X-Message-Number: 22807
Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2003 11:18:35 -0500 (EST)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: Aftermath

So now comes the inevitable aftermath of the P&Z meeting.
Phrases such as monday-morning quarterbacking come to mind.

It was extremely useful that Paul Wakfer provided some hard
data instead of mere opinions: the actual text of the
application from himself and Mike Darwin. The key paragraph
of course was this one:

"2) Solid and liquid state organ preservation for improved
storage times for transplantable organs and the CNS
(employing rabbits, dogs, and cadaveric tissues)."

"Cadaveric tissues" means cadavers, obviously, but it is a
classic pieces of Mike Darwin jargon, buried in a lot of
other vaguely technical terminology. Probably this is why it
slipped through.

It would be enlightening if the application that SA made
originally could be posted here for comparison. This would
enable us to learn from experience as opposed to offering
opinions in hindsight, which tend to be less useful.

One of the sad features of cryonics is that it has lost so
many knowledgable and useful people over the years. Mostly
this has been because of irreconcilable personality
conflicts. This is one reason why persons who used to be
regarded as essential to the field (Fred and Linda
Chamberlain, Paul Wakfer, Mike Darwin) are no longer
involved. Perhaps there was no conceivable way to retain any
of the institutional wisdom of these people. Mike Darwin was
employed by SA initially and gave advice on the P&Z issue,
although I don't know what it was. After that he quit,
several times, and became...unwelcome, I guess is the word.

Reinventing the wheel is not an efficient process. The only
thing worse is being forced to reinvent it less capably
because the crucial people are missing.

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