X-Message-Number: 6805
Date: Mon, 26 Aug 1996 13:23:37 -0400 (EDT)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: Semantics

On Mon, 26 Aug 1996, Robin Helwig Larsen wrote:

> My feeling is that Platt writes as a novelist and contributor to 
> alt.tasteless.jokes, and his words are intended to convey meanings beyond 
> what they appear to say.

Not so, Robin. I often write about technical issues, where precise meaning
is very important, and I also helped to draft and edit CryoCare documents,
where precise meaning is crucial. And if you have been lurking in
alt.tasteless.jokes (I'm surprised at you!) you will have noticed me
taking issue with euphemisms and inaccurately delivered punchlines. 

Seriously ... meaning, Robin is a large part of my trade, and that is
precisely what I was trying to get at here. Another part of my trade (as a
novelist) is to try to understand characters. In my experience, when a
rather erudite, gentlemanly, and polite character says something like, "It
might be a better use of funds..." what he really means is likely to be,
"OF COURSE it's OBVIOUSLY a better use of funds...." 

So, in my original post in this thread I was trying to cut through the
circumlocution and ascertain the subtext of Bob Ettinger's long discussion
of the Prometheus Project. Maybe I inferred too much and made an error.
For this I apologize. But I do wish we could dispel the fuzziness here. So
far as I can tell, Bob seems to be saying, "Well, on the one hand, it
might be a good idea, but on the other hand, there are other ways to do
research, and there again, research itself may not be the highest
priority, since we could use a large sum of money to attract more members
instead..." And I find this kind of "balance" very hard to deal with,
because I don't think we have time for it. The questions and answers seem
very clear and specific and urgent to me: 

1. Is improved brain cryopreservation an extremely high priority?
2. If so, shouldn't we express strong support for the Prometheus Project?
3. If not, what are we going to do instead, right now?

Just my opinion (not CryoCare's).

--Charles


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