X-Message-Number: 16249
Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 09:41:19 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: more on Alcor's problems and OURS

Hi everyone!

For those who have asked, I am quite interested in the possibility of
using PayPal, which would solve a continuing problem with getting
payment from those who for one reason or another can't pay cash.
I am investigating this issue directly and hope to give some kind
of answer in time (remembering that letters can take a while if
they are required).

I can understand but remain disappointed that Alcor's discussion of
its British members on its (Alcor's) website is behind the times.
Frankly they look to me as if they are trying to shoot themselves
in the foot, not a good spectacle. So here are some very simple
questions:

1. It is my responsibility to obtain funding and keep it. This remains
   true no matter where I live. Has Alcor encountered problems here
   which it has not so far encountered with US residents? If so,
   just what are they? Please be explicit.

2. Yes, the vitrification methods require that they be applied
   quite soon after legal death. The same results, in terms of how
   well a suspension goes, remain true for older methods.
   The earlier Alcor responded to these problems not by excluding 
   members but by thinking about how the required methods could
   be applied ... with minimum personel, and with equipment present
   close to the member. SO: has anyone at Alcor devoted any thought
   at all to what can be done for those who may not live right 
   next door to Alcor? And if so, what would be needed? And if
   not, WHY NOT?

   I WILL ADD HERE that vitrification probably needs different
   equipment etc than "simple freezing". My own reading about
   vitrification, including whatever I can get about the work of
   INC and 21st Century Medicine, do not convince me at all that
   these methods cannot be adapted to emergencies. If it becomes
   a simple matter of the capital required, then foreign members
   would rank as those who would be most willing to provide some
   ... given that they gain from it.

3. Up until now Alcor has remained the largest society. However 
   changes seem to be afoot. They may move even more rapidly if
   (as I understand) Pichugin ends up working for Michigan. The 
   technical position of Alcor may well then end up BEHIND, at
   least in terms of finding ways to use vitrification as an
   emergency process. After all, who has been working on brain
   vitrification for months now?

Just some questions for Alcor and Alcor managers. Perhaps Fred
and Linda Chamberlain want their society to shrink to the size
it had when they were last heads of it, but that is hardly something
the members would want.

		Best wishes and long long life for all,

			Thomas Donaldson

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