X-Message-Number: 32986
References: <>
From: Gerald Monroe <>
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2010 05:33:33 -0500
Subject: Re: CryoNet #32983 - #32985

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Charles, let me see if I've got your viewpoint correct.  Let's talk
specifics.  Right now there are some elderly Alcor members who signed up
when the fees were lower.  These particular individuals, some of whom
probably are reading this list, may not have the financial means to increase
their contribution now that they are out of the workforce and retired.
 Perhaps if they had known the fees were going to triple *before* they did
the funding, they could have done something.  But it might be too late now.
 You're basically saying that because Alcor *might* lose a few thousand
dollars on some of these cases, it should refuse to help these people when
they die unless they pony up another $50,000 for the more recent fees.
 Condemning people to certain death is generally a bad idea.

Furthermore, your financial view is short sighted and ignorant.  From an
economic perspective, there are *other *factors than just pure dollars and
cents.  First of all, if Alcor continues to treat people honorably and to
help people that it might lose money on, it builds upon the reputation of
the organization.  This in turn means that people are more likely to trust
the organization will do the right thing, even if it costs money.  This
increases the likelihood that they will have more folks willing to pay the
$85k or $150k fee and to sign up at that price, and feel comfortable knowing
that the organization won't screw them over if they come up a few bucks
short decades later.

Finally, the more cryonics patients that are preserved, with living families
of these patients advocating for their restoration, the better everyone's
chances become.  To maximize the odds of survival, cryonics needs to grow
massively.  It would really help if there were hundreds of thousands of
cryonics patients instead of a few hundred.  At a certain point, there would
be enough lobbyists that the government would probably protect the patients
directly, and there would be a lot more interest in researching the
technology needed to rebuild everyone.

Given how few patients there are today, even a few 'low-profit' cases help
to increase the number of folks that are part of this movement.

Your view is the reason many corporations have failed.  Lots of firms have
tried the strategy of providing no support for their products and trying to
nickel and dime their customers to death with trivial fees.  In the long
run, a lot of these firms fail unless they occupy a monopoly.  (this is why
the companies you probably immediately think of that try to screw their
customers tend to be banks, wireless companies, etc)  Your view is why
modern business often tries to inflate next quarter's earnings rather than
trying to run an efficient business that provides legitimate value to it's
customers.  You can't fake quality in the long term.

Note that I am not going to benefit from grandfathering, and I have little
vested interest.  I intend to significantly overfund my cryonics policy.  I
am not particularly concerned that some of the funds will be used to help
others, so long as this lifeboat we're all boarding makes it to the other
end.

If the actual long term cost to keep a patient chilled is closer to
$100/year than $1000, a few extra "low profit" cases in the freezer are not
going to harm Alcor's fiscal stability.  (note I said long-term.  If right
now, today, Alcor spends more like $1000/year, it doesn't mean that Alcor
cannot upgrade it's equipment over the next century to benefit from lower
operating costs)

One final thought on this : it sure would be helpful if one of the world's
billionaires would get on board.  I've wondered about this : a billionaire,
one would think, would have the most to gain from cryonics.  Think about the
most enjoyable experiences that money can buy.  Fast cars, trips around the
world, private jets, and other things.  Now consider that a billionaire will
die from old age before they could spend even a tiny fraction of their
wealth buying such experiences.  All of their money cannot protect them from
death, and all of the wonderful experiences they enjoyed in life will be
destroyed as if they never happened at all.

Yet just one billionaire helping cryonics could create an institution to
research it, could create an armored facility to place the patients, could
fund enough scientists to build working demonstrations of nanotechnology,
and could make sure that when they die they get the best platinum quality
cryonics treatment possible.  All the rest of us folks would benefit from
the research the billionaire would fund to (selfishly) extend his own life.

Any rational billionaire would be on this in a heartbeat.  Nothing else
makes any sense from a rational view.  What irrational reasons are
preventing this from happening?

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