X-Message-Number: 4274 Date: 22 Apr 95 16:31:33 EDT From: Saul Kent <> Subject: Reaching People Robin Helweg-Larsen asks: "How do we target people who are already engaged in an internal survival-vs-respectability debate...? I've said repeatedly that, in my opinion, the best way of reaching people interested in cryonics is to improve our methods of cryopreser- vation and then publish these advances in peer-reviewed science and medical journals. I fully realize that this is an approach that will take time, money, and commitment, but I don't think we can do anything else that will, even remotely, have the kind of impact that documented advances in cryopreservation will have. It will improve our chances of survival *and* make us more respectable at the same time. Brian Wowk and others have argued for the legitimacy of freezing people now for future revival. I agree with such arguments. I've been signed up for cryonics since 1965. If I thought cryonics was a viable option then, I certainly do now. However, there is one argument in favor of signing up now which has not been addressed recently...that by supporting cryonics *now* (by signing up), you improve your chances of being frozen under improved conditions later. This argument becomes more per- suasive if prospective members see an ongoing research program that produces demonstrable advances in cryonics methods on an ongoing basis. I cannot emphasize enough that putting money into research is money spent for advertising and promotion! It is, in my opinion, a far better use of available resources than spending money for ads or other forms of promotion. That said, I think we can still advertise effectively for little or no money. The key here is to go after groups which have already gone through a screening process that makes the members of the group more likely to be a candidate for cryonics than members of the general public. Among the groups which have, in the past, been shown to be in this category are members of The Life Extension Foundation, card-carry- ing extropians, and members of organizations that advocate space migra- tion and development. I also think more attention needs to be spent on signing up people who we are *already* reaching. In that respect, I think we need to focus on the specific reason(s) that make prospects reluctant to sign up. We know (generally) what those reasons are. In many cases, a prospect fails to sign up for only one of them. What we need to do is to identify the reason keeping a particular prospect from signing up and address it specifically. This is the most direct and fruitful method of overcoming barriers to commitment. What follows is a list of some of the reasons that keep people from signing up and some ideas about how to deal with them. 1. I CAN'T AFFORD TO SIGN UP. If the person saying this is young and in good health, you can suggest inexpensive term life insurance. If the person is older and in poorer health, you can suggest methods other than insurance, such as equity in a house or other non-liquid asset. Such prospects should also be told about *all* the cryonics organizations they can sign up with. If they want whole-body cryopreservation, for example, they may be able to afford signing up with CI, but not with the other cryonics organizations. 2. I'M YOUNG AND HEALTHY...I'LL SIGN UP LATER WHEN I NEED CRYONICS MORE. The obvious argument here is that even young and healthy people die. However, I think a more effective argument is that, by signing up now, and supporting the program, you will improve your chances of having access to better cryonics services in the future, when you need them. Again, this argument works better if you can produced *evidence* of this in the present. 3. CRYONICS IS TOO FAR OUT...IT'S NOT RESPECTABLE ENOUGH. One argument against this, of course, is that it's not very respectable to be dead, however many people, especially those in high places, value respectively more than the risk of being dead forever. I think a better approach with such people is first to have them meet some *very* respectable solid citizens who are signed up for cryonics and then to persuade them that, if they wish, their membership can and will be held confidential. 4. CRYONICS ORGANIZATIONS ARE TOO SMALL AND TOO WEAK...I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH CONFIDENCE IN THEIR LONG-TERM SURVIVAL. The obvious argu- ment is that the only way cryonics organizations can grow is if people like *you* sign up. Another approach is to emphasize the *quality* of the people in the organization in order to convince the skeptic that the organizations are, in fact, more solid than they appear. 5. CURRENT CRYONICS METHODS ARE TOO POOR...I DON'T THINK MY CHANCES OF SURVIVAL ARE HIGH ENOUGH TO WARRANT SIGNING UP. The argu- ments here are that *some* chance is better than none, that methods are improving, and that future repair technologies are likely to be better than you think. 6. MY RELATIVES ARE AGAINST IT. Confidentiality isn't a good argument here because it is important for relatives to know that you've signed up, unless the concern of the relatives is to keep *others* from knowing about it. I believe the best approach here is to get the prospect to persuade his or her relatives to read cryonics literature and to meet cryonics members, preferably at a social event. If this happens, relatives are likely to come around eventually. 7. I'M RELIGIOUS. I BELIEVE IN AN AFTERLIFE. WHY SHOULD I SIGN UP? The reason is that "heaven can wait"...just because you think you're going to survive *after* death doesn't mean that you should necessarily be in a rush to die. The best approach here is to find someone already signed up who also believes in an afterlife, preferably with the same religious background, to explain to the prospect why he or she signed up. There is something else I'd like to see to give us (as a movement) the best chance of signing people up. Sometimes a prospect will sign up with one cryonics organization, but not with another for a variety of reasons such as the cost of signing up, the size of the organization, the technical abilities of the organization, their financial resources, or the people that he or she interacts with. That being the case, I'd like to see every prospect informed about the existence of *every* cryonics organizations from the beginning. What I'd also like to see is cryonics organizations offering their leads to other organizations *after* they've done their best to sign them up. I believe it's better to have people signed up with competing organizations than to have them not signed up at all. To persuade organizations to do this, perhaps some form of compensation can be agreed upon if one organization gives another a lead who, eventually, signs up with that organization. Saul Kent Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=4274