X-Message-Number: 5603
Date: Tue, 16 Jan 1996 08:06:10 -0800 (PST)
From: Joseph Strout <>
Subject: Data Storage by cryonics providers

All right, once again the cryonics community is way ahead of me, much to 
the impatience of many of our kind Cryonetters.  (And once again, the 
topic, though much discussed in the past, appears neither in the FAQ nor 
in the archives under the keyword index, so I trust my ignorance of these 
past discussions is excusable.)

Assuming that all the important technical issues pertaining to data 
archiving has been worked out, then, the important question remains: to 
what cryonics organization -- CI? CC? Alcor? ACS? -- should I send this 
month's data?

All I have seen so far is suggestions as to how I might archive my own 
data myself.  That's fine as far as it goes, but it doesn't go far 
enough.  Much better would be to have the data controlled by the same 
organization which controls my frozen carcass; as Mike pointed out, 
mementos of ancestors tend to disappear after only a few generations.  
If we all go and store data our own way, scattered around the country (or 
planet), it seems impractical to expect the cryonics folks do the 
detective work necessary to locate it for each one of us.

It seems clear that a cryonics organization should, as a small side 
enterprise, archive data for its members (and possibly for non-members as 
well).  If they want to subcontract this to another organization they 
trust, then fine (this is how CryoCare handles all services anyway, as I 
understand it), but they still know where all the data is and can easily 
get it when they need it.  Moreover, they should accept data for storage 
not when the patient is suspended, but for the decades beforehand -- as 
someone (Thomas Donaldson, if memory serves) pointed out, if we wait till 
the last minute, it won't get done at all.

Now, Mike, I know this is a minor issue and far less important than 
improved suspension methods, sudden-death alarm systems, etc.  But it 
*is* an issue which has apparently not been dealt with by the service 
providers, and which (I should think) could be fairly easily 
implemented.  And who knows what state we'll be in when we wake up; good 
personal data might just make the difference.

(Note: in Cryomsg #5564, ACS describes work underway to provide safe 
long-term data storage, and in #5551, Robert Ettinger describes simpler 
measures in place at CI.  I applaud these efforts, but they need a bit of 
work to make them both safe and easily utilized.)

,------------------------------------------------------------------.
|    Joseph J. Strout           Department of Neuroscience, UCSD   |
|               http://www-acs.ucsd.edu/~jstrout/  |
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