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Date: 17 Oct 90 01:46:23 EDT
From: Brian Wowk <>
To: <>
Subject: CRYONICS MAILING LIST
Message-Id: <"901017054623 73337.2723 DHJ44-1"@CompuServe.COM>
To: >INTERNET: 

     This is a response to Rick Shroeppel's "Cheap Freeze" essay.  Let  
me begin by asking, ARE YOU SERIOUS???????? 

     Assuming that you are, here's my tirade: 

1)
     Cost is not the major obstacle to the widespread acceptance of  
cryonics, as you state in your abstract.  If cryonics were cheaper  
than cremation, you still would not have hoards of people opting for  
it.  Sure, many people pay cryonics favorable lip service.  However it  
is another matter entirely to get a REAL commitment from people, EVEN  
ON THEIR DEATHBEDS.  When you have spent several years unsuccessfully  
trying to sign up people you care about, you get a real feeling for  
this. 

     In fact, CI in Michigan already offers whole-body freezing for a  
quarter of Alcor's cost.  Nobody is beating down their doors. 

  Cost is an EXCUSE, not a justification (for avoiding cryonics). 

2) 
     How many people do you think are really going to keep mom and  
dad's frozen corpses in their basement!!!!!!!!!!!!  Give me a break. 

     Expecting relatives to pay on-going maintenance costs is a recipe  
for failure.  This is precisely why only 1 of the 30 or so people  
frozen before 1978 is still in suspension. 

3) 
     Memories are NOT stored in synapse patterns.  They are stored in  
molecules imbedded in the membranes at synapses.  In our present state  
of knowledge (or should I say ignorance) it is distinctly possible  
that one hour of warm ischemia could seriously obliterate identity.   
In any case, cellular autolysis after 12 hours of ischemia is almost  
certainly fatal to identity.  Surviving a week of room-temperature  
ischemia is out of the question. 

4) 
     The debacles of CSNY and especially Chatsworth set cryonics back  
approximately ten years.  Only a handful of patients were involved.   
Recreating Chatsworth on a national scale would probably see cryonics  
solidly outlawed for FIFTY years. 

     A history of cryonics badly needs writing.  It is a history rich  
with lessons for all of us. 

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