From: E. Shaun Russell (e_shaun@extropy.org)
Date: Mon Dec 31 2001 - 23:29:51 MST
Spike wrote:
>The interesting thing about the article is the mention of how much
>he has spent so far, $130k. I dont think Alcor charges that much
>for a full body. And they keep the temp down low enough to
>stop bad things from happening. (I think dry ice is not quite
>cold enough?) spike
Yes, and that's where the controversy comes in. While I think that most
people even peripherally involved in cryonics will argue that minus 75
degrees --farenheit *or* celsius-- is not nearly low enough, there will
always be those like Bauge who think that -75 is good enough. And that's
the problem: there is no industry standard, and perhaps there *can't* be an
industry standard with today's technology. Virtually anyone can open up a
cryonics organization and "freeze" people at whatever temperature they
want, with whatever procedure they want...and who's to say that one way is
better than the other? It's not like you can ask the suspended
cryo-patient if he's satisfied with the process. The success rate is fully
unknown, and the only quantifier is the faith of the individual interested
in the given cryonics organization. If you are good enough at schmoozing,
you can talk a person into a very expensive probable suicide. Take the
Chatsworth situation for example.
I'm not sure that there is any alternative to the non-proof situation that
currently surrounds cryonics, and I don't like to complain about something
when I don't have any solutions, but the lack of scientific credibility of
the industry is very disturbing, and any measure of quality control is
virtually non-existent.
A lot of people will fall back on the idea that "any chance is better than
no chance;" I agree that such is true...but when that "any chance" is
.000001% as opposed to, say, 5%, then is that chance worth spending at
least $28,000 (CI's numbers) on? I'm not so sure.
________________________________________________________
E. Shaun Russell Operations Officer, Extropy Institute
e_shaun@extropy.org http://www.extropy.org
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Hear my music at: http://www.mp3.com/eshaunrussell
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