X-Message-Number: 4668
From: Brian Wowk <>
Date: Wed,  Jul 1995 15:47:58 -0500
Subject: Survival

        Eugen Leitl asks what mechanisms are in place to ensure the
long term survival of cryonics organizations, pointing out that
many businesses don't even survive a few decades.

        Actually the survival prospects for businesses are
poorer than even that.  If I recall correctly, more than half
(75% ?) of new businesses fail within the first year.  Even the
worst cryonics organization have done better than that, and
historically I believe the overall survival rate of cryonics
organizations over the past 30 years has been better than
that of businesses that enter a new industry.

        I don't believe that conventional business is a good
model by which to judge the success probability of cryonics.
In business you have a group of investors that choose to commit
X dollars to a new enterprise (often when X dollars are just
barely sufficient to succeed), and once X dollars are consumed
without turning a profit, they will usually give up and go home.
Cryonics is different.  With cryonics you have groups of people
with an almost religious dedication to their organization; people
with frozen loved ones, and people who know that their own lives
will someday depend on their organization being there to help
them.  The power of such dedication is not to be underestimated.

        Two years ago many people (including me) thought that
the political strife within Alcor bode poorly for the future
of cryonics.  What has happened in that time?  There are now
more people signed up for cryonics than ever before, and more
exciting research going on than ever before.  (I would even
say we are entering a GOLDEN AGE of cryonics research.)  This
is a direct consequence of the deep dedication cryonicists feel
about what they are doing.  In cryonics, when the going gets
tough, the tough get going (somewhere else if necessary!) and
keep on going.  I think this pattern of turning crisis into
opportunity will be repeated many times in the future of cryonics.
(The Dora Kent crisis of the late 1980s was yet another example
of this.)

        Something else to consider is the effect that improving
cryonics technology will have.  Sometime during the next century
(well before today's patients can be revived) suspended animation
will become a routine part of medicine.  This will strongly
reinforce the whole tradition of storing frozen patients, and
produce changes in social mores and law so that frozen patients
(even badly damaged ones from the 20th century) may no longer
be considered just "dead bodies."  Although we should design our
organizations so that they could, if necessary, survive as 
a "lunatic fringe" indefinitely, I don't think that this will
really be necessary.  Things are already changing.  Steve Bridge 
will tell you that Alcor was received with surprising warmth
by the local media and business community when they moved to Phoenix,
Arizona, last year.

        What measures can help ensure long-term survival?  The 
ability of cryonics organizations to keep you frozen through the 
many and various difficult times that lie ahead will depend on
two things: How much money they have to care for you, and
how well that money and your care are managed.  The first
factor is entirely within your control (especially if you
choose an organization with individual accounting).  The
second factor depends on the organization you choose.  At
CryoCare we believe that some of our greatest strengths are

* Individual Accounting of patient care funds.

* Patient Advocate System (allowing trusted friends or loved ones
                                to have input into your care).

* Multiple Storage Providers for redundancy in patient care.

        Returning to more generic considerations, I would say
that as long as civilization and free markets
(in some form) continue through the future, that all of today's
major cryonics organizations have a reasonable chance of 
surviving.  Members can help ensure this by providing as much
funding for their care as they possibly can, and by taking
an active role in promoting the growth of their organization.

Brian Wowk
President,
CryoCare Foundation


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