X-Message-Number: 33072
Subject: Re: CryoNet #33061 - #33063
From: David Stodolsky <>
Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2010 16:10:18 +0100
References: <>

On 23 Nov 2010, at 11:00 AM, CryoNet wrote:

> What we really need is for cryonics to become a common medical procedure
> supported by medicare.  I keep hearing about how 40% of all medicare dollars
> are spent on the last month of life.

This rumor has no empirical support.

>  It would save the government (and
> society) ludicrous amounts of money if cryonic preservations were done
> rather than medical procedures that have low chances of success.  


Current funding limits for treatment of illnesses in the UK are somewhat greater
then CI rates. So, we probably have a break even, financially.


> And if the
> federal government built the vaults, they could be in decommissioned missile
> silos next to military bases and other places that would be virtually
> guaranteed to be intact for centuries with minimal odds of failure.
> I don't know what it would take to get to that point (other than
> demonstrated success with an actual revival of a human) 


This widespread view is not supported in the Badger data. In fact, the evidence 
suggests that revival of a human would have virtually no effect on signups. See 
my earlier CryoNet message, "The Damned:....", etc.


What it would do, is prepare the Movement for the 'long march through the 
institutions'. That is, it could be the basis for law suits and sustained 
political lobbying that would eventually change the definition of death, etc. 


> Gates and Buffet are spending billions helping out the poorest
> peoples of the globe.


That is the cover story and it is true as far as it goes. However, the Gates 
fortune is based upon intellectual property rights, and those rights are being 
questioned, particularly by those dying, because they can't afford patented 
drugs, etc. Thus, the funding of HIV treatment in Africa, for example, could be 
seen as a wise investment in defending the current intellectual property regime 
by reducing some of  its most extreme negative effects.


Gates money is also being used to influence education policy in the USA through 
what some have termed "bribery," because that is what it would be if the money 
came directly from Gates, as opposed to from his Foundation.


The Gates Foundation help to the homeless recently got some bad press, when it 
was discovered that the investment side of the operation was a major player in 
companies taking peoples' homes away.


So, it would probably be more accurate to say that the money is being spent in 
manner designed to protect Gates' interests.



> *Now* you've got the beginnings of a movement.  People want
> this.  Everyone's afraid of death.  


Many will deny this. And we compete head on with the Pope in selling a solution 
to this fear.


> They just don't really take the idea of
> cryonics seriously for a variety of reasons.  

Lack of cultural integration is probably the main impediment.


> I think thousands of people,
> all talking about the subject could make an enormous difference.


Not a political difference on a nationwide scale. To achieve this, we need a 
self-sustaining high growth-rate strategy. A billionaire donor could get us 
started more effectively, but that can't be a long-term solution.


dss

David Stodolsky
  Skype: davidstodolsky

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