X-Message-Number: 311
From att!cup.portal.com!Eric_S_Klien Sat Apr 20 16:15:43 PDT 1991
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Subject: Alcor Boston Minutes
Date: Sat, 20 Apr 91 16:15:43 PDT
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ALCOR BOSTON MINUTES
Sunday April 14th 3:00 - 8:30 PM
Attendees
---------
There were 5.
Meeting Dates
-------------
Our next meetings will be on May 12, June 9, July 14, and Aug 11 at
3:00 PM. Location of the meetings will be at the home of Eric Klien,
1 Sinai Circle B10, Chelmsford, MA 01824 until further notice. (508)
663-5480 Work, (508) 250-0820 Home, e-mail.
To get to my house take 128 to 3 north, then take the route 110 exit
towards Chelmsford (making a right off the exit), then travel 1.5
miles and turn left in front of the CVS onto Wilson street. After
entering Wilson street, make a right into my apartment complex. If
you miss Wilson street and find yourself in the big 129 and 110
intersection, make a left onto 129 and then a left onto Wilson street
and then a left into my apartment complex.
Please bring folding chairs.
Member Recruitment
------------------
We had 5 people show up at this meeting, with one person being new.
As long as we get one new person at each meeting, we will meet once a
month. We will meet once every two months if we fail to recruit new
blood. Walter's objectivist seminar and my free ad failed to bring
any new people to this meeting.
If anyone reading this can promote our next meeting I would
appreciate it. I am especially looking for ways to do local mass
mailings. And of course, two of our subscribers publish their own
zines and could mention the dates of my next meetings...
Finances
--------
The following amounts were contributed to cover Alcor Boston mailing
costs: Charlie Hartman - $4.16. I will quadruple this amount and
send the $16.64 to Alcor's endowment fund. I will at least match all
future postage donations. I received a thank you note from David
Pizer, the Alcor treasurer, in response to our last donation.
SETI Research
-------------
In response to our discussion last meeting, I got the following from
Hugh Hixon:
You missed a couple of possibilities:
1. There are a number of probabilities in the Drake Equation that may
be way too high.
2. Thomas Donaldson has hypothesized that intelligence inevitably
discovers some totally intriguing thing and disappears into it. An
intellectual black hole. Virtual reality with a very high rate
relative to reality might be such a thing.
3. There may be some as yet undiscovered facet of physics that is
uniformly fatal when applied. I.e., an easy way is found to tap the
vacuum energy. Uncontrollably.
4. Despite our success so far, it is NOT obvious that either
intelligence or technological civilization are survival traits in the
long term. For example, Confucianism is a rather deep cultural trap.
And it is not the only one. Be on the lookout for intellectual and
cultural dead-ends. See for example the TIME article on
*communitarianism*, Feb 25 '91, p 71.
In general, that we do not observe other civilizations makes me VERY
uneasy. Think about it.
--Hugh Hixon.
Alcor Finances
--------------
We decided that the best way to solve the cost of new Alcor braclets
is to charge each member the $30 cost. The vote was 5-0. Now that
Alcor is putting a toll free number on the bracelets, we shouldn't
have to worry about changing area codes in the future.
My Finances
-----------
It looks like I am going to start having capital gain tax problems.
Can anyone tell me what states and countries have low capital gain
rates? So far it looks like I will move to Texas within the next 12
months. I am also interested in the margin rates of various
countries.
Seeking Senescence
------------------
In the Scientific American April 1991, there was an article about the
search for genes that control how many times a cell can divide. I quote:
"One popular notion is that cellular aging is the cumulative result
of small random changes, a breakdown provoked by a torrent of
unintended results. Others argue that senescence in normal cells is
probably controlled by specific genes. 'If you think that normal
cells age because they are damaged, then immortal cells must have
somthing that lets them escape', says Oliver M. Pereira-Smith, a
geneticist at the Huffington Center on Aging at the Baylor College of
Medicine in Houston.
Pereira-Smith and her colleague Yi Ning began examining cells that
divide indefinitely, searching for a gene to induce aging and so stop
proliferation. Their results, which will be published in the
'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences', indicate that one
such gene involved in aging may be located on chromosone 4 in
humans."
The article goes on to say that adding chromosone 11 to a cancer cell
seemed to have no effect, but adding chromosone 4 did. They are now
looking for the gene on chromosone 4 that is causing the change.
Engines of Creation
-------------------
It was mentioned that a Libertarian, Karl Hess, endorses this book as
mentioned on p. 9 of the LF book catalog. You can get this catalog
by calling 800-326-0994. We will use this fact in any future
advertising to Libertarian groups.
Patient Defined Death in New Jersey
-----------------------------------
[ To conserve space, I removed the text of the April 10 message #292.
I would be happy to resend it to anyone who missed it. - KQB ]
Risks Special
-------------
We discussed the recent PBS special. Our group also did well in the
Rank the Risks test from the WGBH magazine. The only big mistake we
made was to rank fire fighting much more dangerous than x-rays.
The Methuselah Gene
-------------------
This gene was mentioned in an April 5, 1991 Wall Street Journal
article. It seems that Helen Boley is the only known person to have
a double dose of it and has a very low bad cholesterol count and a
very high good cholesterol count. Her grandparents on both sides
have managed to live to their late 90s or early 100s and they only
have one copy of the gene each.
A good HDL level is 40 milligrams per deciliter of blood plasma,
her's is 200. A good LDL level is 160, her's is 100. When Helen
Boley was born seven of her great-grandparents were alive.
Life Insurance
--------------
I received the following from Kevin Q. Brown:
I was asked the following question about life insurance coverage for
funding cryonic suspension:
> 2) I don't have $20,000 or $100,000 in cash lying around. I under-
> stand that one means of providing the funds necessary for
> suspension is life insurance. I was told that "Universal Life"
> was far preferable to "Term" because Universal, though initially
> more expensive, has relatively constant payments as the policy-
> holder grows older. Whereas Term is initially cheaper (by 50%?)
> but gets prohibitively expensive as you get older. Perhaps a
> shrewd "suspender" could 1) buy term insurance, 2) invest an amount
> equal to his/her premiums in a vehicle returning more than the
> paltry percentage offered by Universal Life policies, and 3) wind
> up with $50k well before the Term policy get prohibitive. I am a
> novice at all of this and am curious about how you financed your
> suspension.
My reply, at the time was this:
"I do not have a strong recommendation for how you should obtain financing for
cryonic suspension, but I can tell you what I did. I looked at the tables of
'death benefits' for whole and universal life policies of a couple of insurance
companies and wrote a small computer program to find how badly these policies
suffered from various rates of inflation. When I saw that these particular
policies were not at all inflation-proof I switched to a (cheap) 10-year term
life policy (from The Midland) and a plan to invest my money and prepare a
trust within 10 years to replace my insurance policy. This requires more work
and discipline than getting a universal (or whole life) policy. I also have
to pay tax on my earnings (unless I buy only nontaxable investments). But at
least I have control over my money and have the opportunity to do a lot better
financially than I would with universal (or whole life) insurance."
Since then I have reconsidered that approach, decided it was lacking, and
changed my insurance arrangements accordingly. The problems with the above
approach are:
(1) it depends on a reliable source of income
In particular, if I become disabled and cannot work, my income would
decrease and eventually disappear because the health coverage benefits
are limited. In contrast, an option available with life insurance, for
a small additional fee, is "waiver of premium", which would enable me to
continue my insurance coverage even if I become disabled and cannot pay
the insurance premiums.
(2) it depends on predictable expenses
When preparing to get married, I discovered that my expenses are not
as predictable (or as low) as before.
(3) it depends on good investments
I have other things to do besides spend my life studying investments.
Making conservative, safe, inflation-resistant (and, hopefully, tax
resistant) investments is difficult, if not self-contradictory.
In contrast, life insurance policies often have an "inflation rider"
option, available for a small extra charge, that may help provide
safety from bursts of inflation.
(4) term insurance has no cash value
Universal, single premium, and whole life insurance policies have some
cash value associated with them and eventually become completely paid
up. At that point no more payments are needed to maintain the "death
benefit" needed to cover cryonic suspension. Term insurance, on the
other hand, not only costs more as I get older, the coverage also
stops when my payments stop.
(5) (lack of) peace of mind
Worrying about finances is not only uncomfortable, but also unhealthy.
A universal, single premium, or whole life insurance policy (with the
waiver of premium and inflation rider options) significantly reduces
my budget worries.
What other recommendations have any of you heard concerning life insurance
for covering cryonic suspension? I know of one person who got a life
insurance policy from two different companies, each policy of which is large
enough to cover his suspension. This has three advantages:
(1) balancing the tradeoff between "death benefit" and cash value
accumulation,
(2) providing a backup in case one insurance company goes bust, and
(3) providing a backup in case one insurance company objects to paying
a claim to a cryonics organization.
I have appended below a form (adapted from one that Steve Bridge used several
years ago) for a representative of the insurance company to sign that states
that Alcor has an insurable interest. This may not be as big an issue today
as it was a few years ago, but it still should help ensure that "insurable
interest" does not arise as a problem (and thus help avoid making Alcor pursue
yet another lawsuit).
Dear Gentlemen:
My beneficiary designation on policy #____________ is as follows:
100% of proceeds to ALCOR Life Extension Foundation, Inc.
In an effort to make sure the proceeds will in fact be distributed
this way, I would like to ask the Midland Mutual Insurance Company
(MMIC) to agree to the following.
A) MMIC agrees that a cryonics organization is an acceptable
beneficiary of a life insurance policy, with "cryonics organization"
hereby defined to mean association or corporation (whether profit-
making or nonprofit) with the function of freezing a human body upon
clinical death, in the hope and expectation that the future progress
of medical science will make possible the eventual curing of the fatal
ailment, as well as resuscitation and revival.
B) MMIC hereby recognizes that such a cryonics organization has an
"insurable interest" in the life of a policyholder.
C) MMIC consequently waives the right to contest payment of the
death-benefit of such a policy on the ground of "no insurable interest".
D) MMIC similarly waives the right to contest payment of the death-
benefit of such a policy on the ground of the "unorthodox" nature of
either the beneficiary, the beneficiary/policyholder relationship, or
both.
E) MMIC furthermore waives the right to contest payment of the death
benefit of such a policy on the ground that either cryonics generally
or the beneficiary/policyholder relationship in particular is "not
recognized in existing law or practice".
F) MMIC agrees that it waives the right to contest payment of the
death-benefit of such a policy on the ground that there is no "usual"
or "customary" relationship between the policyholder and the beneficiary,
e.g., the relationship between relatives.
G) MMIC consequently agrees that it intends to pay, and will pay, the
death-benefit on such a policy in precisely the way, and with the prompt-
ness, which it would employ if the beneficiary were a blood relative of
the policyholder rather than a cryonics organization.
H) MMIC stipulates that its acceptance of all the foregoing
provisions will remain in effect irrespective of the progress,
lack of progress, advances, or set-backs (whether physical, legal,
or financial in all those four cases) of the cryonics movement
generally or of any particular cryonics organization.
I) MMIC agrees that if any of the provisions of this agreement should
be held invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, the company will
continue to be bound by all the provisions not held invalid.
J) MMIC agrees to be bound by all the provisions of this agreement
whether a cryonics organization is only the beneficiary of a policy
or is both the beneficiary and the owner of such a policy.
K) MMIC stipulates that in agreeing to provisions "B", "C", "D",
"E", and "F" above, it is basing its adherence on the general sense
of the provision, and not merely on the precise words in quotation marks
therein, and will therefore not contest payment of the death-benefit
of such a policy on any ground substantially the same as those listed in
quotation marks.
Sincerely,
Kevin Q. Brown
Friends
-------
It was brought up that a good reason to come to the meetings is so
you will know some people when you wake up a century or two from now.
Males
-----
A high percentage of cryonics members are males. Do our readers have
any idea of why this is so?
[ You may want to read Mike Darwin's Sept. 1987 Cryonics article titled
"Women and Cryonics" for a thoughtful essay on this topic. - KQB ]
Questions
---------
If any e-mail people reading these minutes have questions that they
would like answered in future meetings, send me the questions and
they will be answered in the next minutes published.
Mistakes
--------
If any of these minutes reflect mistaken information, let Eric Klien know!
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