X-Message-Number: 4502
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 1995 22:04:18 -0400
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <>
Subject: Re: Research

Charles Platt <> writes:
> Ten days ago, Mike Darwin posted here the results of research ...

> This news has caused barely a ripple of interest here.

At the most recent meeting of the Life Extension Society, the
unaffiliated mid-Atlantic cryonics group of which I'm a member, a
prominent cryobiologist gave a brief talk on Mike Darwin's results.
The LES president, Mark Mugler, wanted more information, so after
the meeting I e-mailed him the two part message from Mike.

There is interest out here.

The net can be paradoxical.  When something good is posted, there is
often no response at all.  When something bad is posted, there are
often hundreds of responses.  This is because most people are motivated
to reply only when they disagree (as with this message).

It's a truism on the VMS list that if you ask "how do you do X in VMS?"
you will get no response, but if you post "it's impossible to do X in
VMS" you will get your question answered, albeit rudely.  The same thing
works in lots of other lists.

There's a recreation on the net known as trolling.  It consists of
posting erroneous information so as to get as many long responses as
possible.  For instance "Charles Bronson played Star Trek's Spock,"
or "gun control reduces the crime rate" or "the Nazi death camps are
a hoax" or "<famous person> just died" or the like.

Mike Darwin has composed a message which is the opposite of a troll.
It has no obvious errors and it answers all the questions it raises
other than those which Mike obviously doesn't have the answer to.
Thus nobody has much reason to reply to it.

> The unwillingness of cryonicists to fund serious research, ...

This is changing.  At that recent LES meeting, someone was tasked to
check into establishing a research fund with 501(c)3 status so that LES
can start accepting tax deductable contributions for research.


Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=4502