X-Message-Number: 9839
Date: Mon, 1 Jun 1998 15:43:15 -0400
From: Saul Kent <>
Subject: "...almost free..."

        Thomas Donaldson comments (9824) about
funding to revive us as follows:  "There is a general
pattern to technological advances: the first time is VERY
expensive, after which it gets less and less expensive.
Finally, it's almost free."

        I've heard that general kind of assessment
a number of times from cryonicists:  that future medical
science (in the era of nanotech) will not only be greatly
advanced (and sophisticated), but also very inexpensive.

        That may happen, but I wouldn't count on it. 
Repairing the brain of a patient frozen with today's
technology will be a formidable problem, perhaps one
of the most formidable ones faced by future medicine.
In addition, a new body may have to be grown, possibly
for full body patients as well as neuros.  These aren't
trivial matters, and I don't think we can dismiss them
by simply suggesting that it may be "...almost free..." to 
revive cryonics patients.

        I also don't think it's enough to say as
Thomas says:  "I see no way at all to validly estimate
that cost."  I agree that there's no way to *validly*
estimate the costs of revival, but I think we need to
begin trying to do so anyway.  In any case, it will 
certainly cost  *something* (even if it is "almost 
free"), and it may cost a great deal.

        As we improve our cryonics methods,
it should become progressively easier to estimate
the costs of reanimation because the biological 
damage that will have to be repaired will lessen 
(for those who are cryopreserved with these 
methods), and our knowledge of how to repair 
biological damage will increase.

        As these methods improve, I also
believe that people will become more confident
about the possibility of revival and, as a result,
will be more concerned about how to pay for it,
and who can afford it.

        Thomas speculates that the economy
of the distant future may be very different from what
we have today. ("There may even have an advance
on capitalism.").

        I agree, but cryonics patients will have to
be maintained from their current existence in today's 
economy to whatever is going to come in the future.  
If we are to be revived, it will be necessary for those 
reponsible for us in the future to adapt to changing
conditions.  It is *our* responsibility to try to meet 
the costs of reanimation as best we can, given 
our current state of knowledge, and our current 
economy, so that those who care for us in the future 
will have the best possible resources available to 
help them to adapt to a changing economy, as
well as changing political, legal, social,
environmental and technologic conditions.

---Saul Kent

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