X-Message-Number: 1973
Date: 16 Mar 93 18:40:38 EST
From: Mike Darwin <>
Subject: CRYONICS Re: Bridge's Comments

From: Mike Darwin
To: Steve Bridge, All
Re: Bridge's Comments
Date 15 March, 1993

     Steve criticizes me quite rightly for my Monday Morning 
Quarterbacking although his analogy was to baseball.  It was foolish of me 
to have posted the things I did since there is no way to prove them other 
than to start a cryonics society, retain management control, and have 
someone give me millions of dollars.  Since this is not likely to happen 
all we can do is to argue to till hell freezes over about what might have 
been or should have been.

     But I will say this:  I have not always been right and I have made my 
share of mistakes large and small. However, overall my track record about 
choosing the right general strategy in cryonics has been a very good one.  
There were people who laughed when I said I was going to transform  
cryonics into something people would both live and die for -- to make it 
something that people really wanted beyond the handful of hardy souls who 
were persuaded in the "first wave."  While I did not by any means do this 
single-handedly, I believe many of my decisions, including my decisions 
about which strategy to implement (whether originated by me or others) 
were pivotal to achieving this end.

     (It is often the seemingly little things and the seemingly impossible 
things that make for success.  Who would have believed that Brian Wowk's 
observation about death and cryonics would be so critical to success in 
marketing it?  Or that an idea called "molecular technology" and book with 
the working title "The Future By Design" would bring so much good (and 
some harm too!) to cryonics?)

     Was self-insurance possible if all the the stops had been pulled out 
and those interested and willing to support it had been properly 
cultivated and motivated?  We will never know.  Is a remote standby 
program do-able, indeed is it critical to the success of a cryonics 
program?  Well, the answer to that one is still blowing in the wind.  Time 
and events will tell.

     All I was trying to point out, however crudely, was that I see little 
creativity from Alcor in the solutions put forth to the problems at hand.  
Perhaps that is the nature of management by a fractious committee with an 
awesome responsibility and little room for failure.  Since the patients 
are not a commodity than can be replaced if a wrong decision is made, the 
pressure is terrible.  Despite all my harshness I wish you all to know 
that I know the burden each of you carries and how hard that makes 
selecting *any* course of action, let alone a bold one.

     I accept your criticism. 

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