X-Message-Number: 17441
Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2001 08:34:04 -0400 (EDT)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: Plastination

It has been pointed out to me that the process of plastination would still
depend, for its effectiveness, on good perfusion via an open
cardiovascular system (i.e. one that had not become blocked with blood
clots). Thus, even if it somehow preserved structure and even chemical
neuron states (or an analogue of them), it would not be such an easy
answer.

I confess I mentioned it not because I thought it sounded like a good
idea, but because I think it is a terrible idea. If it did indeed induce
"perfect" preservation, which could only be reversed by nanotechnology on
a cell-by-cell basis, it would be the ultimate excuse for not bothering to
develop reversible vitrification today, and postponing all the problems of
resuscitation till some benevolent entities of the future are ready to do
it all for us.

This still strikes me as the major failing in cryonics: An unsupported
conviction that Santa-Claus-like scientists of tomorrow will perform, at
virtually no charge, the challenging little chores that we haven't quite
succeeded in completing ourselves. Quite apart from the questionable
ethics of this attitude, it presents a problem when trying to sell
cryonics to cautious potential clients who have a healthily skeptical, as
opposed to a diehard optimistic, attitude toward the future.

--CP

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