X-Message-Number: 23650
From: "Trygve B.Bauge" <>
Subject: the seriousness of humor
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 18:35:18 +0100

"Billy H. Seidel" <> wrote:
Subject: The Dead Guy

> I believe ALCOR should stay away form The Frozen Dead Guy.

>AThis is a comedy situation and ALCOR is not a comedy.  We are a serious
>group with a serious commitment. I believe that ALCOR is well above any part
>of The Frozen Dead Guy celebration.  We are not a joke. We are trying to
>attract serious people and do it in a legitimate way.  


Trygve's answer:
Let me quote the Danish author Pete Heine:

"The one that always takes the light lightly,
and the serious seriously,
he and she has understood both, poorly!"

Sometimes humor and publicity can go a long way to disarm government officials 
who otherwise would have got away with transgressing their powers.
It is called wit,
and it comes cheap,
Maybe Mark Twain rings a bell?


>I have no problem with having a party, That is always fun.  I just wonder
>how many folks will pay $25 to see where the frozen dead guy is.  I do not
>believe that this man is being treated with dignity.

Ideally we would all live in an ideal world,
where anyone could afford the best cryonics treatment,

and all one has to do is to call up the local cryonics company and all would be 
handled in the perfect way without 
anything ever going wrong or coming in the paper.


The cryonic version of garden of Eden however, is incompatible with human 
nature.

In reality we are faced with all kind of obstacles, incompetence and opposition,

and publicity and humor are cheap and effective ways of combatting otherwise 
insurmountable obstacles.


For those of us who have visited catholic countries around Easter and knows 
first hand about the catholic carnivals and processions

and the custom of dragging Christ around town in parades and then eating "his 
flesh" and "drinking his blood" not literally of course, 

though the vikings actually drank the blood of the people they sacrificed, the 
catholic version is more make belief.

Those of us who know a little about other traditions that have grown up around 
the dead, around the world,
it is only one thing to be said: Dignity is relative.



And in pressed situations dignity be damned.

If life or survival is at stake the dignified thing to do might be to let 
dignity be damned.

My grand father has been called a poster child for the temporarily dead,
and there is nothing indignified in what we have been doing.
His corpse is resting peacefully in a nice mausoleum 

from which one has one of the most serene and beautiful panoramic mountain views
in the whole of Colorado.


I don't see that it is less dignified to be stored at a serene mountain setting 
than to be hanging upside down in an industrial park somewhere in Arizona,

or in a burnt out Harlem like part of Oakland (which was Trans Time's location 
for many years).

And an organization that freezes heads and in the prosess discards or 
"mutilates" the body, is not the right to set up as an example of dignified 
treatment of the dead, 
in most peoples eyes, though you and I look upon it as dignified.

Thus let us not  try to enforce upon others a set of rules for what is 
dignified, but let us let the nearest kin decide for itself.

AND MY MOTHER AND I ARE THANKFUL FOR THE SUPPORT WE HAVE RECEIVED OVER THE YEARS
FROM THE MEDIA AND PEOPLE IN COLORADO REGARDING MY GRANDFATHER'S CRYONIC 
STORAGE. So for the record: if anyone wants a parade, be my guests.


The fact that around a hundred people visit each year, and many pay USD 15 to 25
to do so,
is no different than for other well known mousoleums. 



Seidel said:

>Take a look at the web site, http://www.nederlandchamber.org/ and put the
>name of your loved one in place of The Frozen Dead Guy.  Is that really what
>you want to see?  ALCOR has wheels on the base of the dewars so lets have a
>Frozen Dead Folks Dewar race down central Phoenix.  That will get some
>attention.  Lets sell tickets to see where Ted Williams might be stored.

Most organizations tending to the dead, seems to have some fun rituals,
most religions indeed.

Well if the catholics can do it with Christ each Easter, why shouldn't we be 
able to do it
with frozen dead guys on the second weekend of March each year?
I mean hold a fun parade, and let people visit the crypt?

The cryonic version of Mardi Gras, is not less dignified than what most 
religions already do.


By the way Alcor already sells tickets, I seem to recall that it costs TV 
stations about USD 2000 to visit and film the dewars at Alcor.

What about holding an open day during frozen dead guy days each year and charge 
the public USD 25 for a guided tour of Alcors facility?

I don't see any problem with that. It might even make cryonics less scary to the
general public.

Seidel wrote:

>The differences between The Frozen Dead Guy and ALCOR are so great that, to
>me, it is just inconceivable that  any serious cryogenics company would have
>anything to do with  The Frozen Dead Guy.



Well if you ever bother to visit my website, you will see that my designs and 
plans were for a far better facility than Alcor ever has owned, rented or 
occupied.

And that the technology used for the prototype I buildt, and implied in the 
designs I once drew up for ACS and Trans Time, some of which were published in 
the Immortalist at the time, that this technology far surpasses any facility 
Alcor has ever occupied.

http://home.powertech.no/trygveb/Myweb12/Index1995.html


The frozen dead guy days is plan B, as an effective and inexpensive means of 
combatting the obstacles to plan A.
Plan A is still:

the construction of a state of the art nuclear warproof, earthquake proof, 
fireproof and storm proof life-extension center, offering the best most 
life-extending treatments,
including rejuvenation, cloning and cryonics.   

Sincerely,

Trygve Bauge

Life-Extension Systems, Universal Liberty, The Global Village Project, 
The Norw. Icebathing Club, Action 88/Residental Assoc. at Hovsetervn. 88
Trygve Bauge,  pb. 59 Hovseter, N-0705 Oslo, Norway. Ph(47)22-14-80-78
Visit Trygve's Meta Portal (tm) www.trygve.bauge.com  



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