X-Message-Number: 4256 Date: 20 Apr 95 13:35:20 EDT From: Saul Kent <> Subject: Desperately Seeking Survival Robert Horley contends that "there seems to be a deep seated belief among many partcipants in the cryonics movement, that in order to succeed, cryonics must be made as acceptable as possible to mainstream public opinion and the scientific establishment." He then goes on to say that "it is not necessary to be so zealous in our rejection of any idea that has not come out of mainstream research (except for cryonics of course)." I do not understand what Mr. Horley means by "mainstream research". As I see it, cryonics is an unothodox idea that is *based* upon mainstream research. When I read Robert Ettinger's book The Prospect Of Immorality in 1964, I was persuaded that cryonics is a viable idea by the evidence he presented from mainstream research that cryonics could work. Without that evidence I never would have become a cryonicist. My major concern today is that the research hasn't been progressing nearly as fast as I would like, and my number one priority is to personally fund and to stimulate funding on the part of others for *more* mainstream research. I certainly don't agree that, "in order to succeed, cryonics must be made as acceptable as possible to mainstream public opinion and the scientific establishment." I believe that, in order to have an in- creasingly *better* chance of succeeding, we will have to develop better methods of cryopreservation, which will lessen the burden of reviving us on future scientists, and will help to persuade more people that cryonics is a credible idea, which, in turn, will lead to the growth and respectibility of the movement and more funding for more research. I think the development of cryonics and other methods of life extension will be destabilizing and potentially dangerous for a significant period of time, as we move (as a race) from a mortalist to an immortalist perspective, but I welcome the problems and risks of this period, which I believe we are already in the early stages of. I think Mr. Horley has it backwards. I don't give a hoot about "respect- ability", except to the extent that I believe it will help me to sur- vive. I don't know anyone in cryonics who is more interested in re- spectability than survival. Does anyone? Saul Kent Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=4256