X-Message-Number: 6188 From: Date: Sun, 12 May 1996 14:32:57 -0400 Subject: Re: CryoNet #6182 - #6187 For years I've had people tell me that cryonics was crazy because Leary was associated with it; now we're supposed to care that he's not? NPR gleefully ran and reran the Leary quote about fearing an awakening in fifty years "surrounded by people with clipboards"-- as though Leary were some sort of authority. If he had issued a statement supporting cryonics, they would have carried that quote too... but not respectfully. What we're seing here is a media hound getting one last fifteen minutes of fame, even if it kills him. There never has been any upside for any movement associated with Leary (look how much he helped those who tried to develop LSD into a usable psych drug, and his later effects on the L-5 Society), and if anyone is criticizing any cryonic organizations for not somehow turning him into a positive they are being rather unreasonable. The only critical deficiency of today's cryo organizations is that they don't have clients like Bill Gates (who I'm sure would not criticize cryonicists for being "too serious", but rather the reverse); they don't need to scour the asylums and talk shows for Learys. It is too bad Leary won't be around; he would make it a lot easier to explain to our great-grand-robots why it took us so long to get off the planet. P.S. Does Leary really think anyone will know what a "clipboard" is in fifty years? Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=6188