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From: tsf+@cs.cmu.edu (Timothy Freeman)
Newsgroups: sci.cryonics,news.answers
Subject: Cryonics FAQ 9: Glossary
Summary: This posting contains a list of Frequently Asked Questions
   and their answers about cryonics, the practice of carefully preserving
   very recently clinically and legally dead people in hopes that they can be
   revived in the future.  It should be read
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Date: 1 Jan 93 08:37:12 GMT
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			 Section 9: Glossary

(You can fetch cryomsg "n" by sending mail to kqb@whscad1.att.com or
to kevin.q.brown@att.com with the subject line "CRYOMSG n".  The index
to this FAQ list is cryomsg "0018.1".)

The next three sections have definitions of cryonics vocabulary.  The
list is divided (at the discretion of the editor) into words to use,
words not to use, and words to use in jest.

			     Words to Use

CRFT has a glossary on pp. 57 - 58.

biostasis - Synonym for "suspension".

cardiac arrest - Cessation of heartbeat.

clinical death - A person is clinically dead if they are in cardiac
arrest and their pupils do not contract when light is shined into them.

cryobiology - Biology at low temperatures.  This includes organ preservation.

cryogenics - Science in general at low temperatures.

cryonics - The practice of freezing people at the end of their natural
lifespan, hoping for eventual reanimation.

information-theoretic death - A person has reached
information-theoretic death if a healthy state of that person could
not possibly be deduced from the current state.  The exact timing of
information-theoretic death depends on presently unknown details of
how the brain works.  The current best estimates put it several hours
after clinical death.

ischemia - Damage to tissues due to oxygen deprivation. 

legal death - A person is legally dead if a doctor has signed a death
certificate with his or her name on it.  This tends to happen when the
doctor believes that modern technology will not be able to restore
them to health.  The criteria for legal death change with time.

neurosuspension - The practice of only freezing a person's head or
brain.

revival - The process of restoring a clinically dead person to health.

suspension - The process of preserving a person for eventual revival,
usually by freezing in liquid nitrogen.  This happens after legal
death but hopefully before information-theoretic death.

			   Words Not to Use

corpsicle - Pejorative synonym for "suspended person".

cryonicist - An ambiguous term.  1. One who studies or who tries to
improve the process of freezing people for later revival.  Use
"cryonics researcher" instead.  2. One who is interested in cryonics.
Use "cryonics fan" instead, or perhaps "person interested in cryonics".

death - A vague term.  Use "legal death", "clinical death", or 
"information-theoretic death" instead.

deanimation - An ugly-sounding synonym for "clinical death".

reanimation - An ugly-sounding synonym for "revival".

			 Words To Use In Jest

flexionally disabled - frozen stiff

metabolically disadvantaged - clinically dead

(Next five are from Alcor Indiana Newsletter #5 by Steve Bridge,
cryomsgs 1148 and 1149.)

chronologically gifted - old

experientially enhanced - old

achieved an overall metabolic deficiency - died, possibly frozen

thermally challenged - frozen

assumed room temperature - died, not frozen (Attributed to Rush Limbaugh)

			       Credits

The following people contributed to this document.  Some of them
contributed by posting messages to cryonet or sci.cryonics which I
used.  They are listed in alphabetical order by last name.

  Steve Bridge <72320.1642@CompuServe.COM>
  Kevin Brown <kqb@whscad1.att.com>
  Tim Freeman <tsf@cs.cmu.edu>
  Daniel Green <danielg@autodesk.com>
  Steven B. Harris <71450.1773@CompuServe.COM>
  Bryan Michael Kearney <bk1a+@ANDREW.CMU.EDU>
  Simon Levy <LEVY%LENNY@Venus.YCC.Yale.Edu>
  Lola McCrary <lola@lucid.com>
  Perry E. Metzger <pmetzger@snark.shearson.com>
  Micheal B. O'Neal <mike@engr.latech.edu>
  Art Quaife <quaife@garnet.berkeley.edu>
  Richard Schroeppel <rcs@cs.arizona.edu>
  Ralph Whelan <alcor@cup.portal.com>
  Brian Wowk <73337.2723@CompuServe.COM>

and one person on the cryonet mailing list who chose to remain anonymous.