X-Message-Number: 9561 Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 11:06:49 -0400 From: "Andrew S.Davidson" <> Subject: The Failure Of The Cryonics Movement Saul Kent's description of the moribund state of cryonics seems sound but I am less convinced by his diagnosis and prescription. I am not a cryonics insider and so just have a well-informed lay view. It seems to me that the current problems which Saul sees as critical are not well known to the general public - * ischaemic damage (whatever that is) * cracking * freezing damage at the cellular level My perception is that the general public supposes that whole body freezing is already a practical proposition and is already being performed on a significant scale (those crazy Californians). My own perception is that cryonics is already a well-proven technology for such human components as sperm, eggs and kidneys. Scaling this up to the brain doesn't seem like a big deal to me and I doubt that less-informed folk think differently. So, even if current freezing techniques were improved by vitrification and so forth, I can't see that this would greatly increase the take-up of cryonics. Surely, the key break-through which is required to impress the man-in-the-street is the _revival_ of a frozen human being. Anything less is unlikely to do - one can already demonstrate the revival of lesser frozen animals. The real mystery to me is why seriously rich folk do not make this arrangement for themselves when they already put some effort into estate planning and the preparation of wills. Perhaps the new generation of Silicon Valley nerd-millionaires will be more interested? The key seems to be finding the right target group - ordinary folk just don't want to know, irrespective of the methods used. Anyway, Saul's current strategy of developing related businesses and using the profits to improve cryonic techniques seems excellent and I applaud his efforts to date. Might I ask why his Life Extension group does not already market cryonic suspensions to its current customers - they seem like promising prospects. Andrew Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=9561