X-Message-Number: 28502
From: 
Subject: Cryonics and the certainty of death
Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2006 17:40:52 +0000

Francois recently wrote:

>>
What does this have to do with cryonics and the difficulties to "convert" 
people to it? Well, there is a phrase in the Death in the Deep Freeze video 
that sums it up very well. "The foundations of society and religion are 
built on the certainty of death, and cryonics is a practice that strikes at 
the very core of this notion." In other words, to accept cryonics, one must 
lift the veil of faith and confront the abyss it hides, and we have hundreds 
of thousands, possibly even millions of years of evolution that opposes this 
action with incredible strength.
<<


Cryonics has no impact whatsoever on the certainty of death, only (maybe) on the
timescale.  In that respect it is no different than other medical life support 
technologies.


Or is the argument that people have difficulty accepting cryonics because they 
SEE it as a challenge to the certainty of death?  If so, then who's fault is 
that?  Instead of depicting the intention of cryonics as medical, cryonicists 
often hold up cryonics as a "solution" to the problem of death (ha!), an 
alternative interment method, or even as a competitor with religion.  What 
physician explaining a new medical idea would promote it by comparing it to 
burial, or by saying the treatment is better than (insert religion here)?  What 
scientist would seek to promote a new medical scientific paradigm by emulating 
techniques used by religions?


What do cryonicists really want?  Do they want evidence-based cryonics that is 
based on mainstream scientific and ethical principles, and that is eventually 
embraced by mainstream medicine?  Or do they want faith-based cryonics that 
occupies the same psychological niche as religion, that is seen from the outside
as religion, and that attracts true believers more than physicians and 
scientists that could actually make it work?  The former purpose is not served 
by suggesting cryonics is a challenge to faith, or a solution to metaphysical 
problems of the universe.  It is neither.

---Brian Wowk

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