X-Message-Number: 17655
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 09:27:13 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: comments re terrorism and cryonicists

Hi everyone!

It may be true that Alcor and the other cryonics societies will someday
become subject to attack by various groups who don't like them, and
that such groups may even use biological attacks.

However given its current size, and the simple fact that even now many
people don't really understand what we're saying, direct attacks on
cryonics societies seem very unlikely. Even a minor church has more
members than Alcor, so far the largest society ... though the Cryonics
Institute may well be catching up with them.

The main activity cryonics societies should engage on is that of 
trying to avoid a large number of their members being unintentionally
included in attacks ... like the attack on the WTC buildings, which 
killed one member (unfortunately literally, by destroying his body
completely). I will point out that even biological weapons are not
designed to destroy those who live all over the Earth, but instead
those in particular regions. Putting either storage or preparation
far way from likely attack may be good for those who work on either
of these, but not protect the rest of us.

One way which may really help is for us to keep a closer watch than
normal news on such possible attacks. The story is likely to die down
after a while, but it would help if somecryonicists decided to 
watch such news as intently as some people in the CIA or BSS or
other such organization... and periodically reported on what they
had found. I will add that so far no terrorist organization has
used nuclear or biological methods. Their distinguished feature
seems to be the delivery of "ordinary" explosives by means which
do not include bombs. It would be wise for us to look particularly
at this kind of threat. If some group delivers anthrax rather than
explosives, it becomes time to consider such biological attacks...
but not until that happens, not before.

		Best wishes and long long life to all,

			Thomas Donaldson

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=17655