X-Message-Number: 3574
Date: Mon, 2 Jan 95 01:51:51 EST
From:  (Perry E. Metzger)
Subject: CRYONICS: J.Coetzee

From: 

>I think Mr. Plat and his friends are forgetting that the customer is 
>always right.

Even about physically impossible things, like your proposed peltier
effect flash freezer for human sized objects? I was under the
impression that "the customer is always right" applied to quality of
service, and did not imply that one should agree that pigs have wings
and sing Verdi operas simply because a "customer" proposes it.

>They have the strange illusion that cryonics will become a 
>fraternity for physicists.

No, I think we have the "illusion" that when you propose completely
lunatic schemes that have no possibility of working that it is
reasonable to point this out. I will note that this has nothing to do
with who the customers for cryonics are. Were you to post to a list on
computer engineering that you thought that video game machines were
best built out of twigs and chewing gum, it would not be insulting to
the children who play video games to note that the idea was
lunacy. The workers in a field and its customers are in any case two
distinct sets of people.

>If cryonics is to attract the average person,
>which will be vital for its survival, it will have to reach out and 
>touch someone.

What does that have to do with whether we should humor your bad
engineering proposals? Are you claiming that if General Motors were to
tell a deranged customer who wrote in proposing that cars be made from
soap and nail polish remover that they should seek another field to
try to make contributions in that this would have any impact on the
majority of GM customers?

>I get mail from lurkers.

Are any of them upset because the patent office refused their
perpetual motion designs?

>I don't think they are impressed with Mr. Plat and his kind. Maybe he
>could open a "Cryonics for the Ivy League" and moderate it.

By the way, his name is spelled "Platt".

Lets see if I can summarize this. 

You feel insulted because we keep pointing out reality to you. You
would therefore prefer that rather than operating in the real world we
defer to your easily bruised feelings.

This is the real world, sir. When we perform cryonic proceedures on
real patients we have to deal with the real laws of physics and the
reality that what we do is actually important rather than some sort of
drunken undergraduate musing. I am sorry that you feel unhappy because
people don't respect your opinions about scientific matters when they
are dead wrong or even silly, but thats the way the world works.  The
laws of physics are unfortunately indifferent to your hurt feelings,
and will operate immutably regardless of how much you would prefer
your musings.



Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=3574