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 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=6386