X-Message-Number: 5651
Date: Sun, 21 Jan 1996 23:53:11 -0500 (EST)
From: Ben Best <>
Subject: Winter 1996 Canadian Life Extension and Cryonics Dinner

   On Sunday, January 21, 1996 at 6:30pm the Winter Canadian Life 
Extension and Cryonics Dinner was held at Aida's Falafel Restaurant
in Toronto, Canada.  Although I (Ben Best) mailed over 50 announcements
for this event, I did little else to publicize it -- and specifically did
not phone people to remind them (as I usually have done). Even so, 9 people
showed-up and the discussions continued for 3 hours.

   The lady-friend of one of the men attending objected to "unnatural"
procedures like the use of hormone replacement therapy. It was pointed-out
that estrogen has how been shown to dramatically reduce overall death rate
in post-menopausal women. It was also pointed-out that this woman is a 
nurse and that she undoubtedly has no objection to the use of penicillin.
One fellow said that computer networks are no more unnatural than beaver's
building dams. Soon most of us had trouble explaining our understanding
of the difference between "natural" and "unnatural".

   Unlike many of our previous dinners the discussions remained mostly
focused on life extension and cryonics issues. I attempted to prod a few
of the people who were arguing for the value of cryonics to explain why
they hadn't signed-up yet. One fellow was very concerned that there would
be no incentives for the cryonics organizations to reanimate him -- but 
there would be economic incentives to keep him frozen. I pointed-out that
under the CryoCare & ACS "unbundling" of services, the organization making
money by the cryopreservation (eg, CryoSpan) is distinct from the 
stewardship organization that would decide on when to reanimate. I also
explained that CryoCare Patient Advocate Directors are only elected by 
representatives of those in cryopreservation. He said he would prefer
a system that allowed the Directors to get paid 10% of his minimum 
funding for a successful reanimation. But then he worried that they 
might try to reanimate him before the technology was sufficiently mature.
He also raised other objections on the grounds that he might die when he
was traveling in a foreign country, etc. I finally ended-up telling him
that refusing to sign-up for a procedure that does not guarantee a 100%
success rate is a way of ensuring a 0% success rate.

   Another fellow got excited about the idea that nanocomputers could
have quantum computational capabilities beyond the limits of Turing
machines. I became irritated by this airy speculation and asked him when
he was planning to make cryonics arrangements. He seemed embarassed and
evaded the question, but I'm somewhat ashamed of myself for my conduct.
It is not my intention to embarrass or intimidate anyone into making
cryonics arrangements. 

                          -- Ben Best ()


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