X-Message-Number: 17115
From: 
Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 11:28:24 EDT
Subject: Doctors choose cryonics

Thomas R Mazanec writes in part:
 
 > Thousands of people, at most, have signed up for cryonics. Why do 99.9% of 
the >smart, educated, wealthy population have nothing to do with cryonics? 

True, our numbers are still very small--but proportionately much larger among 
those smartest and best informed. "Doctors choose cryonics, 9 to 1." I.e., 
the number of physicians in cryonics is about 9 times what you would expect 
on a population-proportionate basis. Even more for Ph.D.s. 

>They know of it...for a third of a century cryonics has been 
popularized...probably >as many people have heard of it as have heard of 
flying saucers. 

Not correct. Surprisingly large numbers have never heard of it. And it is 
only in the last couple of years that those urgently in need have been able 
to find us easily.

>Yet you can't get more than a minimum of people to sign up. Diagnose what is 
>wrong, then prescribe how to cure this. 

Really! You could say that about any problem at all--"Figure it out and fix 
it." Will Rogers in WW I  had a sure cure for the U-boat problem--just boil 
the Atlantic Ocean. How? That detail he left to the technicians.

>Otherwise, at best you'll be a small fraction of a percent of the world, 
with cash flow >problems constantly hanging like a sword over the heads of 
the cryonics >companies.
 
The largest cryonics organizations have been getting stronger financially, 
not weaker, and membership growth, especially at CI, has been accelerating 
(although still small). Neither inflation nor deflation can touch us. 

We have plenty of problems, and no one is complacent, but exaggerating the 
problems, without contributing anything truly constructive, doesn't help 
either, and in fact can only be counterproductive.

Robert Ettinger
Cryonics Institute
Immortalist Society
http://www.cryonics.org

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