X-Message-Number: 26557
References: <>
From: David Stodolsky <>
Subject: Re: sales probabilities
Date: Fri, 8 Jul 2005 22:30:47 +0200

On 7 Jul 2005, at 16:05,  wrote:

> Dave himself is a pretty good salesman, but
> nobody--nobody--has reliable expertise in predicting psychological  
> reactions of  the
> crowd, let alone of individuals.

Last time I heard, IBM was spending four billion a year on  
"branding." I presume they have a few professional psychologists  
somewhere in the basement to make sure it is working :-)

Based upon the evidence from over a hundred well controlled  
psychological studies, an appellate court in NY State prohibited the  
display of pictures of mutilated dead bodies to juries, since it was  
clear that such images distorted their judgment. Further info on  
terror management theory can be found at:

ernestbecker.org


Since cryonics by its nature deals with death and death anxiety, it  
seems obvious that application of the above mentioned work would be  
appropriate. The sooner the cryonics movement has a research program  
on the psychological dynamics associated with its products, the  
sooner it will be on firm ground in its marketing and public  
relations tasks.  Even minimal expenditures would likely have a  
dramatic effect, since current knowledge is extremely limited, to say  
the least. It is quite clear that the opponents of the movement, in  
the general sense, have funded the best available talent for these  
purposes.


We periodically hear the refrain that cryonics will be accepted when  
the first reversible suspension is demonstrated. The conclusion from  
this assumption is that more cryo-biological research is the best  
investment for the future.  However, I know of no case in which  
problems were caused by suboptimal suspensions. On the other hand,  
failure to heed the political and social aspects of cryonics has  
repeatedly caused serious problems and might  be seriously inhibiting  
growth.

I previously suggested a survey might be valuable. Let's assume we  
can make cryonics acceptable biologically by telling those  
interviewed that the technique has been demonstrated to work and if  
they sign up with Alcor they can be revived in from 10 to 100 years.  
An alternative question would make the procedure acceptable socially  
by telling people that as a last resort their hospital can place them  
in suspension until such time as their disease can be cured and any  
freezing damage corrected. However, it would be made clear that there  
is no certainly it will work, and if it does would take at least 10  
years and could take up to a 100 years. I suspect that more persons  
will find the second choice acceptable. That is, a socially  
acceptable risk of death will be more preferred than a certain, but  
socially unacceptable, extension of life.


dss


David Stodolsky    Skype: davidstodolsky

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