X-Message-Number: 7107 From: (Randy) Subject: Discovery Channel Cryonics Show Date: Tue, 05 Nov 1996 04:51:45 GMT Finally got a chance to see the Discovery Channel cryonics show. Liked it a lot. Very exciting to see the faces of some of the people whose posts I have read over the last year. Parts of the show I found moving, others maddening. The best parts, IMO, were the segments with Muhlestein's family, Joe Cannon, the segment about Stan Penska's life and motivations, and the bit that showed pictures and gave short bios of people who were already frozen. The human interest parts, in other words. Cryonics is a philosophy, and as such, the rationale behind it does not often come across very well on TV. A person can explain the logic of cryonics with brilliance and clarity, but those words are dense with meaning and often necessarily more than a few sentences. Unless the viewer records the show and listens to it over and over, the logic tends to fly right by. That's why I thought the most effective statements were the short, direct--yet emotionally eloquent-- statements given by Joe Cannon and the Muhlestein family. As for the 2 cryobiologists, Storey and Taylor, their attitudes were typical of many. Storey reeled off a couple of glib denouncements, such as, "all they do is pour liquid nitrogen over them. It'll never work as is." That one's gotta rank right up there with the "hamburger back into cow" remark for glib ignorance. I just wanted to interrupt the interview and tell him, "Hey, they use cryoprotectants, and they're trying to find better ones!". I think he ultimately came off as largely ignorant of cryonics, and perhaps even a bit smug. The cryobiologist Taylor seemed more open-minded, but admitted that he found cryonicists' desire to live forever "bizarre," and his expression made clear that he found it a bit distasteful. Again, this is a common, visceral attitude that I can only ascribe to some sort of death taboo or perhaps a manifestation of an almost instinctual "macho, who's-afraid-of-death" attitude necessary for people to have in order for them to sacrifice themselves for the tribe, race, etc. The real power of TV made itself felt with the use of the animated graphics to show the formation of ice crystals and the damage they would inflict on hapless brain cells during the process of freezing. It was a powerful segment. I confess that for a minute or two I felt my confidence and hope waver. The picture of the ice crystals puncturing and shredding the cell.... It reminded me of the very first time I saw a TV feature on cryonics (and the first time I realized the potential of cryonics) some 10 years ago. After the cryonics facility had been shown and the cryonicists were interviewed, the cryobiologists were allowed to speak. This cryobilogist spoke of how freezing water caused the cells to "extrude" cellular matter, thus destroying them. Up to that point in the show, I was fascinated and felt a rising glimmer of hope, but it died with the word "extrude." I forgot about cryonics for 10 years until I read Platt's Omni articles. Thankfully, the pro-cryonics side got the last word in the animated graphics debate. The segment showing nanobots repairing damaged cells had to be a fairly effective rebuttal of both the earlier cell damage segment and of the cryobiologists' negative comments. It was very satisfying to see those nanocritters go to work. Randy Smith Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=7107