X-Message-Number: 8801 Date: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 09:01:08 -0800 From: Marty Nemko <> Subject: Re: CryoNet #8792 - #8800 References: <> Thomas Donaldson wisely asks us to think of all the reasons why people object to signing up. It's a great early step to crafting a strategic marketing plan--and yes, as uncomfortable as that term may sound, that's what we need: a strategic marketing plan. The objections previously cited in this cryonet discussion are: 1. unwillingness to face death 2. the person's traditional-length lifespan is painful enough.) (This often is a legitimate objection. Some people, not because of luck, but because of limitations in their intellect and personality, have a hard time doing more than surviving in this world. I suppose I could understand why they wouldn't want to live forever.) 3. they don't believe cryonics will ever work. 4. fear of social isolation upon reanimation. 5. fear of social isolation now (They fear they'd be viewed as kooks.) I would like to add another reason why people don't sign up for cryonics: That to spend so much money on something with a low probability of working is SELFISH. They say or think, "That money could be much better used. For example, the money could be passed on to the person's family or donated to a charity where there is a high probability that some benefit will derive from that money. Here's a rather graphic presentation of this objection: "It's hubristic of you to think that your life is so damned valuable that you're willing to spend so much money that could be so much better spent than on a long-shot that you've be revived. Even if you do get revived, your brain will probably be fried and/or you'll be in pain and/or they'll make you a slave or put you in a zoo. All when you could simply have donated the money to a good charity that would guarantee that people who are starving could get something to eat." Anyone care to try to counter that objection? A variation on the selfishness objection: it contributes to the overpopulation problem. Long life, Marty Nemko Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=8801