X-Message-Number: 854 Date: Mon, 25 May 92 15:51:40 PDT From: Subject: Re: cryonics: #852 - #853 The reasons that recruiting suspension members is important to cryonics organizations are as follows: 1) The more people there are that are committed to the success of cryonics, that have a personal stake in its success, the harder it will be for those who are irrationally opposed to the practice of cryonics (by others) to ban, restrict, interfere with, tax or otherwise endanger the operation of cryonics organizations. Also, society will in general be far more cooperative with cryonicists if we are seen as a significant movement numerically. Numbers engender respectability. This is by far the most important consideration. 2) Organizations with larger memberships have more resources, most importantly money, talent and volunteers. Such security is important to the long term success of an organization. And it is also necessary in order for an organization to have the luxury of expending resources towards the accomplishment of long term strategic goals (such as revival of suspension patients) in addition to immediate tactical problems (such as suing the local health department when they try to obstruct a suspension). This is the second most important consideration. 3) If we do not care enough about our fellow beings enough to at least make some reasonable attempt to educate them about their options for attempting to extend their lives, then how can we argue that we--or our successors--will care enough about cryonically suspended patients to expend the time and resources necessary to revive them? This emphatically does not mean that we should "force cryonics down people's throats." It is sufficient if we do the best we can to make cryonics easily available, to make the information necessary for rationally evaluating the cryonics option easily accessible, and gently and calmly let everyone know we're here, what cryonics is about and how to find out more. Don't rant and rave at those who reject--or simply fail to take advantage of--cryonics. First of all, it won't help and will probably hurt. Secondly, it wastes our time and energy on an endeavor with a very low probability of success. When a person has come to see that conscious life is a physical phenomenon arising out of the operation of a physical device (the brain), when he sees that molecular technology will be able to repair the body and brain of injuries at the cellular and even the molecular level, and when he realizes that the advancement of science and technology leads to a higher quality of life in the long run (even though a Utopia may not be likely or even possible, and even though technology is only a tool that can be used either for good or for bad), then he will be receptive to the practice of cryonics. The best way to sell cryonics is to sell the memes on which it depends, but without stigmatizing these memes by explicitly associating them with cryonics. (Alan Lovejoy) Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=854