X-Message-Number: 22512
From: "Jappie Hoekstra" <>
Subject: Some things
Date: Saturday, 13 Sep 2003 05:32:00 +100

 Hey,

 [*] 12 Sep 03 09:00, quoting :

 C> Michael Price wrote:
 >> personnel.  I, too, have also decided to resign my Alcor
 >> membership, which is quite a wrench as one of the
 >> founders of UK cryonics, for the reasons Charles listed
 >> and for other personal reasons, and, likewise, will not be
 >> joining any other organisation for the foreseeable future.

 C> So are you recommending that every Alcor member read Charles' article,
 C> figure out which psychological group they fit into, and use it as a
 C> reason to quit Alcor and not join any other organization?  Who is
 C> pulling *your* strings?

Quite something indeed.

I'd like to say something. Two months ago I had never heard of cryonics, nor
did I know any cryonicist.. I used to have fantasies about building a big
future house in the middle of nowhere - somewhere in Sweden actually (no
sarcarm intended) - with a secret armored concrete basement with a freezer to
place myself into somewhere at a decent age. Without telling anyone, and with
enough locks on the chamber to require an army vehicle to open it.. Ofcourse
there were some hypothetical problems like finding a lasting powersupply etc.
Nevertheless.

Then a few months ago I came across the word 'cryotank' somewhere, and for some
reason I instantly knew what it was and ran an extensive Google search. In the
days that followed, I was in a very euphoric state and under the impression
cryonics was the last boat home, with captain Ettinger manning the steering
wheel. In the weeks afterwards this feeling got replaced by the need to know
everything about it, so I read pretty much half the websites around on the
subject, printed hundreds of sheets on my new printer (hp laserjet 2200 - so
you can print without replacing cartridges every two weeks..), analyzed the
suspension contracts, emailed with some local cryonicist guy, and what else
not.. I've spent half a year saving passionately for new stereo equipment, but
I realized this money was not going to be spent on that anymore.

Perhaps I jumped the boat at exactly the wrong moment in the boat's long
history..

Nevertheless. What I saw in the last few weeks disturbs me. We have this Mr.
Charles Platt, who is seemingly a great man on our ship, who is lowering
himself in one of our lifeboats back into the ocean.. Coincidentally our ship
already seems to be somewhat sinking for a while, with captain Ettinger tied up
in his cabin. While Mr. Platt is lowering the lifeboat, he seems to be happy
enough to point out to the rest of the travellers where the holes in the ship
are.. In order to not make a too shocking perspective, he also points out a few
places where the ship is looking good. But he continues lowering his lifeboat.
Some try to call him back, but I don't think there's a need.

Let me recall when I was younger and I wanted a very expensive wintercoat but
my mom didn't want to pay for it.. My counterstrike was to cycle 16km (10
miles) to school at temperatures of 2-3 degrees Celcius in my 1mm thin
summerjacket. It worked as expected. After a week I got the expensive coat.

There's an analogy in Charles Platt' decision.. Taking the drastic opposite
decision just to make a point. Someone with a history this long in cryonics
will not make the choice to be buried/etc instead just for bureaucratic
reasons.. While your pointing-out of the holes was correct, Tim Freeman makes a
good point by pointing out emotional decisionmaking.. Your view of cryonicists
and their deficits might be to the point - yourself among them as you said -,
you should also look at the deficits in human beings in general and see
yourself in that picture as well. It can be only emotions that justify a
cancellation of cryonics membership, unless you really think this ship is
sinking. So we can assume you'll be back when the time is right.

About the "30-page memo" and Alcor in general.. I think Alcor is not a good
business for cryonics. When I need to compare your organization with analogies
in different businesses, I happen to see Alcor vs. CI as Microsoft vs.
GNU/Linux. The shiny stable entity filled with holes vs. the idealists which
sometimes mess up by pure accident.. Even without everything that happened
recently, just by reading your website alone, this obscurity is evident.. I
don't see how you can spend $250,000 or $325,000 or whatever the amount was, on
marketing, while at the same time make such a big mess of issues that really
matter and everyone focuses on.. That money you spent on marketing is pretty
much lost as I see it..

First this Jerry Lemler guy.. If what the "30-page-memo" was quoted like in the
news is true, then I can't stop grinning. What a mess. It is also "obscure"
that he resigned on August 10th while on August 11th some important Larry
Johnson issues saw the light.. But since this could be the true date on which
he resigned, I don't want to make an issue of that. In that case, my gratitude.
But right now it remains obscure.

Second, the other things allegedly mentioned in this memo, like the things
going on during TW's suspension in the operatingroom. Third, many issues listed
on Rick Potvin's site.. Rick Potvin might seem into conspiracy theories, and
off fact, as pointed out by Charles Platt a few times. Nevertheless he at least
takes the time to try to make the facts known.. A sane person can balance for
himself what's truth and what's fiction on Rick Potvin's site - it's what
you supposedly also do when watching the news on TV. Yet I see an Alcor-member
in Rick Potvin, usually even an Alcor-fan, posting things he sees. And from
that perspective I reason that all the negative things he says about Alcor must
be (at the minimum) a subset of the negative issues there are to say about
Alcor.. If I need to quote all these Rick Potvin notices here, then this
message would become too long. The URL to his site usually flies through
Cryonet every few days.

Everything said about Alcor everywhere might be off-fact. I must emphasize I'm
not behind anything claimed by Larry Johnson.. Larry Johnson just tried to make
the cryonics ship sink in a different way than Alcor is unwillingly doing.

I can conclude on the Alcor subject by saying "it won't get you anywhere this
way". These strange and obscure things going on, facthiding (willingly or not),
private-open boardmeetings, and everything along those lines.. Cryonics is not
something for bureaucraticness and scams. Ofcourse you need to find a balance
between usefulness and idealisticness, and that's hard, I cannot tell how to do
it. In your case you're making cryonics lean in the wrong direction.. And
that's just a feeling I have. A feeling that says that Alcor will be the first
organization that's out of business once the 'market' is getting popular and
less monopolistic.. You seem to be currently working on finding new personnel
here and there. My tip, bluntly as it is, find people that can blow a more
idealistic approach back into Alcor.. Some people already said something on
Cryonet about voluntariness vs. paid employees. One noted that money gives
people a reason to stay with cryonics longer than volunteers generally do.
That's correct.. But then again, I don't want to trust my body to people who're
only watching it because there's a paycheck attached to it. These people sooner
or later make mistakes which they don't even strongly regret: "It was just a
job, I'll find a new one soon enough". The people guarding the ancient pyramids
and the Pharaos' graves were seemingly willing to die on their watch.. That's
the employees you need.. Realistically, you won't find them. That's not a
reason to go searching on the other pole of the magnet.

Now back to Charles Platt. If your memo was stating the facts, then I think you
should come back aboard soon.. Pride is certainly not a reason to stay on the
ocean when you somewhere inside don't really want to be there anyway..
Personally I think you did the right thing by writing this memo in the first
place - again, if everything is according to fact..

Also, everyone can make mistakes, if this is relevant right now. Not a reason
to kick anyone off the cryonics boat just because of that simple human flaw.
There's always someone somewhere feeling suppressed, mistreated or misjudged by
someone else, even on the cryonics boat, which is just a subset of humanity..
Scream what you want, just don't pay with your life. And don't expect others to
do that.

Concluding with this quote from Michael Price:

 MP>If I'm wrong, well I hope there will be an independent UK cryonics
 MP>organisation by then (but I doubt it).

Since you're probably among the little handful of active cryonicists in the UK,
it's not likely such a UK organisation is going to popup by miracle.. In other
words, the chances are not increasing with you chosing to sit down.. I believe
somewhere you posted you're 44 years old? I wonder, can you visualize yourself
on your 88th birthday and verify if you would've taken this exact same
decision?

We need to look after ourselves, fools. I'm not amused by your titles,
achievements, salaries, time-around-in-cryonics and pride. It's useless when
you're six feet below the surface. And you all know that I assume.

--
Signed,

"Seriously wonders if interest in cryonics dies over time."

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