X-Message-Number: 22847 Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2003 10:07:47 -0500 (EST) From: Charles Platt <> Subject: Half baked I see that Cryonet is going through one of its half baked phases. These always last longer than would seem possible. Regarding the relocation of cryonics in some other nation (a half-baked idea that has been raised periodically for more than a decade--maybe more than two decades--with no actual results whatsoever), I will take this fantasy a little more seriously if I see a minimum of 5 (five) cryonics activists actually making serious plans, supported by serious money, to move to any other nation and commence operations there. I will take it more seriously still if I see even 1 (one) possibly terminal patient express serious intentions to move to any nation that is considered more friendly to cryonics than the USA. Bear in mind that historically, it has been difficult to persuade terminal patients to relocate near a cryonics facility *within* the USA (not impossible, not unprecedented, but difficult). People do not like to die thousands of miles from their home, family, and friends, and who can blame them? Also one might consider that in Britain, where a substantial number of cryonics activists are located, there is still no fully equipped facility (no storage, for instance) and the capability that does exist was put together largely through the generosity and engineering skills of just one man (Alan Sinclair). I'm not belittling the help that Alan received, which was substantial. I'm just saying that without his capital and initiative, I doubt it would have happened. Starting a cryonics organization is as tough as, or tougher than, starting any small business which requires substantial capital, skills, and labor. In fact, cryonics is unusually labor-intensive, requires an exceptional range of skills, and of course never makes a profit. Relocating such an operation in a foreign country just multiplies the difficulties. All of this, needless to say, should be INCREDIBLY OBVIOUS, and the pie-in-the-sky theorizing about establishing cryonics in other countries is at best a doubtful use of one's time and at worst is actually deleterious to the provision of cryonics services in this country, since it distracts us from the hard problems and intense needs that we have here. I don't think it's coincidental that the wishful thinking has coincided with a time of exceptional challenges among US cryonics organizations. How lamentable that instead of addressing these challenges there is an impractical yearning to get away from it all by going someplace else. This reminds me of space enthusiasts who imagined that their social dysfunctionality could somehow be accommodated in L5 colonies. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=22847