X-Message-Number: 29367
From: "marta sandberg" <>
Subject: My journey to cryonics   Part IV
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 14:41:15 +0800

You would be forgiven to think that I rushed straight into cryonics and 
signed my contract as soon as possible.

Wrong. I am far too practical and conservative to do anything like that. By 
the time we had arrived home from our holiday I had had time to cool down. 
To put it bluntly, cryonics sounded too good to be true. So I started my 
search to find out why cryonics COULDN'T work.

That took close to three years.

Part of the reason why it took so long was my refusal to contact any 
cryonics organization. I was convinced that they must be con-men trying to 
sell snake oil. I wanted my research to be uncontaminated by their 
self-serving influence. So I tried to find and absorb every bit of original 
research that could have any bearing on cryonics. I am proud to say that 
when I finally gave in and ordered 'Reaching for Tomorrow' by Alcor I had 
already read most of their references.

It was a long and meandering quest. Some topics are obvious, like cognitive 
neuroscience. Just hard to find good material on the subject. Others aren't 
so obvious, like the stability of organizations over a long timespan. That 
took me into some interesting areas of sociology and business structure. 
Then there was the problem with aging and the biochemistry of freezing and 
ischaemic injury. And, of course, nanotechnology had to be investigated 
further.

Nor did I forget to read every article and criticism of cryonics that I 
could lay my hands on. Only when I could refute all arguments to my own 
satisfaction was I willing to believe. As I said, that took close to three 
years.

But this was not the end of my journey.

Now the toughest battle began. A battle that took almost as long as my 
research had.

I believed in cryonics, but Helmer didn't. He had been deteriorating slowly. 
In retrospect, our holiday was the high point of his health. He had a heart 
attack shortly after we came back. Then he suffered partial liver failure. 
There were recurring bouts of pancreatitis. We found out he had an 
inoperable pituary brain tumor. And so on, . .  a series of things going 
wrong.

I got used to following a screaming ambulance into hospital and the long 
hard waiting that followed.

But he pulled through every time. He was a magnificent stubborn bastard. And 
he was MY magnificent bastard. I don't think I can ever admire anyone the 
way I admired Helmer's indomitable spirit to live. Three times the doctors 
gave up on him and straight out told me would die in hours. Twice they were 
wrong. Only the last time counts, and maybe that won't be forever.

But that was still in the future. I first had to convince him to give 
cryonics a go.

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