X-Message-Number: 19458
From: "George Smith" <>
References: <>
Subject: Perspectives
Date: Wed, 10 Jul 2002 10:04:22 -0700

In Message #19446, Colin Jacobs wrote in part (with some sarcasm I do
suspect):

"To be honest, it's starting to make me wonder... is there something I don't
know? Did I read too little skeptical literature before signing up?
Basically, I figured that while the chances
were small, they were nonzero and thus worth the gamble, given the
essentially infinite payoff (not being dead and gone). This seems like a
sound proposition, but I'm really surprised at
the vehemence of the reaction in the press. As an avowed skeptic, I wonder,
did I let the coolness of the idea overwhelm my scientific principles?"

Colin, you made no error.  The people you are reading are simply crazy.  You
can prove this easily.  I offer the following ongoing, immediate feedback
survey anyone reading this can perform quickly and easily on a daily basis.
Just go driving on any major freeway in any country in the world.

Offhand I do not remember if the primary cause of death in the USA is car
accidents or heart disease.  I think the highways reap more than any disease
but I may be wrong.  In either case, the incredibly amazing thing is that
the auto deaths are almost entirely unnecessary and primarily caused by
human stupidity and dominance psychology.  Mechanical failure is seldom
responsible for highway deaths.

Here in the USA and Canada you will continuously see crazy drivers of all
ages demonstrating a completely uncaring attitude toward their safety and
the safety of others by speeding, weaving in and out of traffic and
generally allowing the desire for dominance to control their decisions.
Just drive AT the speed limit (good luck!) and watch them stream by you.
Make a head count.  Try to change lanes anytime by first using a turn signal
and COUNT the number of times the cars will close the gap to PREVENT you
from changing lanes -  for no discernable reason. Seriously.  Count.

These nuts ARE the majority by far.  Notice how very rarely you find someone
who drives with care, allowing for the errors of others like YOU do.  You
will find that you suddenly are shocked because they ARE driving with
caution and consideration.  I'd be willing to bet offhand that the
percentages approximate the percentages of people not opposed to cryonics in
any other sample you choose.

Go to a crowded parking lot and watch cars back up at high speed, whipping
out of their stalls, often without even looking to see if one of their
brethren is moving at high speed toward THEM.  The lemming driving patterns
operate at ALL speeds but the high speed ones are simply the most obvious in
terms of the defiance of survival.  In a parking lot you only hurt the car.
At high speeds you are playing Russian roulette.

Go to Mexico and you will only see the behavior worsen by about ten fold
with crazy drivers en masse driving at high speeds virtually attached to the
bumper of the car in front of theirs.  It seems that the Mexican drivers
have yet to learn anything about inertia.  I guess so few survive the
accidents that there are none to "tell the tale" to others to warn them.
(Just kidding!  Everyone knows that passing on a blind curve with a no
passing sign is "muy macho").

Europeans will have no problem verifying the insanity either.  Try Rome,
Munich, or London.  I got to assist on many European autopsies from these
death defiant idiots in the seventies in NATO.  Then, after work, I got to
dodge them on the autobahns.  There is no such thing as "defensive driving."
If you want to survive you must engage in EVASIVE driving!

So the next time you are influenced by the masses rejecting the arguments
for cryonics, take a drive.  These are the same people who think WE are
nuts!

They WILL die.  We MIGHT live ... if they don't kill us first!

I rest my case.

George Smith
CI member and Immortalist

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=19458