X-Message-Number: 24697
From: "James Clement" <>
References: <>
Subject: Marketing Cryonics (formerly Cryonics and Islam)
Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2004 07:50:07 -0400


The former Libertarian Presidential candidate, Harry Browne recently blogged the
following:


"It seems to me that a lot of time is wasted by libertarians who argue whether 
it's possible to have a society without any government at all.  What's the 
point?  Right now, we're $2.3 trillion away from no government and about $2.2 
trillion from limited government..."  He goes on to suggest that Libertarians 
work together to reduce government to the billion-dollar range, and then worry 
about what the right amount should be at that point.


I would argue that trying to figure out how to market Cryonics to Muslims (or 
people in ANY religion) is a waste of time at this point.  I find it extremely 
difficult to even convince atheists/CR/longevity enthusiasts to consider 
Cryonics, let alone anyone who is deeply religious.  The most important targets 
for immediate membership in Cryonics are people "like us" rather than the public
at large.  The key to increasing our numbers is finding out the common 
denominators for the present members, and working  from there.  For this reason,
I have suggested to Alcor and CI that they work on putting together demographic
information about their current members so that they can analyze common threads
in education, occupation, age, sex, personal interests, etc. for marketing 
purposes.  


At this time, no organization runs ads in magazines where we could expect to 
find potential converts (here's a topic for this forum: which magazines would 
you target: Wired, Scientific America, Popular Science, Life Extension, etc?).  
The entrepreneur in me can't help thinking that a lot of potential members 
simply haven't been given the right information (e.g., how inexpensive signing 
up for Cryonics really is, and how quickly we're moving towards the technology 
that would be necessary to make reanimation feasible).  


I strongly agree with the sentiment that Alcor and CI should not be engaged in 
one-upmanship.  In this regard, it might even be worthwhile to have a separate, 
NFP Cryonics marketing organization whose sole purpose is to serve as a central 
clearinghouse for information on Cryonics and publicize the existence of the 
prominent facilities in the U.S. which offer Cryonics services.  It could train 
and schedule speakers who could be available to discuss Cryonics to various 
groups, colleges, etc. (most organizations have such speakers lists) and provide
other valuable services to promoting Cryonics.  


Let's use our combined time and energy to figure out constructive ways to 
promote Cryonics to the people who already lean towards our worldview and leave 
off-topics to other forums. 



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