X-Message-Number: 1447 Date: 15 Dec 92 03:21:21 EST From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: Re: cryonics: #1439 - #1443 Some comments in reverse order: 1. Longevity of fruit flies. This was actually one of the articles in the latest PERIASTRON, too, with comments about what it may mean. 2. The merits of competition in cryonics. Since in my posting I did not discuss that issue explicitly, I will add a little bit to it to do so. One of the most current problems we have is that Alcor remains (despite politics) far ahead of the other cryonics groups. If competition is a good thing, then Alcor suffers now from the fact that it has none. But splitting Alcor will not solve that problem either: suppose that it is done well and carefully. We then have a STORAGE organization which is well ahead of any other, and will suffer from the same lack of competition. Splitting Alcor will not of itself create competition at all, for any of the parts that result. There is another matter, and I would ask the reader to keep in mind that I am not putting it forward as an argument pro or con about splitting, but because the issue of competition and its merits was brought up. I personally have a great deal of sympathy with that kind of libertarian position. HOWEVER I think that it has to be examined in much more detail than just taking it as an axiom. Among other essential problems to competition among storage organizations, we have the fact that their REAL clientele, the patients in storage, aren't in any condition at all to choose between storage organizations. True, it's easy to see how to contract out some ACTIVITIES involved in storage ie. providing LN2, filling capsules, guarding them, etc. Someday we may even have several cryonics groups as good as Alcor, in which case people, WHILE ALIVE, BUT ONLY WHILE ALIVE, can choose between them. The problem is that of choosing a trustee when you, yourself, will not be able to criticise or revoke your choice. Presently cryonics has far too short a history to let anyone make a choice of society on the basis of their past record. The problem with competition in the case of cryonics storage is that even those able to choose have almost no history of performance by which to judge; and those who REALLY need to make a choice cannot do so because they are the ones in storage. Those who know me also know that I am a firm atheist. However I must say that the one form of institution which shows great longevity is religious organizations. Furthermore, these organizations are NOT run for profit but on a voluntary basis (yes, things can go wrong with that, but when they do it is NOT perceived as OK but as fraud). And of course, an organization run on a volunteer basis, just like a church, can contract out for all kinds of services; but the fundamental core of the organization, the one responsible (in cryonics) for making the decisions about patient care (where the buck stops) remains that volunteer organization. 3. Isamu Suda did not die after that article. He became President of his University and retired from research. When I was in Japan I specifically went to his university to meet him, and he was not doing research but very much alive. And bemused by the result of his papers in the US: he called in a photographer to take a picture of my bracelet. Long life, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=1447