X-Message-Number: 6207 Date: 15 May 96 11:52:22 EDT From: "Kent, Saul" <> Subject: Conformists Mike Perry is concerned that conformists will not sign up for cryonics until it appears "normal" to do so, but that this won't happen until many conformists have already signed up. I don't think that's the way it works with people who conform. Conformists don't follow *other* conformists, they follow "authorities". If the U.S. government, for example, endorsed cryonics (as absurd as that may seem), many conformists would sign up. If a very famous scientist endorsed cryonics (a somewhat more plausible scenario), many conformists would sign up. If a respected media figure, such as Walter Cronkite, announced he was signed up, or was frozen, conformists would sign up. Right now, we're relegated to independent thinkers who want to stay alive real badly, who aren't afraid to face the prospect of their own death, who don't care what friends and relatives may say about cryonics, and who aren't procrastinators. It's not surprising that there aren't a whole lot of people who fit all these categories. ---Saul Kent Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=6207