X-Message-Number: 9733
Date: Mon, 18 May 1998 09:50:49 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: CryoNet #9722 - #9730

To Art Quaife:

Many may not be interested in your investment calculations but 
I AM. Are you willing to explain/transfer/sell or whatever to me?
I recently moved back to Australia, at least for a few years, both
because of my wife and for other reasons. My email address is now
on Compuserve, if you haven't noticed: 


About overloading the Earth with cryonicists:
I wasn't clear whether this was a joke or a serious statement. I
would suggest that anyone seriously bothered by this possibility,
which at present seems quite far enough away (far enough that we
may well reach the moons of Uranus and use them for storage by 
the time cryonics becomes so popular as to need mass storage
facilities) that it is unreal; if you are seriously bothered,
get out your calculator and calculate how much space would be
really needed. Remember that suspended people (or heads!) do not
move around constantly or require any entertainment or other 
services than simply keeping them at LN temperature. Massive
suspensions of course can inhabit very large tanks with much
lower surface area to volume ratios than is now the case.

You may be surprised by the result. And if you don't want to do
such calculations, write to the Immortality Society (Bob Ettinger's
group) and by THE PROSPECT OF IMMORTALITY. Ettinger did these
calculations himself, long ago.

To Borys Wrobel:
Sorry that you can't afford signing up for suspension just now.
When I was a grad student I couldn't either, though when I was
a grad student cryonics was just beginning. But keep it in mind
for after you get your PhD.

As for your suggestion, it would have to be very carefully 
formulated to avoid restrictions on life insurance, which essentially
is what you are asking for. Someday the cryonics societies may 
be able to set up their own life insurance company and what you
suggest would be easy, but that is not for now.

And it is relatively cheap to keep abreast of what the societies 
are doing, individually and collectively. There is Cryonet, and
also several periodicals such as THE IMMORTALIST and CRYONICS and
THE VENTURIST. 

It's also just possible that your grad school may provide some
kind of inexpensive life insurance scheme for its students. After
all, most students are young and not as likely to die as even 
someone of 25. That means that the insurance would be inexpensive 
in any case. Even if you can't afford the yearly membership fees
you may be able to afford life insurance, which would help a lot
if you somehow discovered you had a serious and possibly fatal
illness. With life insurance, you have a chance of signing up;
without it, your chance of signing up is nil. Look into that
possibility. 

Incidentally, young people can and do die. Another grad student
whom I knew when I was in grad school one day stepped in front of
a truck. So life insurance (if you can afford it) does have value
here. And Alcor, at least, has a paper you can sign that does not
sign you up for suspension but indicates that you hope to do so
some day... that might help if YOU end up in front of a truck.
(No, he did not commit suicide. It was an accident entirely ...
he was visiting England and forgot to look the right way when
he crossed the road).

			Best and long long life to all,

				Thomas Donaldson

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