X-Message-Number: 4173 Date: Sun, 9 Apr 1995 05:53:07 -0400 (EDT) From: Ben Best <> Subject: Promoting Life Extension and Cryonics at a Toronto Health Fair Paul Wakfer and I spent 12 hours on Saturday, April 8th promoting life extension (The Life Extension Foundation) and cryonics at a Toronto health fair -- selling books and distributing free literature. Since the Life Extension Foundation is a major backer of cryonics research, we were effectively fostering cryonics by two means. From another viewpoint, we were raising consciousness about life extension among people who (for the most part) are not ready to have their consciousness raised to the cryonics level. With all of my sophistication about cryonics and life extension, it never ceases to amaze me the way new ideas emerge from interacting with people who know little or nothing about the subject. Here are a couple of amusing items that arose from the day: (1) QUESTION: What is the difference between cryonics and cremation? ANSWER: One thousand degrees Celcius. I had been telling Paul about an elderly woman who was confused about the difference between cryonics and cremation when Paul spontaneously offered the above anti-cryonics joke, which I nonetheless found funny. I suppose it is a positive thing that we can laugh at ourselves. [ The woman decided she was interested in cremation. ] (2) QUESTION: Isn't it unlikely that any of us have anything of value to offer to the people who will be alive in 200 years? ANSWER: Ask not what you can do for the people of the future, ask what the people of the future can do for you. Even though I gave this snappy answer, I do think that we will have something to offer the people of the future, especially since some of those people should include our friends and/or relatives. -- Ben Best () Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=4173