X-Message-Number: 598 Subject: American Cryonics News From: (Edgar W. Swank) Date: Wed, 08 Jan 92 10:10:47 PST [Reprinted from The Immortalist - December, 1991] AMERICAN CRYONICS NEWS ACS Member Placed in Suspension An elderly woman who has been an ACS member for several years was recently placed in suspension at the Trans Time suspension and long-term storage facility in Oakland. The member had been in poor health for many years, having suffered a number of strokes, and had been confined to a nursing home in the San Francisco bay area. We recently received notification from a relative that her health had further declined due to yet another stroke. Emergency standby was not undertaken, and there was only limited cooperation from the nursing home. Resuscitation and cool-down was started just over an hour after her death. Only minimal perfusion was possible in this case. A suspension team physician, after reviewing the medical facts we have available concerning our member, concluded that the patient's apparent dehydration and predisposition to clotting due to illness were factors which contributed to the difficulty in perfusion. The patient was not on I.V., and heparin was not injected directly into the heart until several hours after death. Early infusion of heparin was not possible due to the patient's state of dehydration. The suspension team physician recommends that I.V. always be placed and maintained and hydration maintained. If family physicians do not wish to cooperate with this request on the basis that this procedure will assist in suspension, an argument can be made that an I.V. is needed to administer pain relieving drugs. The perfusion technique employed by Trans Time is much like that used in open-heart surgery. The surgical team places cannulas directly into and out-of the heart. The main surgeon in this case was a physiologist with many years experience in experiments requiring such surgical skills. Assisting with this surgery was a San Francisco Bay Area physician who serves on the suspension team. This suspension provided some valuable hands-on experience for the physician in surgical technique used in suspension. Such training is important since there are so few people trained to perform this surgery. GUERRILLA CRYONICS (OR JACK IN THE CAPSULE) Saul Kent once described cryonicists as the guerrillas of the life extension movement. This description is probably an accurate one, to the extent that by guerrilla we mean vanguard --- the cutting edge or front line --- of the anti-death resistance movement. Guerrilla movements are characteristically small, highly independent, undisciplined, personality cults. Cryonics is certainly small --- fewer than 1000 full fledged suspension members in the world! --- Cryonics organizations and cryonicists are certainly independent and most of us would probably admit --- even boast --- to being at least a little, undisciplined. And, there are a number of very strong personalities in the cryonics movement. The fact is however that cryonics is a highly disciplined force and none of the cryonics organizations in the U.S., Canada or Australia can be said to be under the control of any one person. Recently however, there have been a number of references in various cryonics publications to "Do it yourself" or "Go it Alone" cryonics. "Do it yourself"or "Go it Alone" cryonics is not a new idea. It has been attempted many times in the brief quarter century history of cryonics, generally out of necessity i.e. there was no cryonics facility readily available nearby. One either "did it themselves" or it didn't get done. After all, storing an even poorly frozen loved one in one's basement or garage is clearly preferable to storing them unfrozen in the ground. Nevertheless, most attempted "Do it Yourself" cryonics suspensions were eventually terminated i.e. failed. With at least three full service cryonics facilities in existence in the U.S. each fully capable of suspending and storing anyone in the continental U.S. and even many foreign countries, the necessity for independent, "do it Yourself" cryonics is not obvious. Indeed "Do It Yourself" cryonics could constitute a real threat to the cryonics movement. Mismanagement, (even unintentional), lack of adequate resources including technical know-how, inadequate response to a natural disaster or accident, etc., all could easily precipitate another Chatsworthgate which could easily be seized upon by a sensationalist press hungry for a negative story or a government bureaucracy hungry for something to do. That is of course the worst case scenario. Even the best case scenario however, is not entirely optimistic. A proliferation of cottage cryonics facilities could deprive the emerging cryonics industry of the capital it needs to achieve critical mass. On the other hand , it may well be possible for small, independent cryonics facilities to contribute to the future growth and development of the cryonics movement. Independent cryonicists could contract with an established full service cryonics organization to operate as satellite storage facilities, to provide Information and Referral services, and even to maintain an operating room for use by suspension personnel from the headquarters facility to perform suspensions for persons living, or deanimating, in that locality. Such contracts would set out in specific detail, minimum conditions and guidelines for operations at the satellite facility including marketing rights and responsibilities, liabilities, continuing training of all personnel, regular inspections by representatives of the parent facility to assure compliance, and a Mutual Aid Agreement should either of the facilities be threatened by a natural or bureaucratic disaster and require the assistance, specifcally storage space, of the other facility. All costs would of course be borne by the satellite facility. In return, the satellite facility would be permitted to advertise that its facility and operations are approved by the parent full service facility and, most importantly of all of course, everyone would know that patients stored in th e approved satellite facility are receiving the highest level of care. In other words, cryonics could franchise. A franchise is a contract or agreement, express or implied, oral or written, between two or more persons by which a franchisee is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods, or services under a marketing plan or system prescribed in substantial part by a franchisor. the operation of the franchise's business pursuant to that plan or system is substantially associated with the franchisor's trademark, service mark, trade name, logotype, advertising, or another commercial symbol designation the franchisor or its affiliates; and the franchise is required to pay, directly or indirectly a franchise fee. Franchising is a method of expanding an existing business operation by licensing others, for a fee, to engage in the business utilizing the existing trademark, business and accounting system and marketing plan the franchisor, whether it be an individual or a corporation, has developed a special product, service, or system and then grants a right or license to independent business people throughout the country, and in other countries, who pay a fee up front, the franchise fee, and all other capital costs, to market this service or product under the registered trademark and in accordance with an established format. This increases the franchisor's national and international exposure and gives the franchisee greater chance of success and a lesser chance of failure in a given field with a smaller amount of capital investment. Franchising is not limited to fast food or retail products. Indeed most franchises today in the U.S. and abroad offer a service, not a product. For example, United Dignity Inc., of Nashville Tennessee is a national franchise network "offering the public simple inexpensive and dignified funeral services. Family has option to choose embalming or refrigeration followed by burial or cremation. Each facility is approximately 1700 square feet and designed to be efficiently operated with minimal manpower and limited product inventory. Conversion of existing funeral establishments is possible. Only vehicle required is customized station wagon." Franchising is perhaps the single most important innovation in business since the concept of the corporation as an entity separate from individuals was invented by the Romans more than 2000 years ago. It first appeared in the U.S. around the turn of the century and it would appear to be an ideal vehicle for the continued growth and development of cryonics. Franchising is for an existing businesses that meet a clearly identifiable need (that's us), with a product or service that is relatively new and not extensively offered by anyone else (that's certainly us), that is in need of expansion capital, and, that is susceptible to a national and/or international system of marketing but whose present potential is limited geographically. A franchise offers a franchisee: --- A recognized trade name and with it the goodwill earned by and possessed by the franchiser. --- A standard of quality and uniformity of product or service set forth in an operations manual detailing an existing, proven system of doing business including marketing and accounting. --- Continuous training of the franchisee and his/her/their staff throughout the term of the franchise and a proven guidance system to lessen business risks to franchisee and minimize the need to continuously re-invent the wheel. --- Expert advice on location, design, capitalization, operation, and marketing. --- an on-going coordinated advertising campaign, which can be paid for by either the franchiser or the franchisee or both, and which is based on continuous market research and market analysis. --- Cost savings, by utilizing, whenever possible, a centralized purchasing system. Franchising is very strictly regulated by federal and state law and the laws of the many foreign countries in which U.S. based franchisors do business. These laws are intended primarily to protect the potential franchisee but complying with them can be of benefit also to the prospective franchisor. And, because of the popularity of franchising there are numerous, guidebooks, manuals, organizations and attorneys specializing in franchising that can advise on specifics including feasibility. Franchising offers the strongest possibility for rapid expansion of a business with minimum capital expenditures. It is working for hamburgers and computerized dating and it might work as well for cryonics. NOT REALLY SURPRISING BUT INTERESTING The Associated Press reported (November 18, 1991) that, in a survey conducted by the Alliance for Aging Research, "Two-thirds of the respondents said they want to see their 100th birthday, but 75 percent said they worry about losing control of their lives." "Two thirds of the participants said they believe scientists will find ways to extend the average human life span to 90 years or beyond." A spokesperson for the Alliance for Aging Research was quoted saying the results of the poll show "lawmakers should work to advance scientific research into healthier and more independent lives for people as they age." CONTINUING PROGRESS IN SUPERCOMPUTERS Intel corporations has unveiled a new supercomputer that contains up to 4000 microprocessors and can do 300 billion calculations per second. Meanwhile Cray Research unveiled a new supercomputer four times faster than any the company has produced before, and Alliant computer Systems Corporation has introduced a massively parallel supercomputer with up to 800 Intel Corp. microprocessors. This new generation of teraflop supercomputers (a teraflop is a trillion calculations per second) will assist researchers in global weather prediction, unraveling atomic structure, understanding turbulence, and in the designs of new materials and new microelectronics. AND CONTINUING PROGRESS IN DATA TRANSMISSION AT&T is now offering a new form of data transmission --- frame relay --- nearly 30 times faster than current methods, and, will soon make available still another data transmission technology --- cell relay --- which is 2700 times faster than current methods. These new data transmission technologies will substantially speed the transfer of text, numbers, and images between users whose computers have outpaced the capacity of telephone lines to transfer data quickly to remote locations. -- (Edgar W. Swank) SPECTROX SYSTEMS (408)252-1005 Silicon Valley, Ca Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=598