X-Message-Number: 193
From att!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!Eric_S_Klien Wed Jun 27 00:04:10 1990
Return-Path: <att!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!Eric_S_Klien>
Received: from att.UUCP by whscad1.att.uucp (4.1/SMI-3.2)
id AA10132; Wed, 27 Jun 90 00:04:09 EDT
Received: from portal.UUCP by sun.Sun.COM (4.1/SMI-4.1)
id AA02909; Tue, 26 Jun 90 20:32:19 PDT
From: sun!portal!cup.portal.com!Eric_S_Klien
Received: by portal.portal.com (%I%)
id AA21641; Tue, 26 Jun 90 20:00:40 PDT
Received: by hobo.portal.com (4.0/SMI-4.0)
id AA11228; Tue, 26 Jun 90 20:00:38 PDT
To: , , ixi!mike, ,
,
Subject: Meeting Minutes
Lines: 201
Date: Tue, 26-Jun-90 20:00:37 PDT
Message-Id: <>
X-Origin: The Portal System (TM)
X-Possible-Reply-Path:
X-Possible-Reply-Path: sun!portal!cup.portal.com!Eric_S_Klien
ALCOR BOSTON DISCUSSION GROUP MINUTES
Sunday June 24th 3:00 - 7:00 PM
Attendees [Eric Klien is the best contact to call for more information.]
---------
Eric Klien Peter Hurst
1 Sinai Circle B10 1850 Commonwealth Ave
Chelmsford, MA 01824 Brighton, MA 02135
(508) 663-5480 Work (617) 277-2003 Home
(508) 250-0820 Home
Ralph Whelan Stephen McCusker
52 Willow St. 14 Wilmot St.
Mansfield, MA 02048 Watertown, MA 02172
(508) 339-2666 Home (617) 926-1058 Home
Ron Evans
195 Highland Ave #1
Somerville, MA 02143
or
89 Mass Ave Suite 199
Boston, MA 02115
(617) 666-2535 Home
(617) 736-4584 Work
General Comments
----------------
This meeting went much better than expected. EVERY person who has
ever contacted me about Alcor attended. Also, most were well
informed about Alcor and many questions were answered by people
besides me.
Literature
----------
Much literature was given out, including my entire collection of
Cryonics. If Alcor can quote me a price on back issues, I would be
interested. All the minutes I had of other groups including the U.K.
group, two copies of Singularity that contained my cryonics article,
the Canadian and Australian newsletters, most of my Foresight
literature, all but one of my Venturist issues, many articles, ten of
my old Alcor literature pamphlets and all of my new pamphlets were
given out. Additional literature was read but not taken home.
TransTime and Cryonics Institute literature was also shown and was
considered to be less well done and more importantly, less regularly
printed. The recent improvements in Alcor literature were praised
and considered a big plus in recruiting people. The $8.00/12 issue
cost of the Venturist was considered a big plus for that magazine.
The recent burial of time capsules by the Venturist was discussed
including the objects that I put in a 250 year capsule.
Member Recruitment
------------------
The idea was discussed to use the MIT Nanotech mailing list. Stephen
McCusker will look into this. Ron Evans mentioned that his fiancee
may attend our next meeting. CompuServe and Usenet e-mail
discussions were also mentioned. Stephen mentioned that he may get a
PC and modem for this purpose. Ron Evans,
or and Eric Klien,
or already had
PC and modems. It was noted that e-mail recruitment has not been
very successful so far.
Peter Hurst discussed using Alcor speakers to increase meeting
interest (and to print flyers to publicize this), but it was
considered premature since we are only five strong. Peter has
contacted someone whose niece was dying and they had gotten forms
from Alcor. He mentioned that the parents were not ready to consider
cryonics because the daughter has not been declared "terminal".
The fact that other cryonics groups do not regularly list the
amount of members that they have was mentioned. Their lack of growth
was considered the reason for this policy. It was also said that if
thousands of people became members, these numbers would impress
people and cause more people to join. This cycle could be self-
perpetuating.
Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous
---------------------------------
Peter Hurst showed us his tape of the Lifestyles of the Rich and
Famous cryonics episode. The episode was considered quite good and
accurate except for the part about all cryonicists being millionares.
He also showed us tabloid articles about Elizabeth Taylor and Michael
Jackson. The tabloid articles were considered better publicity than
none although it was not believed that either star was being frozen.
Plans were made to tape the next time the L.A. Law episode is shown.
(My copy has been sent to someone in Canada.) No interest was shown
in seeing the tapes of the Sonya Live episode or the ST:TNG episode.
Lifestyles of the Not So Famous
-------------------------------
Lowering cholesteral levels was considered important. Taking lots of
vitamins was not. Noone was a big fan of exercising and we had the
bodies to prove it. The Pritikin diet was praised although it was
mentioned that he died of cancer. It was agreed that no lifestyle
would do much for your lifespan compared to cryonics.
Lifestyles of the Future
------------------------
Enchancements to the body in the future were discussed. Having
perfect vision, eyes in the back of the head, four arms, better
memory, and arms that branch infinitely to allow manipulation of
objects on the atomic scale were discussed. Being able to reverse
aging and to increase the metabolism or stop body absorbment of food
were also mentioned. It was decided that the current problem of
people getting fat as they get older should be solved.
It was also mentioned that having robots and nearly unlimited solar
energy would greatly increase personal wealth in the future. Saul
Kent's promotion of investments in Liechtenstein was criticized for
promising inflated returns.
Nanotechnology
--------------
It was mentioned that the normal 10 member MIT Nanotech meetings
soared to 30 people when Mike Darwin spoke last summer. The possible
software problems of nanotechnology were also discussed, with 40
years until the hardware is developed and another 10 years to develop
the software shown as one possible scenario. The possibility of
computers programming themselves to get around this software problem
was mentioned.
The self replicating molecules developed by a MIT scientist were
discussed. It was decided that the molecules must contain DNA-like
information that allows mutations before they are considered "life".
The MIT scientist is now working on this problem. The genetic
engineering that will soon be done in people with deficient immune
systems was also discussed.
The Foresight newsletter and how to subscribe to it was discussed.
Scientific American and Discover were mentioned as additional sources
of nanotechnology news.
Neuropreservation
-----------------
It was noted that it takes longer to cool down a whole body compared
to just a head. The fact that a head could be transported easier
from coast to coast was mentioned although it was pointed out that it
will be a long time until the East coast has the ability to do a
complete freezing process so this was now irrelevant. It was hoped
that the Boston group would eventually have EMT training so that we
could at least stabilize patients. This goal would be looked into
further once we had at least two Alcor members. It was said that
whole body would be superior once bodies could be frozen without any
damage.
Term vs Whole Life Insurance
----------------------------
These two forms of life insurance were debated. The consensus seemed
to be for term insurance because it is cheaper. The advantage of
flat payments and for coverage beyond age 68 for whole life insurance
did not seem to be important enough. The fact that Massachusetts
offers the lowest term rates in the country was also a factor. The
idea of suing an insurance company for refusing to insure cryonics
was mentioned but rejected by one member because it would be too much
of a hassle. The inexpensive term insurance offered by Massachusetts
banks does insure cryonics.
Publicity
---------
It was mentioned that the amount of Alcor publicity has increased a
lot during the past three years. Alcor's many lawsuits were
considered the main cause of this. The Dora Kent lawsuit was
discussed and it was believed that this case has not been completely
settled although no action has been taken by the Coroner during the
past year. The Californian government's idea to license cryonics
groups was mentioned including the fact that the governent has no
idea how to implement the licensing process.
Lifepact
--------
The Chamberlain's founding of Alcor and Lifepact was discussed.
Lifepact's idea of storing valuables in a place far from the body was
considered much smarter than the Egyptian's method of storing lots of
valuables next to the body. We don't want future criminals attacking
Alcor for valuable goods!
Books
-----
It is recommended that any cryonics related books be brought to the
next meeting for distribution. I will bring my copy of Engines of
Creation.
Questions
---------
If any e-mail people reading these minutes have questions that they
would like answered in future meetings, send me the questions and
they will be answered in the next minutes published.
Mistakes
--------
If any of these minutes reflect mistaken information, let Eric Klien
know!
Future Meetings
---------------
The next meetings will probably be on Aug 26, Oct 28, and Dec 30
assuming that we get sufficient new interested people. We will start
meeting monthly if we get a high rate of growth. The meeting place
and meeting date will be confirmed once we get a few more people.
Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=193