X-Message-Number: 14464
From: "Marta Sandberg" <>
Subject: Does sharks grow old?
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 14:21:47 GMT

Hello,

Let me introduce myself. My name is Marta Sandberg; I have been cryonicists 
for many years and have a contract with CI. My husband is already frozen and 
stored with CI.

About six months ago I subscribed to CryoNet. So far I have been contented 
with just reading and absorbing. Now I have a question.

When reading cryonics literature I've occasionally come across references to 
sharks and some crustaceans that apparently don't age, or at least don't 
suffer from old age. Is this true? What scientific references can I look up?

This question has a very practical significance to me. Because I am the only 
'cryonic widow' in Australia, I have received a certain amount of media 
attention. To give the best account of cryonics that I possible can I am 
trying to collect simple, quick, verifiable fact to give to reporters. For 
example, "By now there are enough children born from frozen embryos to fill 
a small school. That proves you can freeze and revive a very small human 
being. But when you try to freeze a fully-grown person you get so much 
freezing damage that you need to do a lot of repairs them before you can 
think about reviving them. We don't know how to do that ... yet. Cryonics is 
about buying the time to let medicine catch up with your problems."

I would like to be able say something similar about reversing old age. Maybe 
"We know that aging isn't inevitable because sharks don't suffer from it. 
Once we figure out how they do it we can copy their tricks." But do we 
actually know this?

Before I close, I want to say a big Thank You to Alcor for their Scientific 
Advisory Board. These are well known names with solid reputations. Simply 
the fact that they are on the side of cryonics establishes the legitimacy of 
cryonics and I can turn the tone of an interview from 'grief stricken widow 
taken in by con-men' to 'heroic woman makes a brave and intelligent choice'. 
This is particularly useful for prerecorded TV interviews. Even if the 
reporter have not heard of these people there is always a technician who 
understands fuzzy logic and Bart Kosko, or who admires Marvin Minsky or 
Ralph Merkle. Once I have mentioned the names on the Scientific Advisory 
Board I let the reporter and the technicians get together in a huddle and 
then I wait for a respectful and chastened reporter to continue the 
interview.

Thank You Alcor - and the brave people who are willing to publicly support 
cryonics - as you have made my job easier.

Marta

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