X-Message-Number: 3657
From:  (Stephen Bogner)
Subject: CRYONICS Decisive Psychological Trigger for Mass Cryonics
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 19:40:42 GMT

Greetings from another "(semi)-lurker".  I must say that it is reassuring to 
see so many familiar (and respected) names here, from other interests that I 
have cultivated in the past; I would hate the think that I had wandered into 
the "Twilight Zone" alone :-).

By way of introduction, I am a Research Engineer working in the area of 
military systems and robotics.  I have degrees in Physics/Math and Mechanical 
Engineering, and also worked in Finance for several years between degrees.  
While I am a technical literate, (almost) everything I know about cryonics I 
learned here.

In Message #3610   writes:

>But the important thing for most of us to remember is that we ARE gaining and
>WILL grow much larger, pretty much  regardless of  particular individuals or
>tactics. Every year, almost every day, advances in science make our position
>more credible. Thousands, and possibly hundreds of thousands, have made vague
>mental notes to get in touch with us, and by and by will do so. One of these
>years some psychological trigger will make these decisions jell, possibly all
>at once. 

I think that Robert Ettinger makes an important strategic observation here.
  
It is a truism that there will be a particular set of decisive benchmark 
events (technical and social) that will bring cryonics into the main stream of 
our cultural conciousness as an accepted and viable activity.  I also think 
that it is true, given a climate of political will,  that cryonics 
organizations could achieve general agreement about the technical and 
psycological nature of these events, and that they could formulate a 
"strategic" plan to achieve them.

I remember reading, perhaps in the FAQ, a list of technical benchmarks leading 
to cryonic revival of  a mammal.  Perhaps it is time to revisit this list, 
with a view to creating a consensus about the sequence (predecessor and 
successor events) and the way that achieving these events could be announced 
and explained to the general public to achieve the desired degree of awareness 
and acceptance .  It seems to me that setting out a well structured set of 
specific objectives will help to concentrate resources, avoid distractions, 
and improve credibility.  

One important point to note about transformational change (and viable cryonics 
will be an extraordinarily powerful transformational development in human 
history) is that it can only occur on a broad scale when the social 
development of the society as a whole is such that the change is generally 
acceptable to many people in terms of their world view.  The meme of 
conventional religion (mystic spirituality), for example, will not be easily 
displaced, since it operates at an emotional level of thinking much more basic 
in the human psyche than the rational level of thinking where the meme of 
cryonics/nanotechnology resides.  The predominate world view of our 
broader culture still holds that immortality paradigms for the material body 
are futile and foolish, and that  spiritual immortality ought to be the 
objective of the thinking man.  This world view will only change for a 
majority of people when the survival instinct that has been "anesthetized" by 
the meme of mystic spirituality is awakened by a decisive cryonic event that 
demonstrates in an unambiguous way that death can be overcome within the 
material world.  For some of us with good technical educations, the decisive 
cryonic event was Feinmans "Room at the Bottom" lecture, or Drexlers 
"Nanotechnology".  For others, the decisive event will be the advent of true 
artificial intelligence.  For others, the decisive event will be the 
successful suspension and reanimation of a vertebrate.  The point is that 
people act and react according to their world view, that specific events act 
as the triggers for transformational changes in perspective, that these events 
can be predicted to a certain degree, and that there are constituencies that 
can be identified as having (or being likely to have) particular identifiable 
"triggers".

The broad technical objectives appear to me to be:

T1.  Demonstrate, through a series of incremental advances, the viability of 
cryonic suspension and reanimation.  

T2.  Improve the methods of suspension to benefit those opting for cryonics at 
the present time.  

The broad political objectives appear to me to be:

P1.  Move cryonics from the fringe to the main stream.  

P2.  Develop a consensus about the technical benchmarks and psycological 
"trigger" events required to advance cryonics. 

By no means do I think that the four objectives that I have listed 
are exhaustive.  If I was mapping these objectives I would say that P2 leads 
to T1, which leads to P1.  T2 would be hanging out there somewhere in the land 
of "organizational objectives" next to marketing or something.  Given all the 
objectives and sub-objectives one could likely create a conceptual map that 
would shed a fair bit of light on the shape of cryonics, and where effort 
ought to be applied for best effect.  (Perhaps I can take on this mapping task 
if there is interest.)

The value of a  map is that it shows anyone who cares to study it the 
route(s) from where they are to where they want to be, and their progress 
along the way.  They can show it to others they meet and say "See how far I 
have come.  These are the things I have seen and done in the past, and here is 
where I am going.  Do you want to come along?"   What a difference from saying 
"(insert appropriate hand gestures) Forget what you think you know - I know 
better.  Trust me when I tell you to lay down your money and your way of 
thinking about life.  Only a fool would fail to go where I am leading, which 
is over there somewhere!"   Of course, you need the correct map or you end up 
more confused than when you started.

Regards, Steve.

.............................................................................
Stephen Bogner  (DRES/DTD/MES/Vehicle Concepts Group)     
(403) 544-4786  DRE Suffield; Box 4000; Medicine Hat, Alberta; Canada T1A 8K6
"Always leave your clothing and weapons where you can find them in the dark."
                                         - from the notebooks of Lazarus Long

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