X-Message-Number: 236 From att!CompuServe.COM!73337.2723 Wed Oct 17 02:21:07 1990 Return-Path: <att!CompuServe.COM!73337.2723> Received: from att.UUCP by whscad1.att.uucp (4.1/SMI-3.2) id AA17030; Wed, 17 Oct 90 02:21:06 EDT Received: by att.att.com; Wed Oct 17 02:13:26 1990 Received: by saqqara.cis.ohio-state.edu (5.61-kk/5.900920) id AA18039; Wed, 17 Oct 90 02:13:23 -0400 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. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=236