X-Message-Number: 28342
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 13:30:10 -0400 (EDT)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: Potvin, Bridge
References: <>

Alas the reincarnation of Rick Potvin has alas returned to
haunt us, necessitating more denials of totally fabricated
"news," this time regarding paramedic Bill Voice.

Bill visited Suspended Animation once in January 2005, and a
second time quite recently, for a training session where SA
allowed Alcor to use its facility.

There is no other connection between Bill and SA, and never
has been. I have no idea what Bill's plans are right now, but
they do not involve SA in any way.

Regarding Bill's departure from Alcor, I heard about it from
several sources and thus assumed it was already known. I
apologize if I mentioned something that was supposed to be
confidential, but, no one told me it was confidential.
Normally when a person leaves an organization, the absence is
obvious. If there are circumstances of which I am not aware,
the clarification (if any) would come from Alcor or Bill.

--

Steve Bridge writes:

> Part of the problem has been our expectations.  Most of the people who have
> been deeply involved in cryonics have made it a major part of their lives.

This is true. For many years I have felt that cryonics must
go through a difficult intermediary period, during which the
total number of memberships in all organizations will rise
slowly from around 1,000 to perhaps 10,000. During this
period, cryonics will be too big to be run by volunteers, but
too small to be profitable. Sustaining standby-transport
service will be quite challenging.

It's no trick to get a bunch of volunteers when there's only
one case per year. Curiosity value alone will bring people
in. But when you expect the same people to come back three or
four times a year, they tend to get tired. In addition,
people naturally tend to respond more readily as volunteers
when they are personally acquainted with the patient. As
cryonics evolves beyond a small community, this personal link
becomes less likely.

> how often Charles has found it necessary to replace one professional with

> another, one hospital or emergency contact with another.  How long have his 
current
> group of cooperating medical personnel been working with Suspended Animation?

There has been some turnover among SA employees, but very
little turnover among any of our core group of medically
trained people. One person who had been a fulltime employee
was uncomfortable with the change of management that occurred
2 years ago, but he may be having second thoughts. A couple
of paramedics who were available to us as independent
contractors seemed to lose interest and drift away, but that
was probably because we didn't have cases for them. We still
have 9 paramedics/EMTs/nurses available, 3 surgeons (1
cardiovascular, 2 research), three MDs, and others with
medical experience, all as independent contractors, plus some
Alcor ACTs who have indicated their availability.

Currently at SA we have staff members who have been here for
2+ years, 2 years, 1+ year, 1 year, 6 months--and a couple
of people who joined very recently. This is not so different,
in my experience, from a typical Silicon Valley startup (I
visited many such companies while I was a technical
journalist).

--Charles Platt

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