X-Message-Number: 27241
Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 09:50:11 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: for Jeff Davis and others

For Jeff Davis:

Besides the problems others have brought up about a facility "somewhere
in the American desert" there is another one which needs mentioning.
By now we should recognize that we cannot simply suspend our patients
and leave them suspended in some site far away from civilization. One
or more living people need to be there watching over them 24 hrs a 
day, 365 days a year.

If not watched over in that way, one way or another something will go
wrong. Dewars break down normally; and they don't do so in any fixed
schedule either. Ditto for any N2 liquefaction machines, or anything
at the facility needed for continuous (even if only occasional) 
operation. Nor are deserts free from weather, earthquakes, sandstorms,
etc --- which may by chance attack the storage facility. And last but
hardly least, people can come by and damage both the facility and
the patients within it, either accidentally (well, it hardly looked
as if the building was being used!) or quite deliberately.

Now if you wish to volunteer to live in such a facility, welcome. You'll
of course want at least one other person to take over for you unless
you've worked out how to do without sleep; and even if so, there are
the accidents and diseases that can happen to you. Two more people
would be better, and lots more even better. Naturally, because you'll
all want to eat and sleep, and I hope do more than that, you'll
have to have a part of the facility for the team taking care of it.

If I were seriously asked why no one has tried seriously to put
together a facility for storage far away from everywhere, I would
say that it is the need for human protection which prevents that. It's
easy to come up with machines which will (usually) keep someone
preserved, and (usually) keep them safe. The trouble with that comes
from the simple fact that we want our cryonics patients preserved 
AS WELL AS POSSIBLE, and right now that means we need people there
where they're stored. (Usual) preservation and (usual) safety just
aren't good enough.

             Best wishes and long long life to all,

                   Thomas Donaldson

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