X-Message-Number: 2115
From:  (Thomas Donaldson)
Subject: Re: cryonics: #2107-#2113
Date: Thu, 15 Apr 93 21:01:46 PDT


About freezing for species preservation:

The basic idea is hardly very new; there are several different banks of 
frozen gametes for various species, apparently chosen almost at random, with
some weighting toward "useful" animals. The American Type Culture Collection is
one.

As to its favorable effects on cryonics, I have only an old experience to
recount. My wife has had a lot of interest in conservation for years --- she
likes to go hiking, an avocation which requires places in which to hike (rather
than taking walks through SF or LA). So she's met quite a lot of people who
claim to be conservationists. Whenever we've raised the issue of preserving
species by cryogenics, we've almost always met with opposition. These "eco-
logists" think it's a TERRIBLE idea.

Which suggests that the idea of freezing for species preservation will get
nowhere fast. Admittedly, times are changing and even then a FEW people 
agreed that it was a worthwhile idea. So this comment may be out of date.

I would suggest that anyone who wants to push this idea should try testing
the waters, first. People who claim to be interested in the "ecology" are
of many types, just like cryonicists: some are truly concerned, with some
rationality, and others want to use such cries to put a stop to progress of

any kind. The people to find, of course, are those who are rationally 
concerned.(Perhaps an unusually thick skin, even for a cryonicist, will be 
needed).
			Best, and long life (even for animal/plant species)
				Thomas

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