X-Message-Number: 6810
From:  (Thomas Donaldson)
Subject: Re: Charles Platt's answer to Ettinger
Date: Tue, 27 Aug 1996 15:41:59 -0700 (PDT)

Hi again!

To Charles Platt: let's ignore all the "he said, I didn't say" nonsense. I
believe that one major doubt about Prometheus that Bob has is that it will
end up putting too much energy and money into one thing while omitting to
put money into others. TO CARICATURE THE SITUATION, brain vitrification
will not be much use if we only worked on it, let all recruitment disappear,
let promotion disappear, and even ignored the technical problems of storage.
Then after 10 years, yes, we could suspend and revive brains, but our other
resources will have disappeared --- including any way to store those
vitrified brains for long enough to make a difference. And since no one will
have mentioned cryonics for 10 years, we might even find it hard to publish
our results... not to mention that all those who might have been suspended,
though not as well, during that 10 years will have simply died, and any
trust others had built up over the years in the present cryonics societies
as places where they might be reliably stored would have gone away too.

It's not that I think seriously that we would or could ever become THAT
unbalanced. But balance is important for everything, even the success of
Prometheus. It lies behind the question I raised and was published here
on this Cryonet. Given that we should not devote ALL our effort to 
Prometheus, just what mixture is desirable? And more particularly, since
(so far as I know) no cryonics society or organization is yet able to 
survive without donations of time and effort, where should these go and in
what proportion?

So I'd be very interested to learn what you think about balance here. And
since whether he meant it or not, Bob did (implicitly) raise this question,
what is your answer?

			Best wishes and long long life,

				Thomas Donaldson


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