X-Message-Number: 28917
Date: Sat, 13 Jan 2007 16:04:09 -0800 (PST)
From: un person <>
Subject: re: platt's comments on cryonics videos

Charles Platt wrote:


///quote////

So, Chrissie Rivas, whom I much admire, has mentioned
the
embarrassing fact that Emperor Unperson has no
clothes.
///end quote////



I take it that is a negative assessment of my video.
:-)



///quote////
Personally I think unperson gets points for initiative
(after
all, most people never do anything to promote
cryonics) but
the end product is--how can I put this? Not very
sophisticated?
///end quote////



Never said it was sophisticated. In fact, if you had
bothered to read my comments here and on Cold Filter,
you would have known that it is intended as a work in
progress, and a call for collaborators. 

But instead you behave in the same way as other
humans--when something new like cryonics comes up, it
just bounces off your head. 

An old newspaper editoral truism goes as follows: you
can only give the readers stuff that is one inch ahead
of them, because if you go two inches ahead of them,
they can't hear you.

Am I two inches ahead of you futurists? Oh me, oh
my....


///quote////
In fact after I watched it for a few minutes I just
started
laughing. 
///end quote////



The music video is not intended for you and your
critical eyes, Charles. Or for anyone more than about
21 years of age. How many ways do I have to say it?



///quote////
That relentless two-note music track just hammering
away incessantly, like a kid playing a toy drum, and
the
voiceover sounding like a drill sergeant or maybe a
stage
hypnotist trying to plant suggestions, and the cheesey
stock
art (all presumably ripped off, from one net source or
another)--the total effect was like someone banging my
head
with a hammer over and over and over again. Utterly
relentless.
///end quote////



Yet it is better than nothing. And remember, the
target audience is not sophisticated. And again, it is
just a first draft and a way of showing cryonicists
what is possible to do in just 25 hours.



///quote////
And yes this video will FIT RIGHT IN at Frozen Dead
Guy Days,
it will definitely add to the "fun" component that KW
is
looking forward to, because the people who wander into
her
booth (or whatever it is she has there) will think it
is all
part of the freak show. As indeed it will be.
///end quote////



Who cares? After 30 years, there are only about 1000
signed up cryos. 

Mr Proof, meet Mr Pudding. The methods you espouse do
not work, Mr Platt. THe evidence is all around you.




///end quote////
In case anyone feels the above comments are overly
harsh I
should add that I have seen many cryonics promotional
videos,
and almost all of them are horribly
embarrassing--unless you
happen to be a True Believer already, in which case
any
pro-cryonics presentation seems to excite a kind of
reverie
caused by sympathetic resonance in the viewer.


The most recent DVD from Alcor had this effect, even
though
it looked like exactly what it was: An infomercial
created by
a second-rate provincial PR company that almost (not
quite)
understood its subject matter. Awful synth music
(cheap),
awful cliche pictures of families walking on beaches
and men
and women holding hands (the video equivalent of clip
art),
and then the endless talking heads, including then-CEO
Waynick looking like a Disney animatron reading lines
from a
teleprompter in a desperate effort to avoid making
elementary
blunders such as using the word "freeze" instead of
the word
"cryopreserve." I could almost hear the director
off-camera
saying, "Okay Joe, we very nearly got it the last
time,
except where you had trouble pronouncing the word
'vitrification.' So--stand by, take 276, we're
rolling!"

Not Joe's fault, he's neither a scientist nor an
actor. The
fault lay entirely with the people who made this
abomination.
The writer, the producer, the director (if indeed
separate
people were used in these functions). But once again
the
preindoctrinated faithful thought it was just great,
and
didn't seem to care that it looked like an infomercial
selling a fitness machine that you might find on an
obscure
cable channel at 4AM.
///end quote////



I have seen one or two cryonics videos myself. No,
they are not the second coming of The Godfather, and
they will not excite any fear of competition in
Quentin Tarantino, but they can spread positive
images/feelings associated with cryonics--if they are
put in front of enough people. 

You need to realize something, Mr Platt. The vast vast
majority of humans do not make rational decisions
about things like cryonics. Imagery and connotations
are far more effective than reasoned arguments.

Quit communicating about cryonics in ways that make
sense to YOU. If the only people that we convince are
people like you and me, then cryonics will take
HUNDREDS of years to get enough members to be a going
concern.

Now, you are right about the low production values.
But you are comparing them to the best products out
there. The best is ever the enemy of the good, as Mr
Federowicz might say.

THe fact is that cryonics is not just a niche, and not
even a MICROniche, but a SUBMicro-niche.

Compare the product quality of these videos you
despise with that of the production values of TV
preachers, many of whom crank out videos with even
lower production values. 

Yet their monetary returns are much better than what
cryonics has been able to come up with. Alcor has
revenues of what, about $1 million a year, roughly?
That is a JOKE among TV preachers.  Some of them have
been known to rake in close to 100 million dollars per
year.

And yes, they sometimes advertise at 4 AM. 

But they target the right audience. And they push the
right buttons to reach their target audience.

Cryonics is targeting people like cryonicists.
NEWSFLASH: WE'RE FREAKS! People like us are a TINY
minority! 
Target the same people that the churches are
targeting. Ordinary people!

We are selling somewhat the same product, except ours
actually has a chance of working....

Problem is that most ordinary adults have already
shoved cryonics into a corner of their worldview. That
is why we have to target youth. Their worldviews will
change. And if we plant enough seeds now, we can reap
members LATER.


/////quote/////
Even Bruce Klein's Immortality Institute video had a
big
problem--talking heads for more than a whole hour. I
like
Bruce a lot and admired the effort he put into that
video,
but really, no one is going to sit through something
like
this unless he or she is predisposed toward the
subject
matter to an abnornal degree.
////end quote////


Yes, more charismatic/accomplished talkers would be
great. But you don't need that.



////quote/////
The very best piece on cryonics I ever saw was made by
the
CBS news affiliate in Los Angeles, which suddenly
decided to
do a four-minute piece on Alcor. They brought with
them a
cameraman who had won half-a-dozen Emmy awards for his
work.
He gave the whole thing a slightly mysterious,
underlit look,
but very serious, no pseudoscience, and the voiceover
was
absolutely straightforward, setting out the pros and
cons. I
liked this so much I ordered a tape (for which I had
to pay
$100 out of my own pocket) but I'll bet if I digitized
it and
put it online, no one in cryonics would like it.
////end quotes////


But would it change many minds? Of course not. People
don't make those sorts of philosophical changes,
except perhaps over many years. And by then they have
forgotten the video. 

You need lots repeated positive imagery associated
with cryonics over years in order to change minds.




///quote////
Unfortunately, if you lose sight of how your potential
customers think, you are not in a very good position
to sell
to them.
///end quote////


I hope I have made it clear that I believe that YOUR
OWN take on how potential customers think is also
wrong.

-unperson


 



 


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