X-Message-Number: 1454
Subject: CRYONICS Re: Fellow Travelers
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 92 11:56:31 EST
From: 

Charles Platt <> says:
>Also, as I understand it, libertarianism is about liberty. No 
>barriers; no discrimination. The policy of the US Libertarian 
>Party, for instance, is to eliminate all barriers to 
>immigration. Likewise, I would imagine that cryonics 
>organizations with a libertarian mindset should be equally 
>open to all potential members. It would bother me if I felt 
>that Alcor deliberately avoided promoting itself in groups 
>suspected of socialism, or other sins. 

First point: we need to distinguish "equally open" from "equally
promoted".  "Equal Openness" means that if someone wants to be
suspended, the cryonics organization (c.o.) will have a go at it
regardless of the person's race or political beliefs or whatever.
"Equal promotion" means (I assume) that the c.o. spends approximately
equal amounts of money promoting themselves to various groups.  Equal
openness makes good business and moral sense; equal promotion is a bad
idea, and neither one has much to do with libertarianism unless the
c.o. somehow becomes part of the government.

Second point: Equal promotion is a bad idea, both morally and in a
business sense.  If a cryonics organization wants to suspend as many
people as possible, it needs to concentrate its promotion efforts on
those who are predisposed to respond.  Suppose it takes $1000 of
promotion to get a blonde to sign up and $100 of promotion to get a
brunette to sign up.  Each $1000 of promotion the c.o. spends to
attract blondes loses them 9 members.  Assuming all members have equal
value, the c.o. should spend all of their advertising money attracting
brunettes.  From a moral point of view, either cryonics doesn't work
(and the c.o. should close up shop) or it can work and the c.o. should
save as many people as possible; I see no way to make a case that
saving a blonde is 10 times better than saving a brunette.

Third point: Unequal openness is compatible with libertarianism, but
it's a bad idea.  Libertarianism is about consensual relationships
between people, and the c.o. is a group of people.  If a c.o. chooses
to only suspend people with toes longer than 1.5 inches, then that is
within their rights under a libertarian system.  However, that
practice would be poor business, and I would avoid a c.o. that was run
by people that crazy, even though I have the requisite toe length.
Similarly, deciding not to promote cryonics to a particular group only
because the c.o. thinks they are evil is bad (both financially and
morally), but doing it because they are unresponsive is good (both
financially and morally).

Tim Freeman

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