Recommended reading to introduce someone (possibly skeptics) to cryonics?

[Michael Harrop]

Paul Wakfer's post in the introduction thread got me thinking about his. The ones he mentioned were Robert Heinlein's "Time Enough for Love", John Mann's "Secrets of Life Extension", then "Charles Olson and the writings of Mike Darwin in the Alcor magazine".

Hopefully we can get some kind of structured list, IE: "read this first", then look into these other ones.

The main one I would be using is this recent article: http://waitbutwhy.com/2016/03/cryonics.html

[Paul Wakfer]

Your post title and suggestion is a very good one, since I think that
anyone who is scientifically trained (the kind we generally want to have
join us) is going to initially be skeptical.
In addition, however, I think that it is first of all important to
introduce and convince a person that radical life/health span extension
is also a real possibility. Once that is done then cryopreservation (if
all else fails) simply becomes the terminal phase of life extension -
don't forget the full name of Alcor is "The Alcor Life Extension
Foundation" for good reason.

On 16-05-28 09:32 AM, Michael Harrop wrote:
> Paul Wakfer's post in the introduction thread got me thinking about
> his. The ones he mentioned were Robert Heinlein's "Time Enough for
> Love", John Mann's "Secrets of Life Extension", then "Charles Olson
> and the writings of Mike Darwin in the Alcor magazine".
>
> Hopefully we can get some kind of structured list, IE: "read this
> first", then look into these other ones.

I agree that such a list would be useful, but also realize that each
person is an individual in different phases of skepticism of and desire
for life extension in general (although few seem to not want healthspan
extension - even if they are unwilling to change any of their actions in
order to effect it). This individuality will likely mean that
differently ordered lists will be appropriate for different individuals.
Once again though, I must emphasize my conviction that a passion love of
life and desire for its unbounded continuation is the first necessary
attainment before someone becomes a cryonicist.

>
> The main one I would be using is this recent article:
> http://waitbutwhy.com/2016/03/cryonics.html

The article is quite long (as is really necessary) and I did not wish to
take the time to read all of it for possible negatives, but from what I
did read, it does look like an excellent introduction, particularly for
someone who is already convinced about unbounded life/health span
extension (of which the number is far, far greater than of those who are
convinced of or even planning for cryopreservation - let alone actually
enrolled).

--Paul Wakfer
http://Live120Plus.com
The eventual home for *all* currently accessible, practically usable,
scientifically evidential methods for increasing healthy longevity.