X-Message-Number: 32769
Subject: Re: Oberon's proposal to stimulate cryonics research
From: David Stodolsky <>
Date: Sun, 15 Aug 2010 15:32:34 +0200
References: <>

On 15 Aug 2010, at 11:00 AM, CryoNet wrote:


> "There is one Canadian billionaire signed up for cryonics, but who is 
otherwise not active in funding research, and there are as yet no American 
billionaires that are interested. All this could change once the concept has 
been proven to work."
> 
Past cultivation of rich individuals hasn't led to positive results. 


We should keep in mind that even if cryonics is proven to work in humans, there 
will still be about a third of persons in the general population that will 
oppose it. 

> 

> Finally, no matter how much money is available, there are only a tiny handful 
of trained people interested in the question.  If the 2,000 existing cryonics 
organization members were mostly scientists, maybe things would go faster. 
Having fewer than twenty scientists involved in looking at these ideas means 
both not enough people to do the work and, more importantly, not enough 
different brains to contribute new ideas for the hundreds of problems which will
need solutions.
> 

> A lot of money, all by itself, is an insufficient motivator to solve the 
problem - and we don't even have that. 


This strikes me as another example of the 'not invented here' view that has 
crippled cryonics. If large amounts were available to fund research, the number 
of persons interested in the question would increase. I presume the Society for 
Cryobiology has more than twenty members. 


There are certainly thousands of social scientists that would be interested in 
investigating the social foundations of opposition to cryonics. An understanding
of these issues would lead to a vast increase in membership and therefore the 
funds available for research.


dss


David Stodolsky
  Skype: davidstodolsky

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