X-Message-Number: 1447
Date: 15 Dec 92 03:21:21 EST
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: Re: cryonics: #1439 - #1443

Some comments in reverse order:
1. Longevity of fruit flies. This was actually one of the articles in
   the latest PERIASTRON, too, with comments about what it may mean.
2. The merits of competition in cryonics.
   Since in my posting I did not discuss that issue explicitly, I will
   add a little bit to it to do so. One of the most current problems
   we have is that Alcor remains (despite politics) far ahead of the
   other cryonics groups. If competition is a good thing, then Alcor
   suffers now from the fact that it has none. But splitting Alcor will
   not solve that problem either: suppose that it is done well and 
   carefully. We then have a STORAGE organization which is well ahead
   of any other, and will suffer from the same lack of competition.
   Splitting Alcor will not of itself create competition at all, for
   any of the parts that result. 

   There is another matter, and I would ask the reader to keep in mind
   that I am not putting it forward as an argument pro or con about
   splitting, but because the issue of competition and its merits was
   brought up. I personally have a great deal of sympathy with that 
   kind of libertarian position. HOWEVER I think that it has to be 
   examined in much more detail than just taking it as an axiom. Among
   other essential problems to competition among storage organizations,
   we have the fact that their REAL clientele, the patients in storage,
   aren't in any condition at all to choose between storage organizations.
   True, it's easy to see how to contract out some ACTIVITIES involved
   in storage ie. providing LN2, filling capsules, guarding them, etc.
   Someday we may even have several cryonics groups as good as Alcor,
   in which case people, WHILE ALIVE, BUT ONLY WHILE ALIVE, can choose
   between them. The problem is that of choosing a trustee when you,
   yourself, will not be able to criticise or revoke your choice. 

   Presently cryonics has far too short a history to let anyone make a
   choice of society on the basis of their past record. The problem with
   competition in the case of cryonics storage is that even those able
   to choose have almost no history of performance by which to judge;
   and those who REALLY need to make a choice cannot do so because they
   are the ones in storage.

   Those who know me also know that I am a firm atheist. However I must
   say that the one form of institution which shows great longevity is
   religious organizations. Furthermore, these organizations are NOT
   run for profit but on a voluntary basis (yes, things can go wrong
   with that, but when they do it is NOT perceived as OK but as fraud).
   And of course, an organization run on a volunteer basis, just like a
   church, can contract out for all kinds of services; but the fundamental
   core of the organization, the one responsible (in cryonics) for making
   the decisions about patient care (where the buck stops) remains that
   volunteer organization.
3. Isamu Suda did not die after that article. He became President of his
   University and retired from research. When I was in Japan I specifically
   went to his university to meet him, and he was not doing research but
   very much alive. And bemused by the result of his papers in the US:
   he called in a photographer to take a picture of my bracelet.

				Long life,
					Thomas Donaldson

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