X-Message-Number: 33408 From: marta sandberg <> Subject: Re: Open letter to the cryonics community Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2011 16:10:43 +0800 --_ceb1eedc-2791-4520-9e3d-960865c323cf_ Kennita Watson is getting impatient with the slow growth of cryonics. I can understand her frustration . . . but . . . I don't know about Alcor, but CI is growing as a slow but steady pace. We have preserved over a hundred patients and will sooner or later crack the thousand mark with our membership. In the quarter of a century since I joined I have seen CI go from a small operation in a decrepit inner Detroit suburb, to a good professional building. More and more cryonic group have cropped up all over the world and we might be close to get a full-fledged facility in Australia. Meanwhile, most people know about cryonics until it can be portrayed, without explanation, in popular TV and movie culture. In other words - cryonics has become mainstream. It is true we could have done better and every time somebody dies without having properly considered the cryonic alternative I feel a great loss and I often wonder why so few people join us. But . . . Measured growth isn't such a bad thing. For an organization that has to last for a century or more, a slow and steady approach has its advantages. Right now there are about 2,000 cryonicists worldwide. If that figure had been 20,000 then our organizations would have been constantly forced to adjust to its explosively growing numbers. Every growth pain would have been a potential for something to go wrong, and with over two hundred patients in our care that is a terrible risk. I would like to see cryonics gain more acceptance than it has, but for a small radical organization I think we are doing exceptionally well. Few other groups can point to continuous consolidation and steady decade's long growth. If this continues for the next century, then cryonics is in safe hands. Or at least survivable hands. Long life, Marta --_ceb1eedc-2791-4520-9e3d-960865c323cf_ Content-Type: text/html; charset="Windows-1252" [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=33408