X-Message-Number: 26499 Date: Mon, 04 Jul 2005 00:42:27 -0700 From: Mike Perry <> Subject: Re: Finances References: <> At 02:00 AM 7/3/2005, David Stodolsky wrote: >I suggested that a cryonics friendly church could both increase the >population with a financial possibility and "level the playing field" >relative to religious organizations. It could also make it possible to >sign up large groups of persons with a single effort, potentially >multiplying those covered by a factor of two or more. I haven't heard >any objections yet. I don't object either. Attempts in that direction have been made, are ongoing even (Society for Venturism, Society for Universal Immortalism), but the going so far has been slow. >Even many non-religious people prefer to leave their estate to their >family as opposed to investing it the cryonics experiment. I have no >doubt that financial considerations are the primary factor preventing >even people in the the developed countries from signing up. I'd say "discouraging" rather than "preventing"--even though it adds up to the same thing, they don't sign up (even if they could). It doesn't seem likely that cryonics is ever going to be competitive, price-wise, with burial or cremation. The issue is also raised from time to time of low-cost alternatives to cryonics, but so far no serious prospects have materialized. You make the point too that in the world at large cost would be prohibitive--unfortunately probably true, without a massive redistribution of wealth. A starting point might indeed be a cryonics-based religious movement (where the concept of "religion" could be understood in a generalized sense not requiring belief in the supernatural), but again it's easier said than done. Such a movement, though, if it could exist on a sizable scale, might have sufficient resources to begin to help the needy who could not afford the arrangements even as it attracted more who were able to help others. It was nearly 20 years ago (July 11, 1986 to be exact) that the Church of Venturism (name later changed to Society for Venturism) was started to try to do this sort of thing, and otherwise turn the world massively toward cryonics. (David Pizer must be given the main credit for coming up with this idea and implementing it as an Arizona-based, tax-exempt corporation.) The organization still exists but hasn't exactly had the success that was hoped. And I don't see the situation changing much, until scientific breakthroughs convince many people to take a different view than they now do. No amount of either promotional efforts or legal action can substitute for the tangible progress that must be made. Mike Perry Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=26499