X-Message-Number: 16224 Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 10:46:57 -0400 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: praise for ideas, negatives for Alcor Hi everyone! I have given INC money to help carry it over, too. If Ben Best wants to know more about its history I'm happy to oblige, and I believe I am still on the Board, though without any real power. I will also add that the comments about an organization which would allow you to use a credit card to pay someone/some group which cannot get a credit card for itself is IMPORTANT and worth paying attention to. I myself would like to allow payment by credit card for PERIASTRON but so far haven't been able to arrange the credit card use directly. Alan Mole should be commended for coming up with this suggestion. AS for the new approach Alcor now takes to those who live overseas, it is BAD BAD BAD, for many different reasons. The least such reason is that it means that most overseas members of Alcor are going to disappear in the direction of some other organization, slowly or rapidly. Other reasons: it's quite possible to work out ways to deal with virtually any life insurance problem; this is especially so because many of these life insurance companies actually are worldwide, with branches in different countries. I say this not because I think it will always be easy, but because life insurance as payment for cryonics is something which MANY people have and use, and it's THEIR responsibility, not that of Alcor, to verify that their policies will serve. Almost all such policies by honest companies are going to serve; so far I'm not aware of any role of national boundaries in breakdowns of life insurance, for instance. Not only that, but as I understand it the cryobiologist from the Ukraine, Pichugin, will be going to work for the Cryonics Institute. While their current methods need LOTS of work, this may not be a permanent situation. I myself have US insurance, even though I now live in Australia. This affects the issue in my case a fair bit, but I will add that I may still, in the end, decide to change my cryonics group. I would do so at once if the Cryonics Institute began to get much better means of suspension, ideally also with head-only suspensions (my understanding of the situation is that being able to suspend heads only by the latest methods looks like it will come earlier than whole bodies ... and those who want to use it should be able to). After all, I have friends who do NOT have US policies; even if Alcor treats us just like it treats the British members (actually likely) the real problem is that nobody wants to end up as one of the very few members of a society while some other society has MANY members. Apparently use of vitrification requires more preparation, and this is given as one reason (among several) that Alcor doesn't want members without US insurance policies. The proper approach to such a situation is to find out how to organize foreign groups so that the extra preparation becomes accessible, not to simply abandon them. Some of Mike Darwin's ideas, for instance, will help a lot. Alcor has become fat and happy, not a good situation, no matter what restricted policies they choose to institute. Best wishes and long long life for all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=16224