X-Message-Number: 1374
Date: 29 Nov 92 21:35:00 EST
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: Various

To Cryonet:

Re Dave Pizer's plea for harmony and understanding: no doubt
some people will write this off as a political maneuver, but
personally I find it heartening and pleasant. There is, after
all, something to be said for good manners. Thank you, Dave.

Having watched a lot of text in the past six months or so, I
have seen email's legendary tendency to promote bellicose
ranting, and have had to wrestle with it myself occasionally.
It seems to me, if I yell at someone in person, and they
flinch, my anger is defused. Even if they get angry in
return, at least I have the satisfaction of seeing them
respond. But if I yell electronically, I don't have any
feedback response. I don't have the sense that the stream of
electrons will have any impact at all. So, I am likely to get
angrier and yell louder.

As an email consumer, I would like to see people questioning
their motives for sending a message in the first place. Paul
Wakfer's recent enumeration of the personal characteristics
that he despises in various cryonics activists was
fascinating, well written, and some parts might have been
cruelly accurate; but what was the purpose of it? If it was
intended to wound the people he listed, I doubt it succeeded
... because the fact is, our fears as email scribes are
justified. Half the time, the messages don't have much
impact. We certainly don't remember email as vividly as if it
had reached us as ink on paper. In which case, maybe we would
use our time better trying to use this medium for the purpose
which it serves best: INFORMATION. (And discussion, too--if
and when there is information worth discussing.)

If you think back over the past six months and imagine which
postings you might want to read a second time, you may find
that they are the ones containing useful information
(contributed by a handful of people, such as Steve Harris).
The squabbles of six months ago will never be re-read, except
perhaps by some demented cryo-historian.

I am sure I am as guilty of being superficial as anyone. But
it would be nice if we could all write a little more as if we
were doing it for posterity rather than for immediate
gratification (which turns out to be a chimera most of the
time anyway).

It would also be nice, as Courtney Smith recently pointed
out, if someone had the time and energy to dig back through
Cryonet and print the postings which were informative. This
material is not lost (I'm sure it still exists on many hard
drives around the nation), but it is buried, and it will be
forgotten unless someone with the instincts of a librarian
goes digging through it. Any volunteers?

This leads me to the general need for more printed
information from Alcor. There are files at the facility
containing various booklets and special-interest documents
(such as Hugh Hixon's excellent study of chemical activity at
various low temperatures, to take just one example). But many
of the materials are out of date, and others need to be
reprinted. Also, none of the stuff is sent out routinely in
response to general information requests. People have to ask
for, and pay for, individual items.

How nice it would be if there was a set of leaflets on
various specific topics, cheap enough so that a selection
could be sent in response to inquiries. (Ideally, the
selection would match the interests of the caller in each
case.) I am writing some new material myself, in cooperation
with Ralph Whelan. But other leaflets could contain text that
originally appeared on Cryonet. So, again--any volunteers?

--Charles Platt

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