>>From today's Washington Post book review section. A bit of news in
>the last two sentences:
>
>BODY AND SOUL ON ICE
>
>Cryonics is still in its infancy when Dr. Benjamin Franklin Smith
>decides to invest his future in it. He has the money; he wants to
>be resurrected in a future capable of overcoming age and disease.
>Naturally, when he 'dies,' his family wants an autopsy and challenges
>his will.
>So far _The First Immortal_ by James L. Halperin fells like a mainstream
>courtroom drama. Up to the trial, Halperin has focused rather
>convincingly on Dr. Smith's troubled relationship with his family.
>However, once Smith has been safely put on cryonic ice, the character
>of the book changes to one of brave new optimism. While the doctor
>sleeps on, the world strides boldly into a glittering utopia, and, as
>he hoped, technology arrives in time to resurrect him (sufficient
>funds rather than personal merit being his savior).
>At the end of this novel come seven pages enthusing about cryonics,
>with a bibliography, hopeful possibilities and encouragement. The
>author says in the introduction that his book 'might well be the most
>thoroughly researched and scritinized novel ever written about our
>potential for biological immortality.' The publisher says that _The
>First Immortal_ is 'soon to be a television mini-series.' Will the
>sponsors be cryonic-vault companies?
The implication seems to be that cryonics is for the rich, and that
"cryonics-vault companies" are making money. Such ignorance!
I haven't read the book, though. Did Halperin focus on funding that
much?
Randy Smith
Cryonics: Gateway to the Future?
http://members.wbs.net/homepages/c/r/y/cryofan1.html
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