X-Message-Number: 9841 Date: Tue, 2 Jun 1998 09:59:39 -0400 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: CryoNet #9831 - #9840 Hi everyone! It's late here so I will try to be brief, at least relatively. To Saul: Well, Saul, I think you make a BIG logical mistake. The "future" is not one time. It is more different times (and probably more different societies) than have existed in all our previous history. Yes, there will be a time when repairing the brain of a cryonics patients suspended today will be a big undertaking, as you say one of the biggest the society of that day attempts. But what about 50 years after that? or 100 years? As an outer limit (and I think it will become "simple" long before that) I find it quite impossible to believe that in the year 3000 (Christian era) IF we learn how to revive people at all, it will not look like the simplest of tasks. Something you give to a youngster (not that there will be many youngsters around) as a minor exercise in medicine. Naturally I'd like to be revived much earlier than the year 3000 (though if that's when I have to be revived, well, at least I was revived and will be alive). And I even believe that it will become simple and routine well before 3000. AS for funding, I myself am trying to provide much more than the minimum, for exactly the reasons you give: we can't really tell what contingencies will occur. I even explain to those who ask about cryonics that the minimum given by the societies is not a price, it is an estimate of the minimum amount needed to keep them in suspension, not the same thing at all. Finally, I do not understand at all what you mean when you say that even if we cannot "validly" estimate the price of reanimation we should still try to do so. ???? To BF Shelton: There are 2 problems the societies all face in doing what you say. First, it IS more expensive, and money doesn't fall from the sky. And second, under every heading you list there are ongoing attempts to at least move closer to the situation you describe. Cryocare has its dewars in hollow cylinders dug into the ground; Alcor went to Arizona for several reasons, among which it was less subject to earthquakes. As for Alcor, there is always at least one person living on site to take care of any breakdowns, and the dewars are fitted with various alarms. I'd not be surprised if the other societies do the same, I can only speak for Alcor here. If you decide to join a society you'll quickly learn about the precautions they are taking. And although I personally would put research to improve our methods above further precautions of the kind you describe (at least for my own society) it would be open to you to donate money to put in more precautions. If you can finance an LN machine, all the better. You will probably also get replies from officers of each society explaining their own precautions, of course --- much better than I could do so myself. Best to all, and long long life, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=9841