X-Message-Number: 18220
From: 
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2001 06:45:59 EST
Subject: NIH

Bob Ettinger writes:

> It has been said that a movie which just casually assumes the existence and 
>  legitimacy of cryonics must be helpful. Well, it has also been noted that 
>  most people reject cryonics even when they believe mammals have already 
been 
>  revived after freezing, and when they believe membership is already in the 
>  millions and patients in the thousands.

Nope. That's not the point. It's not that the movie is helpful, it probably 
is of little help: truly your proverbial snowflake in a blizzard. However, 
you can't have a blizzard without snowflakes, and at some point there is a 
noticeable change between a single falling hexagon of ice and the start of 
what we recognize as snowing; blizzard or not. 

I've been toiling in the cryonics vineyards almost as long as Bob has. I did 
my first interview on the faith Levitt Show in Indianapolis something like 34 
years ago. A film like Vanilla Sky was not even a possibility then, or in 
1968, or in 1988. It's just a marker for change -- generational change as 
much as anything else. Cryonicists never succeeded in convincing any but a 
minuscule number of people from the generations extant during the time the 
idea was first articulated. By the time I got involved heavily I already 
believed it would take at least one and maybe two generations more to take 
hold. 

However, even with generational change-out nothing happens unless you gather 
the clouds and seed them. That's what we've all been doing for the last 35 
years or so: blowing steam up the proverbial cultural ass and waiting for it 
to cool off and start snowing. 

No, Vanilla Sky isn't going to make a revolution; but it is evidence that 
there is an ongoing major paradigm shift in the culture targeted by 
cryonicists. That's interesting. And, its worth some discussion. Certainly 
it's a cut above the usual background noise here.

Mike Darwin

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