Real-Life Communication -- Solution
Here is your response:
Dear Editor:
I
am writing in response to an editorial criticizing cryonics that appeared
in your newspaper. Your paper is clearly supporting the movement by another
state to make cryonics illegal. While I agree that the editors of a newspaper
have a right to express an opinion, I do not feel that you are very well informed
about the subject.
In the first place, it is not at all surprising
that science fiction writers have discovered cryonics. Often, science fiction
writers are the first people to develop ideas that scientists later turn into
reality. For example, Jules Verne came up with the idea for a submarine in
the novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in 1870. But the submarine wasn't
actually invented until this century.
It is true that,
at this point in time, it is impossible to bring people back to life. The
process of freezing causes irreversible damage to the body. But we freeze
people in the hopes that someday we will be able to reverse the damage.
Despite
what your editorial says, the scientific knowledge required for this may be
discovered in the near future.
Imagine if you could transport yourself
back in time to the year 1900. What do you think would happen if you asked
a doctor from that period what medical breakthroughs would be made by the
end of the century? Do you think he would mention gene therapy or the development
of antibiotics? Of course not. But they exist all the same.
It is not
at all unreasonable to believe that freezing people and bringing them back
to life will become a very real possibility in the 21st century.
Respectfully,
(Your
name)
Good communication skills are important for supporters
of cryonics. They spend a great deal of time promoting cryonics to the general
public.
People in this field also need to develop good communication
skills on the job. Although people are not frozen every day, when it does
happen Ben Best says teamwork is very important.
"Everything happens
so quickly, and there's so much to do," says Best, head of the Cryonics
Society. He says that can be a problem since cryonics tends to attract people
who are quite individualistic. "By its very nature, this is a cooperative
enterprise, but the people drawn to it aren't cooperative by temperament."