X-Message-Number: 18460 From: "George Smith" <> References: <> Subject: A suggestion. Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2002 09:56:20 -0800 Ron Havelock wrote in Message #18457 in part in discussing reasons for developing an "umbrulla" cryonics organization:: > I hear a concern for strained and overextended resources and talent. > However, there are these needs that the current organizations can't or won't > meet. > > 1. Objective, unaligned information clearinghouse. Helping users understand > their options and make intelligent choices. <snip> This issue can be overcome by simple links on all websites to all other websites. I was with ALCOR before learning of CI but back then the internet was not what it is today. It only takes a few minutes to place a link to other related groups. I encourage all organizations to do this. > 2. A charitable foundation. <snip> The Venturists have stepped forward on this and could continue to do so. > 3. A persistently pounding public relations office: pursuit of every > opportunity to appear on radio and television and the print media. <snip> I have mixed feelings on this based only on WHO will say WHAT on the media for cryonics. Not that long ago there was a local radio talk program with cryonicists on it but their pessimism was so great I think they were probably driving people away without meaning to. If the PR agency were skilled in proper ad psychology then this would be productive. Otherwise, please keep the "realists" off the air! > 4. An organizational home base for those who have serious interest but are > unwilling or unable to commit to one or the other of the service providers at > this time. <snip> This has more to say about decision making being made easier, perhaps through simplifying the sign up process, than anything else. Why people wait around trying to outguess the future by picking the "right" cryonics organization is beyond me. If you don't want to be radioactive get off ground zero. Any direction will do. Change directions later when your are outside the mortality kill zone. > 5. We need an organizational home base for those who are so geographically > remote from either Arizona or Michigan to have a realistic chance of > cryopreservation. <snip> "Realistic"? Until time travellers tell us the future criteria which will absolutely work, this is the wrong word entirely. I feel it creates needless conflict. It would be PREFERABLE to die close to your chosen organization to increase the likelihood you will get "better" treatment (as guessed at by our respective cryonics providers today) but this hubris about pretending to know what will be REQUIRED is nonsense and creates problems between us. I feel that this at the heart of all our current organizational differences, a disagreement regarding what will probably be required by the future to do the job. IF we can tolerate the differing OPINIONS about this issue and continue to pool efforts through communication cooperation, I can see where there could be benefits. But as long as the beliefs of some with a year 2002 grasp of medical technology continue to be promoted as indicative of what will prove later to be required by 2052 (pick your year) medical technology, we will continue to have problems. THIS IS UNNECESSARY. I would suggest as a first step to improve communications between ourselves that we remember carefully that our chromosome count (human) indicates that we can make mistakes and be wrong, and that our track record for predicting the details of the future ESPECIALLY IN TERMS OF TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES has historically been well below chance! A sensible degree of humility in regard to what WILL BE combined with our best guesses of what MIGHT BE needs to rule our decisions and communications if we don't want to go off in our own little stubborn directions instead of forging stronger alliances within our tiny community. Just my opinion, George Smith CI member Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=18460