard slog of unglamorous research? You want a reassuring father figure? You want false hope? FINE! Be my guest. As for politicians: You seem to forget that they have a monopoly on power that ultimately gives them authority over the army, the agencies such as FBI or BATF, and indirectly, the local police, not to mention the IRS. If we had this kind of support, I guess we would find fund-raising easy, too. > What do you, Stephen, think of the idea of setting up another organization > to pool all the cryonics organizations' promotion efforts together? My name's not Stephen, but I'll reply anyway: Sorry, this seems unwise. In a field where hardly any money is being spent or work being done, you want to add a layer of additional administration to monitor the meager results? Would it not be better for the administrators to get out there and do something themselves? Daniel, I urge you to put some of your ideas into practice, instead of discussing them fruitlessly. Small ads don't cost that much. The Web is free or at least cheaper. The search engine goto.com allows anyone to PAY to have an organization at the top of the hit list, and it can be as low as a penny a hit. This way, when someone uses goto.com to search for cryonics, your cryo-information organization, c/o a domain name that you can register for--$150, is it, or $75--will be the first source listed. Then you can test your ideas on the flow of people who have searched for "cryonics" at goto.com. Total outlay would be under $250, assuming you already have a web-capable computer. Do it, and tell us what you find. --Charles Platt Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=13190