X-Message-Number: 8431
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: Re: CryoNet #8417
Date: Fri, 1 Aug 1997 00:59:55 -0700 (PDT)

Hi again!

To bend over backward about the merits of freeze drying, I'll say that with
the proper research, which (as should be very clear) will hardly be simple,
I can conceive of making some form of freeze drying work successfully for
brain preservation.

Yes, existing forms have many problems. But that doesn't really solve 
any issues, particularly for those who (for one reason or another) favor
it.

HOWEVER, I will note that nowhere has there been ANY move to work on freeze
drying with the same kind of effort and precision that to date has gone
into cryopreservation. That alone tells me that those in favor, to prove
their seriousness, either have to start doing the required research or
admit that their interest is simply not deep enough. NO one else is working
on it, so the finger points to them.

Here is an historical analogy. Some time ago, we learned to fly using 
balloons, and after years of work, we learned how to direct these balloons
to where we wanted them to go. Yes, balloons did have lots of problems. 
However those who wanted some other means of flight studied hard and after
a great deal of work, study, and experimentation created AIRPLANES. These
had their problems too, but they were different problems. For reasons which
may not be permanent, balloons and dirigibles have now fallen into disfavor.

Some people in favor of airplanes probably went to those working on dirigibles
and asked them to work on airplanes instead. This never seemed to work, and 
these people are now totally forgotten. Others got to work on making airplanes,
despite all the trouble and difficulties.

Perhaps those who claimed to want airplanes really feared flight in any form,
and their interest was just a smokescreen to cover up their fear. Perhaps
not --- we'll never know. 

To translate: I personally believe that long term preservation of patients
which we cannot fix now is NOT going to be an emphemeral technology. It will
be with us literally millenia into the future. I also do not expect the 
current cryopreservation technology, or vitrification, or any methods now
known, to be used (say) 500 years in the future. Something better will be
devised. HOWEVER, we live now in 1997 and must deal with what we know best in
1997. Future possibilities can be dreamt about when we lie in our hammocks 
resting on a summer day, but they save no one NOW and are just as evanescent
as clouds. That is fundamentally why I support cryopreservation and want
to be cryonically suspended. 

				Best and long long life to all,

					Thomas Donaldson

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