X-Message-Number: 262 Date: 14 Dec 90 22:39:31 EST From: "Russell E. Whitaker" <> To: <> Subject: Cryonics in the BBS community Message-Id: <"901215033930 71750.2413 EHE80-1"@CompuServe.COM> Here's some interesting news: someone out there has decided to take cryonics to the BBS community. Here's the text of a letter sent to Alcor recently... **************************************** JOSEPH DUMANOV 55 HILLSIDE ROAD SPARTA, NEW JERSEY 201-729-9538 Carlos Mondragon ALCOR Foundation 12327 Doherty Street Riverside, CA 92503Q9927 Dear Carlos, Thank you for reminding me of my subscription renewal. Enclosed please find a check for it. I have been meaning to contact ALCOR in regards to setting up a computer bulletin board conference open to ALCOR members and people interested in the science of suspension and re-animation and all its possibilities. Let me explain in more detail. I have operated a computer bulletin board system (BBS) named the NEW WORLD'S BBS for nearly five years. This BBS system is in operation 24 hours a day and 365 days a year and is open to all callers. The BBS also supports 8 different languages for foreign users. There are no fees paid by any user for accessing this BBS. Some of the conference areas that the BBS supports include law and medicine. The BBS enjoys a membership of nearly four hundred callers from mostly the Northern New Jersey/NYC metropolitan area and many other callers throughout the U.S. Here is what I'd like to do only with your cooperation and support and at no cost to anyone involved. What I'd like to do because of my interest and belief in the merits of ALCOR's aims and hope to be suspended myself when the time comes I'd like to set up a ALCOR information conference, electronic mail and information file area. The goals of the BBS conference would be for communication and information exchange through this ever-expanding medium. This conference would allow ALCOR members from anywhere in the U.S. or the world to communicate with each other (most likely they will call only in the local area). Callers that have an interest in ALCOR can leave questions and have them answered by qualified ALCOR spokespersons. You may post meeting announcements, news relating to ALCOR developments or anything related to interested parties. If you feel this may be a good way of generating added interest, member communications, or public information I could set the conference up in a short time. One of the things I'd like to do is set up an information file category that contains a list of articles written in your publications. If you have any and all articles on computer disk in any text format, i.e. Wordperfect, Multimate, Displaywrite I could file and catalog them for easy retrieval by any interested callers or members. I will post a bulletin as to where and how people can obtain membership and subscription information for you. The final format of the conference can take any for and me be changed at any time. Suspension/reQanimation is an exciting possibility of the new world and I've found that many users of computers have a real sense of the future and appreciate its possibilities. Well enough for now. If you get a chance give my BBS a call at 201- 729-9538 8-N-1 2400 baud 24hrs to see its present format or contact me with your thoughts on my suggestion at the above voice number or address. Sincerely, Joseph M. Dumanov P.S. You may publish this letter and all ALCOR members are welcomed to call! *********************************************** R.W.: I spoke to Joe Dumanov today, after having called up his BBS last night and this afternoon. It's a fairly standard PC BBS, running PC Board. Joe's willing to put aside several megabytes for storage of archived text, and provide a conferencing/messaging area. I have several MB of cryonet material (Keith: what's the storage total so far for these messages?) and quite a bit of Alcor introductory text I can send to him. In addition, Hugh Hixon, an editor of Cryonics magazine, has offered to give me the 10MB of magazine text which comprises the history of the magazine. Max More, editor/publisher of Extropy magazine, a libertarian/immortalist monthly, will contribute the full text of his back issues. Joe's board isn't yet connected to a news or mail net. He wasn't familiar with Fidonet, the largest organization of PC BBS's. He is, however, seriously considering picking up the mailer software required to participate, and should have it up within 2-3 months. What this means is that users of his board can receive cryonet mailings, via the Fidonet/Internet gateway(s), and vice versa. Dumanov stated that he would actively promote a (PC) net conference on cryonics, and will start by touting to his friends in the New York/New Jersey area, most particularly those who operate multi-line BBS's to which he could replicate the files I supply him. His efforts should prove immediately useful to the New York and Boston cryonics discussion groups of Alcor, due to the obviously lower costs of telephoning his BBS. It shouldn't be forgotten, however, that even those of us in far-flung California and other Great West territories can afford the call, IF we pick up accounts with packet carriers like SprintNet, and their bulk-time buyers such as PC-Pursuit. Costs of calling coast-to-coast - for data exchange - can be driven down to $1.50 or less per hour. Next project: reanimation of The Portal Alcor SIG... stay tuned. Russell E. Whitaker Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=262