X-Message-Number: 15393
Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2001 07:21:49 -0500
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: re: secretiveness in cryonics

Hi everyone!

I must admit, though I still have a liking for Ettinger, that Grimes
in his message of 20 Jan 2001 on Cryonet has raised a substantive
question about the Cryonics Institute... and so, by implication, about
Ettinger himself. Basically it may well clear the air if we can learn
just what the Institute's current methods may be, especially since 
they recently did some suspensions.

This problem, however, is not unique to the Cryonics Institute. Alcor
was once much more open about their own techniques, complete with 
printing reports of suspensions. This has gone down after Alcor
decided ONLY to print CRYONICS 4 times a year, while the former
situation involved printing CRYONICS a bit more often together with
the publication of a newsletter for members which discussed in 
detail just how the latest suspensions had been done and further work
to improve them. Yes, Alcor has tried to set up a separate organization
to do suspensions, too, and that makes discussion of the technology
in detail even harder to get.

Alcor so far isn't quite as secretive as the Cryonics Institute, but
as someone who does not live close to their facility it's now quite
difficult to know exactly what methods Alcor is using. I know that
they are attempting to bring vitrification on, because it may well
do much less damage than straight freezing, and I've tried to follow
such research myself. Even so, research and actual suspensions are
hardly the same. We may collectively all wake up one morning to 
discover equal secretiveness in all the societies ... and if so,
that would be a severe long term loss, even if it takes a while to
show itself.  

For the immortality we seek, it does not help to keep our methods
secret at all.

		Best wishes and long long life for all,

			Thomas Donaldson

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