X-Message-Number: 6694
Date: 06 Aug 96 04:18:08 EDT
From: Paul Wakfer <>
Subject: Re: reality check & research perspective
Bob Ettinger's most recent post seems to me to evidence a major shift in
his perspective and attitude towards the Prometheus Project. He raises a
number of specific issues which would take pages to answer. Some have been
answered already. Others are worth answering, and no doubt they will be both
asked -- and answered -- by others (including me). But, for now I'm only
going to deal with what I see as his core viewpoint: Bob sees cryonics as it
exists today as both necessary *and* sufficient. I do not. I have had
considerable practical experience with cryonics and I have come to see its
shortcomings as well as its benefits. In addition, my background in applied
mathematics has naturally led me to do a cost benefit analysis and come to a
conclusion. My conclusion is necessarily personal and based on my own values.
I am not trying to force it on anyone. However, I think it is a conclusion
that many others will share and will wish to support my solution. And others,
to the extent that they do not share it, will no doubt go their own way.
It is not necessary that Bob, or others see cryonics today as being
unworkable or whether or not we, any of us, agree on the chances of patients
now cryopreserved. While that question is not irrelevant, neither is it
*central* to the arguments supporting the development of reversible brain
cryopreservation.
Note I said *supporting*, not opposing... And here indeed is my main
point: I am not about to be baited by Bob or others into debating issues
which are not serious arguments about the desirability or workability of
suspended animation research. They simply are *not* relevant to the issues at
hand. Thus questions of spending money on cryonics PR, cryonics recruitment,
cryonics research, or cryonics anything are to a great extent irrelevant to
the goals of the Prometheus Project which, as stated from the start, is not
*about* cryonics but rather an answer to the *central* problem of cryonics:
does it work? Are we doing a good enough job? How can we shift from current
criteria requiring proof that a given patient can *not* be restored by
cryonics (and therefore, de facto, *all* patients automatically can be) to
medical criteria evaluating how much a given patient will *benefit* from
suspended animation.
Well maybe I asked for it ;-). It seems that Bob Ettinger may believe in
the maxim "don't get mad, get even". Perhaps my temerity in reporting the
unauthorized editing and omission of rebuttals in The Immortalist has caused
his shift in attitude toward the Prometheus Project. What he does not seem to
realize is that if he succeeds, he may torpedo the chances for vastly
extended life of a lot of totally innocent bystanders and for that reason
alone I truly regret that I even brought up the fact of the unfair treatment
which I have been told by others is a regular feature of The Immortalist.
I simply don't have the time (or interest anymore) to give detailed
rebuttals to arguments that shift the center of the debate from where it
should be. The utility of cryonics now, the chances of patients now, these
are debates that are ongoing in other venues and have been since 1962. We all
hope the best for those frozen now and we are all mindful that "they may be
us sooner than we'd like." But that is neither here nor there. What is
relevant is what we would want for ourselves and our loved ones still alive,
*if* we could choose. And what I want is most certainly not what cryonics is
today. Since when is wanting more, and wanting better a crime -- or even
something to have to defend wanting? So the tack I'm going to take is to
ignore Bob on these tangential and emotional issues, especially since he has
stated that this will be the first of many such installments.
-- Paul --
!!!!! REVERSIBLE BRAIN CRYOPRESERVATION *CAN* BE ACHIEVED IN 10 YEARS !!!!!
Paul Wakfer email: Voice/Fax: Pager:
US: 1220 E Washington St #24, Colton, CA 92324 909-481-4433 800-805-2870
Canada: 238 Davenport Rd #240, Toronto, ON M5R 1J6 416-968-6291 416-446-9461
(Currently in California)
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