X-Message-Number: 26534
References: <>
From: David Stodolsky <>
Subject: Re: Reply to David Stodolsky
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 21:48:28 +0200

On Jul 6, 2005, at 7:11 AM, Mike Perry wrote:

> I  wrote:
>
>>> No amount of either promotional efforts or legal action can
>>> substitute
>>> for the tangible progress that must be made.
>
> David responded:
>
>> This doesn't seem to be a limitation on the growth of other churches.
>
> We recognized this issue a long time ago. Our tenets, we thought, 
> should
> attract large numbers of people. We *did* have a possible approach to
> eternal life (cryonics) that, while not absolutely guaranteed to work, 
> did
> at least have some quite substantial scientific arguments in its 
> favor--as
> it seemed to us--so it was not necessary to place belief in 
> supernatural or
> other superhuman forces. It seemed like it could be a winning
> combination--only it didn't come across that way, even among many who 
> were
> wealthy so that cost was not a factor, and also atheistic to begin 
> with.
> They just weren't interested.

Short-term rewards was one requirement not satisfied.


>
>> So, I suggest we look for the answer elsewhere.
>>
>> In terms of finances, the Society for Venturism offers no benefit,
>> since members are required to be signed up first.
>
> For a very good reason. The Venturist organization was set up as a
> religious organization. We had to be responsible to our members in a
> special way, and we didn't have the resources to bail them out and get 
> them
> suspended if the need arose and they didn't already have arrangements.

This externalizes a key institutional function to life insurance 
companies (typically). While there have been from time to time 
suggestions for insurance like functions associated with cryonics, 
there are very high barriers to entry.

I suggested bringing this in-house, using seed capitol to cover 
start-up costs. Let's do the math:

:average yearly income $10,000
:one-tenth of income goes to the church
:payments over 100 years
:new members are uniformly age distributed
:current trends in life-span improvement continue (1/4 year per year)
:membership doubles yearly
:suspensions cost $50,000
:half of income is overhead or other functions

This can be refined to include local income and taxation conditions, 
possible estate donations at deanimation, life-span improvement as a 
benefit of church membership, etc. However, if we stick with the above 
estimates, I bet we still get a feasible solution.

There are two potential stumbling blocks: there must be adequate 
resources to set up the organization and there is a risk of "gambler's 
ruin", that is, going broke early due to too many suspensions. This 
risk can be made arbitrarily low by increasing the seed capital or 
imposing mandatory health requirements, etc.


dss

David S. Stodolsky    SpamTo: 

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