X-Message-Number: 17508
From: 
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 09:24:28 EDT
Subject: Quickies

1. Yesterday I used the term "expected gain" instead of "expected value." A 
small slip.

2.  Mixed feelings about Platt being given responsibilities at Alcor. Maybe 
he won't be as bad for them as he was for CryoCare. In any case, it's clear 
that it now becomes much less likely that we can have any meaningful 
cooperation with Alcor, or avoid mutually damaging sniping. I suggest that 
Jerry Lemler apologize for Platt on behalf of Alcor, since apparently Platt 
is now a semi-official voice for Alcor. With friends like Platt, Alcor 
doesn't need enemies.

3.    Thomas Donaldson writes, in part:
 
 >Where I differ from Ettinger, however, is that I believe we should
 >actually try to FIGURE OUT those differences ... not just to make
 >a new variety of device (a "human computer???") but even to understand
 >how we work, for repair and improvement. And I think that is a
 >presently doable task.
 
Where did that come from, Thomas? Where did I ever say or imply that we 
should not try to understand the differences?

4.  William Gale writes in part:

  >researchers in this area believe that  irreversible brain damage occurs 
about five >minutes after blood stops reaching  the brain.  This is an 
incredibly short time to >take the initial cooling steps.  

These "researchers" are decades behind in their familiarity with the 
literature. There is more detail on our site, but I can't take time now to 
pinpoint it.

5. Now Platt's malicious (and probably totally fabricated) claim of anonymous 
information that Albin used his own initiative to secretly add a rosewater 
interlude to CI procedures with a patient or patients he processed more than 
a year ago. Well, he has only processed one patient for us, about 4 years ago 
if I remember correctly, and his report was straightforward and 
unexceptionable. Given a choice between believing Albin and believing an 
alleged item of gossip from a character like Platt, there is no need to 
hesitate.

6. Paul Garfield says he trusts Alcor's technicians more than he would a 
funeral director, because the Alcor technicians are better motivated and 
better trained. However, actual history tells us, not only that morticians 
reach the patients much more quickly on average, and have much more training 
in anatomy and surgery, but also are more reliable. Volunteers simply cannot 
always drop what they are doing.

Robert Ettinger
Cryonics Institute
Immortalist Society
www.cryonics.org

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