X-Message-Number: 26706 From: Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 16:39:13 EDT Subject: Comparisons and Perspectives Two Content-Language: en From Michael Riskin Ph.D, CPA, Alcor Board Chairman. For my second post on the comparisons and perspectives thread I am reprinting Mr. Ettinger s post with my comments preceded by *** following his. Message #26690 From: Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 10:58:26 EDT Subject: comparisons & perspectives Mr. Ettinger: Someone asked about the number of fully signed up members CI has, and then offered his own assessment of the numbers. Ben is out of town *** Does that mean that Mr. Ettinger does not know how many fully signed up members CI has, or does he know and prefers not wish to state it? Perhaps when Mr Best returns, he can answer the question. As to the alleged membership numbers, I don't have those handy, but they are less important than some other considerations. *** See above. Certainly one of the most important numbers is the patient population, and Cryonics Institute has a slight lead there, according to available figures, 68 to 67. *** Not exactly correct. Alcor has 68 patients. In addition, over 5 and perhaps as many as 10 of CI s patients were referred to CI by Alcor. These were last minute, non Alcor members, that Alcor determined to have seriously questionable issues relating to the circumstances of their pronouncement, or, were unprepared to manage Alcor s service fees without preplanning. The top consideration, for those who can afford it, is probable quality of cryopreservation. This is a long and complicated story, but as far as the available evidence indicates, there is no clear or proven leader. CI has the best professional research program, although we are told that Alcor is making efforts to catch up there . *** CI has the best is simply an opinion presented without supporting fact. He implies that Alcor is somehow behind in research. All I ask anyone to do is request and review the facts and decide for themselves. Perhaps the next consideration is future prospects of growth. In the past, Alcor has attracted more of the wealthy, by claiming to be top of the line . *** Perhaps these wealthy members, who could afford to go anywheres, independently compared various organizations and found Alcor s claim of superiority to be correct. Perhaps that is also the same reason why the great majority of referenced and quoted cryonics scientists and authors, in CI s own website, are actually Alcor members. CI has gained more of the unprepared emergencies, both because of lower prices and because of better response. The perception of quality is changing, because of CI's vitrification advances, and possibly also because of CI's agreement making Suspended Animation services available to CI members. Nobody is stagnant, and future relative changes cannot be predicted with confidence. I hope and believe that both will do well, and absolute growth is more important than relative growth. (ACS is also still active, and Trans Time is still in business.) *** Again, CI can claim to have better response but again, it is no more than an unsupported claim in Mr. Ettingers post. Once we reach the big growth-spurt point, at some unknown future time, there will be many changes, including more active opposition on the one hand, and more new competition on the other. Maybe General Electric will become the big player, or some new heavyweight. That will be all to the good. The main thing for the individual, as always, is to make a commitment while you still can. *** I am absolutely in total agreement with this statement. *** Michael Riskin, Board Chairman, Alcor Life Extension Foundation Robert Ettinger Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=26706