X-Message-Number: 520 Date: 03 Nov 91 03:48:52 EST From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: Re: cryonics: #515 - #516 I wasn't asking for any sugar-coated stories. It seems to me that the stories you discuss are quite simply unrealistic in the extreme. I'm much more worried by issues such as failure of our funding to continue to support us, or destruction of facilities by civil disorder perhaps not even aimed at cryonicists, than by unrealistic scenarios which on cool consideration show no serious possibility of existing. Think about it: so Mr. Niven thinks we might turn into banks of body parts? In a situation in which body parts could be regenerated or grown in farms at will? Nonsense. He should start first by studying the biology of freezing and the issues likely to be involved in our actual revival. I could go on in more detail about all of these other nonsensical tales but I honestly don't think it worth the bother. IF (and that is the real problem) we can remain in suspension long enough, then we will meet indifference at the very worst. That is, IF we can remain frozen. Science fiction has fallen down very badly on the issue of cryonics. It is just as bad as the story of Frankenstein, which may have helped to stop serious efforts at finding ways to revive people going on at that time. Best Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=520