X-Message-Number: 752
From: Steve Bridge
Subject: Alcor Indiana Newsletter #3 (Part 2 of 2)

    March 22, 1992:

    The monthly meeting of Alcor Indiana was held Sunday at 7:30 PM, in 
the apartment of Angalee Shepherd and Stephen Bridge.  Present were 
Angalee Shepherd, Stephen Bridge, Margaret Schwarz, Robert Schwarz, and 
Richard Shock.

    -- The first topic on everyone's mind was the HLR loan that had just 
been received.  Alcor Indiana members reviewed the disposition of this 
money, namely that it would be donated to Alcor for the specific purpose 
of purchasing a Michigan Instruments HLR for Alcor Indiana.  Since 
Margaret Schwarz had already established a process whereby her employer 
contributed matching funds to her Alcor donations, Alcor Central would 
benefit beyond simply improving midwestern equipment.

    -- Mr. Bridge read the text of a letter he received from a Danville, 
Indiana lawyer who had agreed to examine the legal status of Powers of 
Attorney and Living Wills.  In going over Mr. Bridge's Power of Attorney, 
the lawyer observed that the document became effective only when Mr. 
Bridge was judged "incompetent."  Anyone holding this document might 
conceivably need an expensive court order before it could be put into 
effect.  The lawyer suggested that Mr. Bridge remove the competency 
stricture, allowing the Power of Attorney to be useful at the bearer's 
discretion.

    [Please note that the issue of Powers of Attorney is far outside this 
newsletter's scope.  State laws vary dramatically and each individual's 
situation is unique.  Legal counsel should be consulted before any changes 
are made to existing documents.]

    Mr. Shock pointed out that the lawyer's response did not specifically 
touch on the validity of Living Wills under Indiana state law [a concern 
expressed in Alcor Indiana Newsletter #2].  Mr. Bridge agreed to continue 
looking into the question.

    -- Mention was made of an article in "The Immortalist," dealing with 
cryonics content in a volume of the Time-Life book series "Mysteries of 
the Unknown."  According to this article, the volume, "The Search for 
Immortality," devoted a significant amount of space to cryonics, all with 
surprising accuracy.

    -- Mr. Bridge announced a Nanotechnology speech he was to give on 
September 29, 7:00 PM at the Broad Ripple Library.

    -- The group was reminded that former IABS (Institute of Advanced 
Biological Studies, the Indianapolis cryonics organization from 1977-1981) 
member Joe Allen, now vice president of the Cryonics Society of Australia, 
would be in Indianapolis the following week.  Several group members 
planned to visit Mr. Allen.

    -- Mr. Bridge brought up a recent telephone conversation he'd had with 
Michael Paulle, a member of the Alcor New York.  They discussed a wide 
variety of topics, including an Indiana resident who'd contacted Alcor New 
York for information, research that Alcor New York member Gerry Arthus was 
conducting for cryobiologist Greg Fahy, and Alcor New York's training 
sessions.  Mr. Schwarz suggested that Alcor Indiana members might consider 
the New York training sessions as an introduction to technique until the 
next Alcor Central course.

    -- Mr. Bridge mentioned an Alcor suspension that took place the 
previous week.  No details were available.

    -- Mr. Bridge received a reply from Alcor staffer Tanya Jones in 
regard to last month's chapter proposal comments.  The letter was positive 
for the most part, but failed to address specifics as to chapter 
newsletter content.

    -- Mr. Schwarz reiterated a request for a copy of Alcor's charter.

                   *****************************************
                   *****************************************


CLASSROOM CRYONICS
By Richard Shock

    In a January, 1989 CRYONICS magazine article, Steve Bridge discussed 
his experiences introducing high school students to the concept of 
cryonics.  His general experience sounded positive, at least in comparison 
to equivalent speeches with adult audiences;  while high school seniors 
weren't likely candidates for suspension membership, they were very 
tolerant of the idea.  Recently Steve had another opportunity for a high 
school cryonics session, and invited me along to observe for myself.


The Situation

    An Indianapolis high school teacher asked Steve to give a cryonics 
presentation for her two Thanatology classes as he had a number of times 
in years past.  The teacher seemed open-minded and unbiased;  cryonics and 
cryonicists weren't treated as merely another freakshow act (often my 
impression of public attention, particularly from the media).  Classroom 
exhibits such as gravestone rubbings and a world map diagrammed with 
multinational burial customs suggested that the course focused on 
anthropological rather than spiritual aspects of death.

    Steve's presentation took place over two days.  On the first, he gave 
his standard cryonics slideshow, omitting the most technical points.  
Students were instructed to write down their questions, which Steve 
answered on the second day.


Day One

    Because of prior commitments on the slideshow day, I was only able to 
attend the first classtime.  This class was divided into nine females and 
seven males, the majority appearing to be White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, 
with one African American.  Unlike my high school days, clothing and 
hairstyles varied widely from individual to individual.

    Steve began the session with a question:  "What is death?"  He was 
answered by two young ladies, both of whom evoked mystical beliefs, the 
"soul" or "spirit" leaving the body for "heaven" or "reincarnation."  I 
imagined a brittle tone of recitation in their responses.

    With an initial bow to cryonics, Steve then launched into a 
explanation of nanotechnology.  Although clear to cryonicists, the reason 
behind this subtopic may have escaped the students.  The majority assumed 
"locked" postures, indicative of open-eyed napping and daydreaming (at 
least that's what it used to mean when I did it).  Only two ever 
demonstrated the sort of "controlled fidgeting" I associate with 
attention.  Half an hour into the class, sighs, yawns, and deep reclining 
were almost universal.  Around this time the lecture finally turned to 
cryonics per se.

    Thirty-eight minutes:  one student began to nap openly.  Forty-four 
minutes:  a second head went down on a desk.

    All in all, I judged class response to be good.  When I was in high 
school, ANY class subject automatically became boring.  Add the fact of a 
room darkened for slide projection, and two sleepers out of a total 
sixteen students strikes me as an insignificant statistic.


Day Two

    I was able to attend both question sessions on the following day, one 
at 11:00 AM and the other at 1:00.

    Selected, paraphrased comments and questions from the first class 
("Class A," the one I observed previously):

-- "Where are all these people [you freeze] going to go?  What's the point 
in keeping them alive?"

-- "You're trying to cheat death.  Everything is here for a reason, 
including death."

-- "You're just saying you want to keep everyone alive -- what about all 
the people in the world starving to death NOW?"

-- "Do you go to church?"

-- "You're trying to play God."

-- "You can't control death, when it's your time to go . . ."

-- "Where's your soul going to be when you're in that 'tubie' thing [the 
dewar]?"

-- "How much does it [cryonic suspension] cost?"

-- "You're nuts!  You're sinning!"

-- "Have you tried reviving humans just to prove you can bring them back?"

-- "If you can't freeze one organ, you're raising false expectations."

-- "If people die, God had a REASON for them to die."

-- "If death has been here since the beginning of time, it SHOULD be 
here."

-- "What's the purpose of being frozen for 200 years and waking up with no 
family, no job, and no place in society?"

-- "Where are people going to get the money to bring frozen people 'up to 
speed' [after they're revived]?"

-- "Let's say you die when you're 83 -- you're going to wake up looking 
like you did?"

-- "Do you think YOU'RE going to die?"

-- "You're living in cartoons (or a fantasy world)."

-- "Are you an atheist?"

-- "Do you have a life?  (Do you do anything other than read books?)"


    The second class ("Class B"), which I had not seen before, was 
composed of nine females and one male.  Their comments and questions were 
very different:

-- "Has anyone been brought back to life [after freezing]?"

-- "How would you bring them [suspension patients] back to life?"

-- "Can't freezing help [as in killing cancer cells]?"

-- "How much does it [cryonic suspension] cost?"

-- "These people are dead when you freeze them?"  ("You freeze them as 
soon as their hearts stop beating?")

-- "What's the difference between cryonics and people freezing to death?"

-- "The people [suspension patients] aren't deteriorating?"

-- "Where do people do this?  A hospital, a warehouse. . . ?"

-- "How long has cryonics been around?"

-- "How many people are frozen?"

-- "Is Walt Disney frozen?"

-- "How do you decide who to freeze?"

-- "Do you freeze anyone with major diseases like AIDS?"

-- "Have you had any accidents [at the cryonic storage facility]?"  
(Knocking over dewars, for example.)

-- "How do you keep the bodies frozen?"

-- "Don't you worry that when you bring people back they'll be 'messed 
up'?"

-- "When you interview someone who wants to be frozen, do you tell them 
the future may be different?"

-- "Are YOU going to be frozen?"

-- "Have you ever had anyone protest cryonics?"

-- "What happens to the money if [cryonic suspension] isn't successful?"

-- "What happens to the soul when you're frozen?"


Comparison of Class A and Class B

    Four points were immediately noteworthy from my observation of the two 
classes:

    1)  Class A made far more comments than questions as opposed to Class 
B.

    2)  Class A's responses tended to be more aggressive.

    3)  Class A took an overall "spiritual" attitude, whereas Class B 
maintained a calm mechanical approach.

    4) Several of Class A's students were always ready to respond, while 
Class B often required prompting.

    The cause of this sharp contrast isn't entirely clear.  While the 
teacher assured me that Class B's attitude was the norm, I couldn't help 
wondering if its comparative passivity might not be related to the time of 
day (shortly after lunch, when the students' parasympathetic nervous 
systems would be in a lethargic digestive phase) or the lesser number of 
students (ten, as compared to Class A's sixteen).  Farther afield, Class 
B's sex ratio of one male to nine females might have made for a less 
"charged" environment than Class B's nearly even ratio of seven males to 
nine females.  (I advance the latter hypothesis because sexuality 
impresses me as a major motivating force among adolescents, if only from 
personal experience.)

    Perhaps the difference lay in basic assumptions.  Class B, while more 
accepting and methodical, acted as though the session were just another 
assignment:  listen to the lecture, ask questions, write down the answers, 
and compose a paper.  Class A took the concepts personally -- in fact, I 
received the impression that class members felt THREATENED, as if 
cryonicists were freezing individuals against their wills!

    Neither class had many objections against the technical feasibility of 
cryonics.  This may not be important in itself, since few opponents of 
cryonics ever do raise valid technical points.


Discussion

    Of the two, I was most intrigued by Class A.  Although Class B 
appeared to accept cryonics easily, I had the feeling these students did 
so because the subject remained a meaningless abstraction to them.  
Conversely, Class A reacted to cryonics with a certain immediacy, as 
though it were challenging their basic beliefs (as manifested by the 
frequent religious references in their comments).  Class A might have been 
overtly polarized against the idea of cryonics, but such emotional 
involvement was STILL involvement -- i.e., they "protested too much."

    I'm nevertheless loath to cast aside Class B as hopeless.  Their 
complacence, while reportedly typical for high school students, would be 
astonishing in an adult audience.  Even if Class B invested little energy 
in grappling with the concepts of cryonics, the meme did penetrate their 
awareness to some extent.

    However, a less optimistic interpretation of the students' responses 
might be that both found some vital aspect of cryonics to be irrelevant.  
If Class A was discounting cryonics by recoiling from it, Class B could 
have been accomplishing the same goal through apathy.  By whatever means, 
both classes managed to avoid being seriously influenced.  Aside from 
denial of mortality (a subject that is normally so distant from the 
adolescent mindset as to make it inconsequential), what underlying 
principle of cryonics disturbed them?

    Class A's overwhelmingly spiritual orientation suggested to me at the 
time that I might be witnessing an unconscious rejection of Materialism.  
Just as the "politically correct" now rave against "logocentrism" or 
"Western Thought," perhaps there is a growing migration away from 
scientific method in general.  Science itself -- via Quantum Mechanics and 
Chaos Theory -- has begun to admit that everything may not be knowable, 
predictable, or controllable.  Do young people sense an increasing lack of 
control in the vast chaotic system of society?  As responsibilities start 
to overbalance privileges, are new generations deciding to opt out of the 
loop?

    Who can answer questions such as these?  Each day I'm inundated with 
news of recession in the US, civil war in Yugoslavia and former Soviet 
Georgia, dirty politics (possibly a redudant phrase) in Congress and on 
the presidential campaign trail, airplane crashes, serial killers, AIDS, 
etc., and some part of me receives an underlying message:  "There is no 
control.  There is no future.  There is no hope."  I'm in a position where 
I can deal with this pervasive sense of helplessness.  Adolescents may not 
be so lucky.

    "High school students often have sketchy opinions," Steve Bridge 
informed me prior to his talk (though not in these precise words).  "They 
tend to voice ideas they haven't had time to think out.  When I present 
new ideas to them, some students will start thinking in order to defend 
beliefs they've taken for granted until then.  A few of them may even 
realize that they HAVE taken things for granted.

    "Then too, many of these kids have never been faced with the simple 
possibility of a future.  If nothing else, cryonics introduces them to the 
idea that there WILL be a future.  Maybe they'll act a bit more 
responsibly if they believe there's something to live for."

    I believe he was correct on both counts.  If so, we need more 
individuals out in the schools presenting cryonics to young, malleable 
minds.

    For everyone's sake.

                   *****************************************
                   *****************************************


A TALE OF TWO PRIORITIES

    Nasrudin sometimes took people for trips in his boat.  One day a fussy 
pedagogue hired him to ferry him across a very wide river.  As soon as 
they were afloat, the scholar asked whether it was going to be rough.

    "Don't ask me nothing about it," said Nasrudin.

    "Have you never studied grammar?"

    "No," said the Mulla.

    "In that case, half your life has been wasted."

    Soon a terrible storm blew up.  The Mulla's crazy cockleshell was 
filling with water.  He leaned over toward his companion.  "Have you ever 
learned to swim?"

    "No," said the pedant.

    "In that case, schoolmaster, ALL your life is lost, for we are 
sinking."

           -- from "The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin"
                                by Indries Shah

                   *****************************************
                   *****************************************


REJECTING REJECTION

    Recently Dr. Mitsuaki Isode of the University of Tokyo demonstrated a 
technique for selectively "paralyzing" the immune systems of mice, 
allowing successful organ transplants between unrelated animals.  Dr. 
Randall Morris, leading the U.S. end of the research effort at Stanford 
University Medical Center, described the process as using two monoclonal 
antibody sets, one to block the "adhesion molecules" on foreign cells and 
another set for similar molecules on the host's T-cells (one of many 
immune system cell types).  According to Morris, adhesion molecules 
between both cell types must connect in a Velcro-like fashion before T-
cells can initiate the rejection process.  With the "Velcro" gummed up, 
rejection never takes place on specific tissue (selected by whatever 
adhesion molecules are targeted).  This technique was a vast improvement 
over the former approach of removing or retarding T-cells, which left 
organisms open to infection and cancer.

    Of course, mouse physiology (with a few exceptions) is very different 
from that of humans;  among other things, tolerance can be induced in mice 
much more easily.  Nevertheless, a certain amount of cautious hope is 
justified, particularly by cryonicists.  As Paul Wakfer pointed out to 
Alcor Indiana members, the more reliable organ transplant methods become, 
the greater the motivation cryobiologists may have to improve organ 
preservation methods.  And cryonicists will gladly learn any technical 
improvements cryobiologists can teach.

                   *****************************************
                   *****************************************


A (VERY SMALL) PIECE OF THE ACTION

    Cryonicists have a vested interest in nanotechnology and everything 
that goes along it.  Currently, however, would-be nanotechnologists must 
sweat through years of rigorous academic training, scramble for employment 
in cutthroat high-tech industries, and then fight to pursue visionary 
projects.  Still, for those of us without that kind of stamina, there may 
be cheap ways to catch at least a glimpse of the glory.

    Various electronic bulletin boards around the country carry CHEMICAL, 
CHEMVIEW, or CHEM4WIN, Shareware programs by Larry Puhl of Sleepy Hollow, 
Illinois.  CHEMICAL and CHEM4WIN (the Windows 3.0 version) allow 
construction of molecular models, which can then be displayed and rotated 
in three dimensions by CHEMVIEW.  Although this software is lightyears 
behind pro systems like MM2 and CHEM3D, dedicated armchair nanophiles can 
get a feeling for just how difficult molecular design is.  (A college 
minor in chemistry may not be absolutely necessary to use CHEMICAL, but it 
wouldn't hurt.)

    For copies of these programs (as well as two associated systems, 
CRYSTAL and BIOCHEM), lurk on over to your local BBS.  Or for more 
information, contact Larry Puhl, 6 Plum Court, Sleepy Hollow, IL 60118.

                   *****************************************
                   *****************************************


WHAT THE HECK IS "ALCOR INDIANA"?

    ALCOR INDIANA is an unincorporated group of ALCOR suspension members 
who have banded together to help ensure each other's eventual cryonic 
suspension.  Monthly meetings are informal, and open to anyone who calls 
ahead of time.  Subscriptions to the semi-monthly ALCOR INDIANA NEWSLETTER 
are at present free of charge.

    For information on ALCOR INDIANA meetings, newsletter subscriptions, 
ALCOR LIFE EXTENSION FOUNDATION, or cryonics in general, call Richard 
Shock (days: (317) 872-3070;  evenings: (317) 769-4252) or Stephen W. 
Bridge ((317) 359-7260).

                   *****************************************
                   *****************************************

SPECIAL THANKS TO:  B&C WHOLESALE CRAFT SUPPLIES
                    5723 W. 85th St.
                    Indianapolis, IN 46278

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=752