[ExI] Extropian police officer who died on 9/11?

[Anne Corwin]

I'm guessing that the negative personality connotations commonly associated with cryonics/cryonicists are the result of:
   
  (a) The fact that it isn't yet possible to revive suspended persons.  Cryonically suspended patients exist in an odd cultural "gray area" where they are not alive, but not necessarily "gone forever", either.  I think this makes a lot of people uncomfortable because of how "death" is so often associated with "closure".  Cryonics complicates the categories people are used to thinking in, so in some respects, perhaps some folks resent those who would "meddle" with that categorical system. 
   
  (The good news about this line of reasoning is that it will probably become much less common once a complex mammal is successfully reanimated from some form of cryonic suspension -- that is, once suspension/reanimation becomes something we *can* do as opposed to something we *might* be able to do, it will shift in most people's minds from "weird fringe thing for rich crank cases" to "a valid medical care option".)
   
  (b) The fact that some cryonicists (or so I've heard, I've never seen evidence of this personally) come across as having "arrogant" or "narcissistic" personalities.  Even if annoying personalities aren't over-represented in cryonics in proportion to the rest of the population, anyone who already has a negative view of cryonics will probably eagerly jump on examples that they see as "proving the point".  Minorities (of which cryonicists are certainly an example) almost invariably end up dealing with this sort of thing when working toward wider acceptance.  
   
  This is actually something the disability rights community deals with as well, since persons with disabilities are also frequently accused of "selfishness" (sometimes for the mere fact of asserting that they want to keep on living!), and are held to a curious standard of "moral purity" that nondisabled folks aren't.  A person who doesn't use a wheelchair can get angry and everyone just accepts this as something humans do from time to time, but heaven forbid a wheelchair user gets angry -- in many people's minds, that makes them a "bitter, angry cripple".  
   
  That is, their emotional expressions and/or personality are irrationally connected with the device(s) or technology they make use of as well as with the manner in which they differ from the norm.  
   
  For cryonicists (who are, in effect, arguing for the right and opportunity to exist in a state that might someday be termed 'extreme disability', albeit hopefully temporarily), the situation is similar: if you're an annoying cryonicist, you're likely to be held up as an example of how interest in cryonics tends to indicate an "annoying personality".  And you're also going to be considered "selfish" for wanting to exist for an indeterminate period of time during which you won't be actively contributing toward the economy in an accepted manner.
   
  Again, though, I think things will change once someone can vitrify and reanimate a dog or a monkey.
   
  - Anne



"Like and equal are not the same thing at all!"
- Meg Murry, "A Wrinkle In Time"
       
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