X-Message-Number: 13447
Date: Sat, 01 Apr 2000 11:08:16 -0800
From: Peter Merel <>
Subject: Which cryonics org?

For new chums, the best place to start investigating which org is for you is
http://www.cryonet.org/orgs.html . Factors to consider include

* Geographic proximity: if they can't get to you quickly, they can't help you.
   some orgs have an extensive network of mortuaries to help. Others try to
   make it easy to move near them when you get ill. Uncooperative doctors,
   hospitals and coroners can make all of this irrelevant. To be blunt, if
   you don't have a crack team of cryonicists working you over from the
   moment you make that rattling sound, you're probably out of luck.
* Freezing technology: if ice crystals scramble your brains, preservation
   won't do you a whole lot of good. Nanotech might help with this ... but
   more likely it won't. If you're going to get froze, get froze quick and
   glassy.
* Economic viablity: if they go out of business, you're screwed. At least one
   of the orgs mentioned in the link above will move your body from org to org
   if an org starts looking risky. On the other hand this org doesn't have
   access to all the other orgs, more's the pity.
* Political stability: not just the country, but the org itself. Cryonics
   attracts more than its fair share of ... eccentrics ... and a troubled
   org might work so badly that its ability to freeze you and keep you froze
   could become questionable during the squabbling. So far as I know, this
   hasn't happened ... but if you hang out on cryonet for a while you'll see
   it's easily possible.

Remember that most humans (including me) are either so apathetic that they
won't make arrangements until it's very late in the day, or so screwed up
they'd rather not live long. So no one is going to help make this any
easier. Make your enquiries quietly, carefully, and deliberately. No one
can tell you what the right way is. You have to decide for yourself.

Peter Merel.

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