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 Content-Type: text/html; [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=23650