X-Message-Number: 9444
From: Ettinger <>
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1998 19:34:49 EDT
Subject: Reminders

cns0410.98c

REMINDERS
 
It's a drag, and doubtless boring to many others also, but newcomers may not
know, and others may forget, the background or context of current exchanges.
Some reminders:

All organizations, including CI, are doing or/and planning or/and supporting
research aimed at improved methods; no one is complacent or satisfied or
stationary. 

Members of all organizations (with the possible current exception of Alcor)
have the option of choosing preparation by one organization or company and
storage by another. This even fits into the standard CI contract. If CI is
chosen for storage only, the total cost is still less than with other choices.
Furthermore, storage at CI gives the member all rights of other members,
including use of CI resources in revival, rejuvenation, and rehabilitation. As
far as I know, this is not true of any other organization that is available
for storage only. 

We all have to think about the possibility of future methods that are better
but more expensive. At CI, we expect to continue to make current (or better)
procedures available at the same prices (or lower prices adjusted for
inflation). If much more sophisticated methods become available at much higher
cost, we expect in due course to offer these as options, and probably still at
prices that are low compared to those of others. 

Note: Present prices for present methods at CI are only guaranteed for those
whose suspension fees are prepaid--although in practice, over 22 years, which
included years of high inflation, we have never raised prices.

There is also the possibility, seldom considered, that developments in
nanotechnology and biology will make the most radical repair scenarios more
credible, leading to a market and a more plausible rationale for cheaper types
of biostasis, possibly even including freeze drying. If suspended animation is
achieved, or if cryonics becomes popular for any reason, there will have to be
political/social/business responses to the demands of the less wealthy people
and peoples.  

And another reminder for those who hope for service by a professional
traveling team: Look at airline schedules. Unless both takeoff and landing are
at major hubs, you will seldom find a flight available within several hours of
the desired take-off time. The team and its equipment must be mobilized, maybe
in the middle of the night. It must then travel to the airport, make the
flight, wait for baggage, maybe make a connecting flight when available, use
extended ground transport at the other end…..Any advantage in sophistication,
as compared with trained and equipped local morticians, will almost certainly
be lost by the delay. 

(CI's main cooperating mortician in Europe, Albin's, has a private plane
available and does not need to fly by commercial schedules. But in the U.S.,
with its often greater distances, private or charter flight would be slower
and more expensive.)

And again, for newcomers: Please don't be paralyzed by indecision. Choose an
organization and make a commitment NOW. You can always change at a later date
with no huge loss. Procrastination can be fatal, and often has been.

Robert Ettinger
Cryonics Institute
Immortalist Society
http://www.cryonics.org 

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