You know how to write psychologically-plausible dialogue involving two intelligent people, one of whom is initially worried about the downsides of a specific shot at immortality but is eventually persuaded by the other. In fact, off the top of my head you’re the only person I know of with that specific, highly relevant qualification. Write a script.
Points to include: ice crystal formation inside cells, cost, what if an asteroid hits the earth or something and civilization is destroyed before revivification becomes feasible.
A first pass at a script with the requested topics covered; may or may not be doable in under a minute but should be shy of 90 seconds. Not really aimed at people who’ve never heard of cryo before—couldn’t fit that in with the rest of it. I could do more of these covering different subtopics/different audiences if that would be worthwhile.
[Scene: An office of some sort. Two women in business casual wear are talking.]
NADIA: So, how do you hold up with the ice crystals in your body? [cut to a cartoon of cells methodically sliced up by a diamond-shaped crystal expanding.] Voiceover: Won’t they do damage, even if everything else works?
JOICE: Well, they’re not going to drop me in a vat without some prep work. They have chemicals called cryoprotectants [fluid pours into the cartoon, wearing the crystal into a harmless little ball] that reduce the ice crystals. It’s almost like what goes in ice cream [closeup of cartoon ice cream cone] to keep it smooth.
NADIA: Ice cream. [Zoom out from ice cream to show cartoon Nadia holding it, and looking at it skeptically.]
[Cut back to office scene.
JOICE: You know what I mean.
NADIA: Sure. But I looked at that website, and it costs thousands of dollars [cut to cartoon Benjamins piling up] to get preserved. Where’d you get that kind of money? [cartoon vignette of Joice wearing a ski mask holding a bag marked $ and posing evilly.]
JOICE: I didn’t get that kind of money. [Ski mask and bag of $ disappear; cartoon Joice is wearing her normal clothes and shaking hands with a dude in a suit, who then departs.] Life insurance pays out when you’re legally done for, [cartoon Joice keels over; cartoon doctor and cartoon lawyer with a briefcase appear on the scene and gesture energetically] but not too late for cryonics to step in [team of cryo folk troop in and carry cartoon Joice off in a stretcher]. I have my insurance set up to pay the cryonics organization. [Dude in suit shakes hands with one of the cryo folks] It costs me less than my phone plan! [Scale, with a phone weighing more than a snowflake]
NADIA: Not nothing, though. [Phone is replaced with a feather, scale tips] You’ll feel silly if astronomers find, say, an asteroid on its way to destroy civilization. [Cut to asteroid, on its way to destroy civilization. Asteroid cackles evilly. Cartoon Joice smacks herself in the forehead.]
JOICE: I’d feel sillier about buying a house [zoom out from cartoon Joice with her hand on her forehead to show a house], if that happened. But in the real world, [asteroid goes poof] I need a house to live in [Joice in her house, smiling] - and cryonics to have the best shot at living.
I could just be mind projecting but for people similar to LWers, i.e. the low hanging fruit, it would be helpful to call attention to a meta issue: that the skepticism is motivated. In a finite amount of time, you can only refute a finite number of counter-arguments, the problem isn’t that people believe the ice issue unsolved, it’s that they are bottomless wells of objections because it feels icky.
Any commercial would make the idea more normal/available to people; there might actually be little difference in positive impact from a fairly well designed pro-cryonics commercial and an moderate quality anti-cryonics commercial that brings up the issue and implies the existence of an opposing side.
Any specs for who the characters should be or what characteristics they should exhibit via dialogue beyond pro-cryo/not-yet-pro-cryo?
Edit: In particular, to what extent should I be leaning on storyish tropes? e.g. “Remember that time when [allegorical event] happened? You did [sensible thing] which is analogous to cryo!” I know fiction writing, but I’m not versed in the ways of marketing...
A TV commercial is normally a minute long or less. Some handy references: http://qntm.org/60
There is very little room for character development or well-supported arguments. Mostly it’s just a succinct, quotable assertion, a memorable image, and enough keywords (brand name, easy-to-spell website, etc.) to allow further investigation.
I would be interested in helping with such a project, although I’m not comfortable with on-camera acting and do not know how to do animation.
You know how to write psychologically-plausible dialogue involving two intelligent people, one of whom is initially worried about the downsides of a specific shot at immortality but is eventually persuaded by the other. In fact, off the top of my head you’re the only person I know of with that specific, highly relevant qualification. Write a script.
Points to include: ice crystal formation inside cells, cost, what if an asteroid hits the earth or something and civilization is destroyed before revivification becomes feasible.
A first pass at a script with the requested topics covered; may or may not be doable in under a minute but should be shy of 90 seconds. Not really aimed at people who’ve never heard of cryo before—couldn’t fit that in with the rest of it. I could do more of these covering different subtopics/different audiences if that would be worthwhile.
[Scene: An office of some sort. Two women in business casual wear are talking.]
NADIA: So, how do you hold up with the ice crystals in your body? [cut to a cartoon of cells methodically sliced up by a diamond-shaped crystal expanding.] Voiceover: Won’t they do damage, even if everything else works?
JOICE: Well, they’re not going to drop me in a vat without some prep work. They have chemicals called cryoprotectants [fluid pours into the cartoon, wearing the crystal into a harmless little ball] that reduce the ice crystals. It’s almost like what goes in ice cream [closeup of cartoon ice cream cone] to keep it smooth.
NADIA: Ice cream. [Zoom out from ice cream to show cartoon Nadia holding it, and looking at it skeptically.]
[Cut back to office scene.
JOICE: You know what I mean.
NADIA: Sure. But I looked at that website, and it costs thousands of dollars [cut to cartoon Benjamins piling up] to get preserved. Where’d you get that kind of money? [cartoon vignette of Joice wearing a ski mask holding a bag marked $ and posing evilly.]
JOICE: I didn’t get that kind of money. [Ski mask and bag of $ disappear; cartoon Joice is wearing her normal clothes and shaking hands with a dude in a suit, who then departs.] Life insurance pays out when you’re legally done for, [cartoon Joice keels over; cartoon doctor and cartoon lawyer with a briefcase appear on the scene and gesture energetically] but not too late for cryonics to step in [team of cryo folk troop in and carry cartoon Joice off in a stretcher]. I have my insurance set up to pay the cryonics organization. [Dude in suit shakes hands with one of the cryo folks] It costs me less than my phone plan! [Scale, with a phone weighing more than a snowflake]
NADIA: Not nothing, though. [Phone is replaced with a feather, scale tips] You’ll feel silly if astronomers find, say, an asteroid on its way to destroy civilization. [Cut to asteroid, on its way to destroy civilization. Asteroid cackles evilly. Cartoon Joice smacks herself in the forehead.]
JOICE: I’d feel sillier about buying a house [zoom out from cartoon Joice with her hand on her forehead to show a house], if that happened. But in the real world, [asteroid goes poof] I need a house to live in [Joice in her house, smiling] - and cryonics to have the best shot at living.
I could just be mind projecting but for people similar to LWers, i.e. the low hanging fruit, it would be helpful to call attention to a meta issue: that the skepticism is motivated. In a finite amount of time, you can only refute a finite number of counter-arguments, the problem isn’t that people believe the ice issue unsolved, it’s that they are bottomless wells of objections because it feels icky.
Any commercial would make the idea more normal/available to people; there might actually be little difference in positive impact from a fairly well designed pro-cryonics commercial and an moderate quality anti-cryonics commercial that brings up the issue and implies the existence of an opposing side.
Any specs for who the characters should be or what characteristics they should exhibit via dialogue beyond pro-cryo/not-yet-pro-cryo?
Edit: In particular, to what extent should I be leaning on storyish tropes? e.g. “Remember that time when [allegorical event] happened? You did [sensible thing] which is analogous to cryo!” I know fiction writing, but I’m not versed in the ways of marketing...
A TV commercial is normally a minute long or less. Some handy references: http://qntm.org/60
There is very little room for character development or well-supported arguments. Mostly it’s just a succinct, quotable assertion, a memorable image, and enough keywords (brand name, easy-to-spell website, etc.) to allow further investigation.