X-Message-Number: 16541
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 20:22:01 -0400
From: <>
Subject: Research strategy and purpose (re: message 16336)

This is in response to a three positions that Charles Platt has taken,
which i think are mistaken and should be specifically responded to.

First a disclaimer, however, and that is that i have a great deal
of respect for Charles because of his defense of the First Amendment
and his generally enlightened writing (e.g., Anarchy Online).
(I also understand from David P that he has written many novels,
but i haven't read them.)  He has of course also promoted cryonics.

The three positions that Charles has taken, for example in message 16336, are:

(1) CI's efforts at outside validation for its protocols are unreasonable
    because they only involve CI's own procedures
(2) CI's cooling is not nearly rapid enough (and/or its chemicals are
    poorly chosen and/or applied)
(3) Although he has material for an expose of cryonics as currently practiced,
    he does not want to publish it.

I'll only discuss point (1) here, but hope to discuss points (2) and (3)
at some later date.

Here's some text from 16336 expressing (1):

| As has been pointed out, CI has made a habit of offering only its
| own rather odd ideas for evaluation. One hopes that this practice
| may change.  But so far, CI has merely asked its lab, "Which works
| better: CI process (a) or CI process (b)?" I have not seen CI
| express any interest in comparing its procedures with other people's
| procedures. It remains an island of idiosyncracy.

I think, however, that this is exactly the right approach.  CI's
research is aimed solely at improving CI's practices, so it only
makes sense for it to submit samples made by procedures that it
is either using or contemplating using.

If for whatever reason it has decided not to use procedure X
developed elsewhere (e.g., if X can only be applied to neuros),
there's no point testing it against other CI procedures.  Procedure
X simply isn't relevant.

On the other hand, if there is a possibility for CI to use a
procedure, they will test it sooner or later.

I think that CI is demonstrating its commitment to and support of applied
research with the appointment of Dr. Pichugin to lead the effort.

And finally, it's not really an island of idiosyncrasy---cryonics
is as yet very small, so compared to the whole, it at least rates
as a continent.

For reference, see http://www.cryonics.org/research.html.

Charles: if i'm distorting your position please do correct me.

dan

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=16541