X-Message-Number: 9723
Date: Sun, 17 May 1998 10:38:52 +0100
From: John de Rivaz <>
Subject: Re: surveys, etc

In article: <>  
writes:
> 
> Message #9716
> From: Transoniq Hacker <>
> Subject: surveys, etc.
> Date: Fri, 15 May 1998 10:52:01 -0700 (PDT)

(del)

> One (possible) way to maybe overcome a bit of this fundamental problem
> is to figure out some way to market cryonics as something you get for
> SOMEONE ELSE. People seem more concerned with other folks dying than
> themselves.
(del)
> Just a thought

And a clever one, I'd say. The difficulty is the cost, unless you take a 
very long term view. If you can surf the wave of technological progress for 
long enough on the stockmarket - decades in fact - you may eventually have 
enough funds to pre-pay suspensions for other people out of income from your 
trust. It'll take an iron nerve to get the trust to a high enough level so 
it can go on funding people,  without spending some of it first, but if you 
can do it, then the cost difficulty is overcome. If the growth is not there, 
then it is highly likely that the technology of the future which we all rely 
on will not be there either.

The problem though is that if you want people to buy cryonics for someone 
else, then they would have to be motivated to do it. Even if it is for other 
people, producing a trust find of an appreciable fraction of a million 
dollars could easily result in its getting spent on something else - 
cruises, parties, weddings or consumer "durables" with a lifepan of two or 
three years (eg cars etc) -, ie the usual emphermeral trappings of 
civilisation. [If you are considering the more expensive cryonics 
organisations, the trust fund would need to be over a million dollars if it 
were to pre-pay suspensions every year.]

So, thinking it through,  maybe its not so clever after all!


-- 
Sincerely,     * Longevity Report:  http://www.longevb.demon.co.uk/lr.htm
John de Rivaz  * Fractal Report:    http://www.longevb.demon.co.uk/fr.htm
**************** Homepage:http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JohndeR
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        because giving information does not decrease your information.

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