X-Message-Number: 3714
Date: Sat, 21 Jan 1995 12:07:37 -0500 (EST)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: Depression, Craziness, etc.


I tend to agree with Mike about the downside of cryonics. It seems to me
self-evident that cryonicists are likely to be more disturbed (depressed,
unhappy, suicidal, alcoholic, whatever) than average. Because: 

1. This is an experimental procedure which most people in the world regard
as foolish/wacky/morbid/crazy. You have to be a rebellious individualistic
malcontent to embrace cryonics at this point. Such people will naturally
tend to have more "interesting" neuroses than conformists who are content
with the status-quo. Rebels are not generally sanguine people.

2. Suicide and cryonics can both be seen as performing the same function: 
escape from a present-day world which causes distress. Cryonics offers the
chance of a better life tomorrow (maybe). Suicide offers a guaranteed end
of discontent caused by life today (for sure). The two options are not that
different. When I was reading the 500 essays submitted in the Omni 
immortality contest, I found many--perhaps the majority--from people who 
were seriously dissatisfied with their current lives and were hoping that 
cryonics could give them a second chance.

3. As Mike says, cryonics itself imposes stress on those who pursue it as
activists, especially those who become involved in the problems of
protecting patients from ischemic injury and other factors in the first
hour or so after legal death. No surprise here: EMT's also suffer extreme
stress and eventually tend to burn out. It's tough to be on the front
lines, fighting for someone's life, knowing you can cause untold damage by
making a simple error, and knowing that the odds are stacked against you
every time. 

4. We are, in effect, on a medical frontier. Frontiers are not known for
their creature comforts. Mike's list of legal problems, hardship, and
family rifts could easily be transposed into other "frontier" situations.
You think pioneers struggling across the American west had a fun time?
Not! I have no doubt that there were many wives cursing their husbands for
this "insane" desire to squander the family fortune by seeking some
mythical "better world" instead of staying home in the cheerful
predictable environment of urban slums in Boston or New York City. 

5. Cryonics offers jam tomorrow, none today. In fact, today you may
actually have to MISS a few meals, in the hope of getting that "future
jam." For those of us who prefer to deal in specifics and certainties,
this can be maddening. Literally. For those of us who are impatient and
prefer immediate gratification (I am one), cryonics tends to be
frustrating and unrewarding. 

Still, since there are no alternatives, we're stuck with it. Right, Mike? 
Personally I am quite willing to put up with the list of negative factors
above, merely for the satisfaction that I get by rebelling against the
most basic "fact of life" (i.e. death) which most people accept without
question. Cryonics doesn't always make me happy, but it does satisfy me. 

And the upside of the "neurosis problem" is that this field has more human
interest and drama per day than seems credible. If you're interested in
bizarre behavior, wacky ideas, obsessiveness, and scandal, forget the
National Enquirer, just catch up on some cryonics history. 

############################################################
Charles Platt, 1133 Broadway (room 1214), New York, NY 10010
      Voice: 212 929 3983      Fax: 212 929 4467

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