X-Message-Number: 7736
Date: Sun, 23 Feb 1997 11:30:50 -0500
From: Mark Mugler <>
Subject: Best use of my life extension and cryonics dollars

Although I suppose that I am years behind others in my thinking, I would
like to broach the topic of the best use of one's life extension and
cryonics dollars.

The alternative investments include personal life extension,
cryopreservation research, local biostabilization capability (portable
ice bath, thumper, meds, etc.), personal survival technology (wrist
pulse monitors, motion detectors, etc.), and life insurance above the
minimum, ignoring for the moment nanotech research, which has no
deadline.

It seems that, while one is young or middle aged and healthy, personal
life extension and cryopreservation research are the best investments. 
One could argue for investing all one's free dollars in life extension
in the hopes of avoiding admittedly risky cryopreservation altogether. 
On the other hand, an argument could be made that as one ages the
returns on personal life extension diminish while the returns on
cryopreservation research remain very high, judging by certain recent
advances.

The greater your risk of dying, the better you want local
biostabilization capability and personal survival technology to be. 
I'll bet that there is a large cohort of Baby Boomers among cryonicists
for whom local capability and personal survival technology will become
more important in the decades to come.

As long as the minimum cryopreservation fee is taken care of, it seems
that anything above that, to finance your coming out party and maybe the
research needed to make that happen, can be provided through your will.
On the other hand, insurance is cheap and available when you are
younger.

Being a Boomer myself, I guess I will put my limited dollars in research
and personal life extension, insurance for the current minimum plus
anticipated inflation while I can still get insurance, and rudimentary
local capability, and defer investing in other aspects of local
capability (such as perishables) and personal technology.  Oh, and I'll
cross my fingers.


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