X-Message-Number: 6386
Date: 25 Jun 96 10:06:51 EDT
From: "Kent, Saul" <>
Subject: SCI.CRYONICS The "White Knight" Myth

	Brad Templeton says that he has long felt that "...the way for
Cryonics to advance is to actively but carefully recruit members of the
Bill Gates ilk. One Bill Gates with a casual interest in the research
is worth many thousands of ordinary members."
	I disagree in several respects: The idea that cryonics is going
to be "saved" by a "white knight" such as Bill Gates is, I believe, a
corrosive myth. I've heard various versions of this myth during the past
32 years. I believe it is corrosive for the following reasons:
	1) In almost all cases, those who propose (and those who believe)
that our best strategy would be to pursue someone like Bill Gates to
"rescue" us do not take any action to recruit "someone like Bill Gates".
	2) Most of the money that has been invested in cryonics to date
has come from "ordinary" members. Not all of them remained ordinary,
however. Some, such as myself, were motivated by the prospect of
immortality to make as much money as we could and to invest significant
amounts of it in cryonics.
	3) The cryonics movement already has a number of wealthy members
who could fund all the research we need to achieve suspended animation,
although none of them are as wealthy as Bill Gates (who is?). These
people are signed up for cryonics and clearly have more than a "casual"
interest in it.  If one wants to do "recruiting" for a "white
knight" or for a "white knight group", it makes more sense, in my
opinion to go fishing in our own waters than in outside waters.
	In my opinion, advising the recruitment of someone like Bill 
Gates to "pull our chestnuts out of the fire" is nothing more than 
mental masturbation. Not only do I think we need to look into our own
hearts and our own pocketbooks for the key to our success, but I think
that once we invest in cryonics research in the manner in which we are
capable of doing, our chances of persuading others to do so will
increase significantly.

---Saul Kent


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