Comments on: Cryonics Intelligence Test Responses

By: chronopause

chronopause — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 19:48:32 +0000

Cath, no problem. While the test was open to everyone, my hope was that newcomers, or people with little or no biomedical background, would be the preponderance of people to take it. As you will soon (hopefully) see, the test was not really a test for the people who took the time to take it, but rather, it was a test for the leadership, administrative and scientific, of the now extant cryonics organizations. The cross section of people who took the test were, in a way, the “control group.” I wanted to demonstrate that even a fairly heterogeneous group of people with little or no exposure to the actual hands-on mechanics of cryonics could fairly consistently understand both the science and the enormous practical import of the “issue” at the heart of the test – and do so solely on the basis of deductive reasoning from the primary scientific literature and a few relevant cryonics case reports. To my surprise, every individual who took the test succeeded in understanding the core problem. I find that astonishing and impressive. But, of course, I must remind myself that these individuals are a self-selected and high filtered subset of the readers of Chronosphere.

The next step was to wait “an indecent interval” after the test results were posted (with no commentary by me) to see if there would be any response from the cryonics organizations. Even something as simple as raising the core biomedical issue on their own forums, on Cryonet2, in their magazines or newsletters, or as an issue for discussion within their own administrative frameworks (board or committee meetings, etc.) In terms of publicly visible discussion, this has not happened. Thus, I have objective proof of a disturbing phenomenon I’ve long been trying to document (and change), namely that there is a complete blindness and/or a DNR (do not respond) response to use your term, to critically important issues which challenge the very core of cryonics’ scientific and procedural operations. And what’s more, that a broad cross section of relative novices to cryonics can and do understand the profound implications of the same problem, given an adequate data set to reason from.

In short, the Cryonics Intelligence Test is an experiment, the denouement of which is shortly to be presented here. So, do not feel badly about “not participating.” We all have lives to lead which include giving full attention to things both mundane and critical which delay our attention to other things, also often important. I’m glad you “are back,” and I look forward to seeing more of your comments here. You and Mark Plus consistently add the most valuable content to this site. — Mike Darwin

By: cath

cath — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 04:40:13 +0000

Mike, I hope you didn’t assume I did not want to take the test, but I have hardly been online in the last two weeks as the deadline for my exhibition is close, and I have been painting all day so that by nightfall my vision is tired. To head up the paddock and logon is not uppermost in my needs or even capacities. I would like to have done the test after August 7th when the paintings are on show, as I intended to give it my best and allot 5 days to the task. This is an explanation by one of your serious readers as to why the test was not done, and why your site not accessed by me recently, and, believe me, I have missed reading your articles!

By: Jordan Sparks

Jordan Sparks — Tue, 22 May 2012 13:58:23 +0000

After receiving a second case report and a suggestion to look at the peri-arrest vitals, my answer was:
Both patients had long periods of hypoperfusion: 51+ hours and 34+ hours. According to the various papers you sent me, that would lead to cumulative oxygen debt, excess lactate, intracellular acidosis, microvascular damage, metabolic abnormalities, and ischemia in the brain. Upon reperfusion, I would expect persistent acidosis, microvascular hemorrhage, vasoconstriction in some areas and possibly hyperemia in other areas, edema, and patchy areas of sludge formation. In other words, a setup for poor cryoprotective perfusion… . I didn’t quite grasp until just now that there was essentially no blood flow at all to the cortex for hours before death.

By: gwern

gwern — Sun, 20 May 2012 18:40:39 +0000

Now I regret not participating myself.

(I was just too busy with a bunch of my little projects; for example, I spent this afternoon finishing and analyzing a little experiment involving moving a link to one of my webpages from a Wikipedia article to its talk page to see how many fewer people clicked through.)