Only accepting criticisms from true believers is a common cult failure mode, which I would strongly warn you against. It seems like someone on the cryonics side ought to double-check a few of her specific claims; does a case report she claims suggest incompetence contain the text she says it does? Do independent medical experts (just email twenty professors at universities, you ought to get at least one response) agree with a simplified version of the claim?
Yes. This is precisely what I would have thought advocates needed to be researching, and I’m amazed there’s so far just been defensiveness, circling of the wagons and ad hominem dismissal (“it’s just motivated cognition”, “she has no plans to sign up”) which really obviously dodges actually addressing the claims. Which are natural human reactions, but that doesn’t make them good ideas.
Yes. This is precisely what I would have thought advocates needed to be researching, and I’m amazed there’s so far just been defensiveness, circling of the wagons and ad hominem dismissal of the claims (“it’s just motivated cognition”, “she has no plans to sign up”). Which are natural human reactions, but that doesn’t make them good ideas.
Against the technology, no (I’d say obviously not). Against the organisational robustness of present-day cryonics? I’d say it could well be. I suspect Charles Platt would agree.
By the way, many of your posts are both enlightening and smile-inducing… and yet, I think I mocked you in the past (I think it was at Pharyngula). Since I suddenly feel guilty about this, I ask that you give me a downvote for atonement.
Again, why does it have to be evidence against cryonics instead of, say, Alcor or SA or CI? She’s not discussing the theoretical desirability or practicality of cryonics.
The theoretical desirability and practicality of cryonics is what matters at this point. It’s what the real controversy is about. If the given organizations are incompetent, they can be replaced with better ones. Or the people in them can be replaced. But, supposing that is necessary, we would need new people to replace them with. People who actually care about cryonics. Melody is not contributing to that cause, in my estimation. Rather she seems to be contributing to, and playing upon, the existing cocktail of mockery, misunderstanding, and marginalization that has plagued cryonics for years.
The theoretical desirability and practicality of cryonics is what matters at this point. It’s what the real controversy is about.
Upvoted. But I’ll still talk about organizational matters below :)
The thing I like about Mike Darwin is that he offers technical criticisms of cryonics organizations without resorting to threats of strict regulation. Of course, I understand there are people who do not think highly of Darwin, and condescendingly claim we are being duped by this “dialysis technician” (who then conveniently leave out that he received additional training from Jerry Leaf). Perhaps those people should inform David Crippen MD that he has been duped by Mike. David is with the Department of Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and Mike must have lied about his credentials when submitting to his book “End-of-Life Communication in the ICU: A Global Perspective”
With that in mind, since I deeply care about useful external criticism (as opposed to mainstream medicine’s silent apathy… because they are still stuck at the starting line by thinking that immortality is some separate magical state of being...), I want Melody to continue with her more technical critiques. However, I do want her to drop her threats of strict regulation, unless she can find many people who have gone through all of the paperwork of signing up and suddenly proclaiming, “Oh my god. You mean to tell me that Atul Gawande is not going to be at my bedside?” I understand the need in politics to sometimes play hardball, but this is different.
I encourage Less Wrong users to look at the language being employed here. Dr. Wowk is saying things like “Mayo clinic” from a life-saving perspective. Melody is saying things like “last wishes,” and emphasizing licensed embalmers. I do not feel comfortable with such language being floated around regulation that its (potential) members don’t want. At all. If any Less Wrong users do want such regulation without even having the intent of utilizing cryonics, then.… well.… shoo, go away.
This is precisely what I would have thought advocates needed to be researching, and I’m amazed there’s so far just been defensiveness, circling of the wagons and ad hominem dismissal....
As I’ve tried to explain, the entire line of criticism is based on a false analogy of cryonics to hypothermic medicine.
OF COURSE, if cryonics were an elective procedure in which a patient were to be cooled to +18 degC and heart stopped for brain surgery, you wouldn’t use paramedics, scientists, or contract cardiothoracic surgeons who may or may not able to show up to do the surgery. OF COURSE, you would use a Certified Clinical Perfusionist to work alongside the surgeon, no exceptions. OF COURSE, any less qualified people are bound to make mistakes, and have made mistakes, mistakes that could be fatal in a mainstream medical setting in which someone was expected to be warmed right back up from +18 degC and woken up at the end of the procedure. OF COURSE, anyone with common sense (no independent medical expert needed) would say that! But that’s not what cryonics is, or could be with any near-term technology.
Cryonics doesn’t stop at +18 degC. The hypothermic phase continues down to 0 degC, and then the cryothermic phase down to −196 degC, doing injuries far beyond reversbility by mainstream medicine. Cryonics is an information preservation excercise at liquid nitrogen temperature, not an attempt to recover people in real-time from minor cooling in clinical settings. The procedures during the hypothermic phase aren’t even the same in many major respects, but I won’t bother getting into that.
Isn’t anyone else struck by the bizarreness of malpractice allegations that need to be vetted by hypothermic medicine experts for procedures that end with decapitated heads and brains likely fractured at liquid nitrogen temperatures?? What medical standards or established specialties exist for that?
Isn’t anyone else struck by the bizarreness of malpractice allegations that need to be vetted by hypothermic medicine experts for procedures that end with decapitated heads and brains likely fractured at liquid nitrogen temperatures??
Mostly the latter. I see someone use the absurdity heuristic, my conditioning kicks in, and I link to the post about it.
As for the “hypothermic vs cryothermic” criticism, well, no, I don’t see the difference. The less the damage that’s done to our decapitated, frozen, fractured heads between clinical death and freezing, the easier it will be to recover the person from the corpse. As far as I can tell, an extra 30 minutes of decay at room temperature really could end up making a significant difference.
Yes. This is precisely what I would have thought advocates needed to be researching, and I’m amazed there’s so far just been defensiveness, circling of the wagons and ad hominem dismissal (“it’s just motivated cognition”, “she has no plans to sign up”) which really obviously dodges actually addressing the claims. Which are natural human reactions, but that doesn’t make them good ideas.
Is this reaction evidence against cryonics?
Against the technology, no (I’d say obviously not). Against the organisational robustness of present-day cryonics? I’d say it could well be. I suspect Charles Platt would agree.
(voted up as good question)
Upvoted. Did you check out the analysis by Freitas as well? Here’s a link with some additional commentary by Dr. Wowk: http://www.imminst.org/forum/topic/45324-alcor-finances/
By the way, many of your posts are both enlightening and smile-inducing… and yet, I think I mocked you in the past (I think it was at Pharyngula). Since I suddenly feel guilty about this, I ask that you give me a downvote for atonement.
Upvoted to leave you beholden to me. BWAAAhahaha. I learnt that trick from Draco in HP:MOR.
I am sorry, but this is all that came to mind for me.
Again, why does it have to be evidence against cryonics instead of, say, Alcor or SA or CI? She’s not discussing the theoretical desirability or practicality of cryonics.
The theoretical desirability and practicality of cryonics is what matters at this point. It’s what the real controversy is about. If the given organizations are incompetent, they can be replaced with better ones. Or the people in them can be replaced. But, supposing that is necessary, we would need new people to replace them with. People who actually care about cryonics. Melody is not contributing to that cause, in my estimation. Rather she seems to be contributing to, and playing upon, the existing cocktail of mockery, misunderstanding, and marginalization that has plagued cryonics for years.
Upvoted. But I’ll still talk about organizational matters below :)
The thing I like about Mike Darwin is that he offers technical criticisms of cryonics organizations without resorting to threats of strict regulation. Of course, I understand there are people who do not think highly of Darwin, and condescendingly claim we are being duped by this “dialysis technician” (who then conveniently leave out that he received additional training from Jerry Leaf). Perhaps those people should inform David Crippen MD that he has been duped by Mike. David is with the Department of Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and Mike must have lied about his credentials when submitting to his book “End-of-Life Communication in the ICU: A Global Perspective”
Mike also probably lied to get into this debate too: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1414041/
;)
With that in mind, since I deeply care about useful external criticism (as opposed to mainstream medicine’s silent apathy… because they are still stuck at the starting line by thinking that immortality is some separate magical state of being...), I want Melody to continue with her more technical critiques. However, I do want her to drop her threats of strict regulation, unless she can find many people who have gone through all of the paperwork of signing up and suddenly proclaiming, “Oh my god. You mean to tell me that Atul Gawande is not going to be at my bedside?” I understand the need in politics to sometimes play hardball, but this is different.
I encourage Less Wrong users to look at the language being employed here. Dr. Wowk is saying things like “Mayo clinic” from a life-saving perspective. Melody is saying things like “last wishes,” and emphasizing licensed embalmers. I do not feel comfortable with such language being floated around regulation that its (potential) members don’t want. At all. If any Less Wrong users do want such regulation without even having the intent of utilizing cryonics, then.… well.… shoo, go away.
As I’ve tried to explain, the entire line of criticism is based on a false analogy of cryonics to hypothermic medicine.
OF COURSE, if cryonics were an elective procedure in which a patient were to be cooled to +18 degC and heart stopped for brain surgery, you wouldn’t use paramedics, scientists, or contract cardiothoracic surgeons who may or may not able to show up to do the surgery. OF COURSE, you would use a Certified Clinical Perfusionist to work alongside the surgeon, no exceptions. OF COURSE, any less qualified people are bound to make mistakes, and have made mistakes, mistakes that could be fatal in a mainstream medical setting in which someone was expected to be warmed right back up from +18 degC and woken up at the end of the procedure. OF COURSE, anyone with common sense (no independent medical expert needed) would say that! But that’s not what cryonics is, or could be with any near-term technology.
Cryonics doesn’t stop at +18 degC. The hypothermic phase continues down to 0 degC, and then the cryothermic phase down to −196 degC, doing injuries far beyond reversbility by mainstream medicine. Cryonics is an information preservation excercise at liquid nitrogen temperature, not an attempt to recover people in real-time from minor cooling in clinical settings. The procedures during the hypothermic phase aren’t even the same in many major respects, but I won’t bother getting into that.
Isn’t anyone else struck by the bizarreness of malpractice allegations that need to be vetted by hypothermic medicine experts for procedures that end with decapitated heads and brains likely fractured at liquid nitrogen temperatures?? What medical standards or established specialties exist for that?
No, why do you ask?
Be honest. Was your one-liner typed with the full understanding of his points on hypothermic vs. cryothermic phases? Or were you just participating in the Less Wrong zombie ritual of linking to other posts? Whatever the case, bring me the down votes on a silver platter :)
Mostly the latter. I see someone use the absurdity heuristic, my conditioning kicks in, and I link to the post about it.
As for the “hypothermic vs cryothermic” criticism, well, no, I don’t see the difference. The less the damage that’s done to our decapitated, frozen, fractured heads between clinical death and freezing, the easier it will be to recover the person from the corpse. As far as I can tell, an extra 30 minutes of decay at room temperature really could end up making a significant difference.
Emergent! (waves garlic and cross)