X-Message-Number: 13490 Date: Thu, 06 Apr 2000 15:54:23 -0700 From: Mike Perry <> Subject: Cryonics Community, Publications It's encouraging that Dave Pizer has now acquired land for a possible cryonics community, and of course is also intent on promoting our cause more generally, as he has been for many years. The Venturist organization was formed in 1986 for this purpose (principal founder, Dave Pizer, with myself as co-founder), but up to now our options have been rather limited by our meager resources. Thinking about the possibilities of really doing something is exciting--I have to keep reminding myself not to get too carried away too soon. I do hope we can get a cryonics community started, and especially in a beautiful setting like this is supposed to be. (I haven't seen it yet but intend to soon.) I hope also and expect that, if things do get going we will focus significant energies on dealing with last-minute and other difficult cryonics cases. This will involve trying to help them find an organization, trying to get the cryonics word out to funeral directors (especially through the Web), trying to get funding where needed, etc. One part of "getting the word out" is publications, and this has become more feasible through modern, computer-controlled printers. Fancier printers can now produce a nice, bound book for you at the touch of a button or two. Something like this is what Dave has in mind (it could also turn out high-quality newsletters). We'll hopefully have our own on-demand publications department, and a number of hard-to-find titles should get easier to find, not to mention books yet to be written. Speaking of books, you were recently informed about Dave's novel, *Ralph's Journey*, which has now been published by iUniverse.com and can also be ordered on the Web through Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Its first version was finished in 1986 but afterward it was edited by me and Steve Harris, so I am in a position to offer some comments. (I have a short review of the book at the Amazon site too, pitched at the general, s.f.-oriented reader.) As many will know, Ralph's "journey" concerns, first, his mortal life in the 20th century, and then, his eventual reanimation after cryonic suspension. Basically, the new version is the same story as before but with a lot of rephrasing, a few cuts and some additions. What we hope are enhancing details are added, particularly toward the end. (Dave had gotten some criticism about that before, that the book flagged after a certain point.) The book has also been criticized because it's based around the used car business in Arizona in the 1950's, and it isn't that thrilling a subject. Ralph, I've heard, is somewhat boring, his talents limited to salesmanship and piling up bucks. To balance that, though, I found the excursion to the '50s nostalgic (at my age, now 53) and Ralph seems to have enough challenges and matching personality to make an interesting story. The real story too is not about getting rich and selling automobiles-clearly that's just a means to an end, and has long served its purpose by the "end" of the story, which is really just another beginning, as it should be. (I found the car business presented in an interesting way too, with a ring of authenticity that I understand incorporates many autobiographical details.) There are other cryonics novels, a notable example being Jim Halperin's *The First Immortal*, a very well-written and exciting story about a family of people who are more or less preserved and saved through cryonics. *Ralph's Journey* is a different sort of book, focusing more on one individual who is childless throughout, and a "family" of associates who are not blood relatives. But I see in that a philosophical point of departure too, for if the future develops as it should, and we transition from mortal to immortal, creating offspring will lose its urgency too. (And in fact many cryonicists today, as if anticipating this, are childless too, though there are notable exceptions.) *Ralph's Journey* raises a question it can't answer, which is what should we do with our life, given we *do* become immortal, which means inevitably that we will transcend our humanity and leave it behind, like we do with childhood today. But at the end it offers a world that seems a good starting point, and also, by reasonable projections, something that is actually achievable. Another book to mention in passing is my own, *Forever for All*, which is now, I hope, in final retouching stages (I'm having it professionally edited, and meanwhile am adding some illustrations). It will, I hope, very soon be sent off to a publisher, my tentative choice being Universal Publishers, another Web-based, on-demand operation. Mike Perry Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=13490