X-Message-Number: 4205
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 1995 15:03:23 -0500 (CDT)
From: N E U R O M A N C E R <>
Subject: Fiction and Cryonics

I have mixed feelings re. the effect of fiction in regards to the promotion
of cryonic suspension as a plausible means of life extension.  Certainly,
public exposure through science-fiction would help in the long run, if
handled carefully.  But when dealing with the span of time necessary to 
"plant seeds" of credibility in the public mind, there's no guarantee that
the topic will be handled maturely.

My first book--an sf anthology which I won't attempt to advertise here, al-
though I welcome queries--contains a cryonics story that may or may not be
a studious discourse on cryonics.  I think it handles some potentially
thought-provoking social aspects, but then again so does much sf and fantasy
whose authors aren't remotely concerned with technical matters.

If handled poorly, I believe cryonics could be be even further stimgatized
through the use of science-fiction.  While I'm the first to say that sf has
been a hugely effective catalyst of ideas, it also has the ability to degrade
serious issues.

A competent cryonics story in OMNI would be fantastic, but how many people
other than the "fringe-science"-intelligentsia take OMNI seriously...if at
all?

In summary, I don't think public indoctrination to such a complex and "far-
flung" topic will be as easy to accomplish as yesterday's post suggested.
What is needed is a truly informed discourse in a major news-magazine: an
event that probably won't happen until a major breakthrough in cryonics
research occurs.  I have the bleak feeling that cryonicists will be essentially
on their own for the first phases of research--but if the trajectory of
science and foresight continue as they are now, even if confined to specialized
intellectual circles, the public will have no choice but to confront cryonics
and everything cryonics implies.

Mac Tonnies



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