X-Message-Number: 8407 Date: 20 Jul 97 20:14:06 EDT From: Paul Wakfer <> Subject: Re: improving cryonics #8379 Doug Skrecky reduces his credibility in other areas where he appears to be doing good and valuable work by his continuing reiteration of the superiority of freeze-drying over cryopreservation. Freeze drying has been so soundly critcized in so many ways, that only a true believer would continue to promote its use as the best method for transporting dying humans to the future. Not only can few technically knowledgable and open-minded cryonicists see any easily reachable method by which freeze drying could be done on a human patient leaving as much information intact as even current cryonics techniques, but by its very nature there would never be a way to make it "currently" reversible. Therefore, cryonics would remain small and many of the uncertainties which have been elucidated during the last few days would still remain. I believe that it is clear by now to almost everyone else that the most efficient and hopeful method by which cryonics odds can be vastly increased, is to improve cryopreservation to the stage where it is fully reversible AT ANY TIME AFTER IT IS DONE. This is the method which has the shortest time-scale chance of removing *all* of the uncertainties from those who are cryopreserved in a timely manner. Furthermore, since perfected suspended animation *will be* accepted by established medicine as a viable option for keeping a patient alive (hell, it many even become mandatory!), enormous work will be done to upgrade emergency medicine techniques so that few, if any, patients cannot be reversibly suspended. In my view once suspended animation is perfected and immediately reversible, the major uncertainties we will face will be catastrophic destruction either before or after suspension, or the deterioration of civilization itself, both of which will always be against life extension of any kind. Yes, it is possible that such a reversible suspended animation cannot be achieved by current science and will only be attained by the same kinds of techniques which will be able to restore currently frozen patients. But this is far from obvious at our present state of knowledge. Therefore, I believe that it should be clear to anyone who seeks to vastly extend his/her life that the most important thing to do at the present time is to support the research to perfect suspended animation using "current" science. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=8407