X-Message-Number: 20705
From: "Steve Harris" <>
Subject: The Cold Facts
Date: Tue, 24 Dec 2002 12:51:38 -0800

From the regular news feature "Cryo Frontiers" by Ray Radebaugh at NIST in
Boulder, printed in the Fall 2002 edition of _ Cold Facts _ which is the
official organ of Cryogenic Society of America.

From the article:

"   The storage of semen and other biological material is a very large
application of cryogenics. Unfortunately the distortion of this last
application into the area of whole body freezing (cryonics) has often
confused the general public about what is cryogenics and how it can truly
benefit mankind. This misuse can give cryogenics a bad image as not being
good science."


COMMENT:

So there you are, folks. The cryogenics people are still complaining that
they're being confused with cryonicists. This is especially upsetting to
them because they're certain that only storage of semen and cells can "truly
benefit mankind," and any piece of tissue larger than that, just has to be
bad science. See science fiction.

All of which makes me want to write Dr. Radebaugh and point out that
cryonics is a scientific *experiment*, and experiments are bad science only
if they are looking for effects which are obviously impossible. We don't
belittle people who look for gravity waves. Or even for magnetic monopoles
or free quarks (theories can be wrong). And just because NIST hasn't made an
atomic clock accurate to one part in 10^18 YET, doesn't mean it won't in the
future, or that work in that direction is quackery.

As for benefiting mankind, the devil with that, when you might be benefiting
individual people-- which a successful cryonics experiment would certainly
do. And it is possible for people can pay for their own medical or
technological experiments, instead of expecting the public to do it out of
the treasury, as happens at NIST. If Dr. Radebaugh wants to benefit mankind
collectively, he might start by resigning his post there at NIST and getting
a job with private industry, thereby getting off the federal dole and making
my income tax decrease a little. That's certainly a better use for my payrol
l deduction than having it partly go to a guy like Radebaugh to write the
stuff he's writing. That's not what I want from the feds or NIST. What does
NIST know about the far future of biology anyway? Passing judgement on what
is or isn't proper science, or what will be scientifically possible in the
future, is not Radebaugh's job, even if he thinks it should be. He's simply
not smart enough, or informed enough, to do that. Nobody is.

SBH

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