X-Message-Number: 11396
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: more questions for Scott Badger
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1999 23:27:47 +1100 (EST)

For Scott Badger and Saul Kent:

While I'd have to think hard if I had to choose only 5 people to be
resurrected ... not that I don't admire the accomplishments of Sellers,
Kubrick, and others, Saul"s posting here raises an interesting question:

Just how many people are there who become interested in cryonics after
a major illness but for some reason fail to follow through?

Possibly Peter Sellers was only doing a (very unfortunately!) normal
thing, which had nothing whatever to do with his public status. I know
that some cryonicists with whom I've talked believe that celebrities tend
more than most to show up briefly and then forget the matter and die, but
it would be interesting to see just what really happens.

One major reason someone can fail to follow through is simply that their
illness makes it much harder for them to get anything at all done. But
this reason probably doesn't cover even half the cases. If I understand
the case of Peter Sellers, he didn't have that problem. But still he did
not follow through.

So this is another question for Scott Badger to ask us. I'm raising it
first because it might tell us something about why people DON'T sign up
(just WHY didn't they follow through?), and second because the experience
of any individual cryonicist (me too!) probably provides a very poor
statistical sample, while that of many of us, combined, may come closer to
reality.

And for those who actually run cryonics societies, there are added 
questions: did ANY of these guys ever ask for forms? Did any of them
fill some of them out? Alcor keeps a record of those who apply; it would
be interesting too if Alcor officers could give statistics on the ratio
of those who apply to those who actually join, broken down by time ie.
N1 people asked for forms and submitted them after 1 month, N2 asked and
submitted after 2 months, N3 after 3 months etc. If long delays are
common we have the beginnings of an explanation right there.

			Best and long long life to all,

				Thomas Donaldson

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