X-Message-Number: 343
From att!cup.portal.com!Eric_S_Klien Sun May 19 18:40:55 PDT 1991
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Subject: Alcor Boston Minutes
Date: Sun, 19 May 91 18:40:55 PDT
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X-Origin: The Portal System (TM)
ALCOR BOSTON MINUTES
Sunday May 12th 3:00 - 6:00 PM
Meeting Dates
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Our next meetings will be on 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
------------------
This was a small meeting but one person was new. He had seen
Walter's objectivist seminar which I had called a recruitment failure
in the last minutes. As long as we get one new person at each
meeting, we will met once a month. We will meet once every two
months if we fail to recruit new blood.
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...
Time Travel
-----------
We had a big discussion over the factors that can slow down time. I
thought only absolute speed and gravity fields slow down time.
Someone else thought acceleration was a factor. I would appreciate
comments on this matter. By the way, this topic came up when we were
discussing the June 1989 Discover article, "Cosmic Time Travel".
This article mistakingly believes that if you slow down time in an
area of space to near zero, so that after an hour, that space is one
hour behind you in time, that by traveling into that space you are
accomplishing reverse time travel. I mentioned that this is as
stupid as saying that a fast plane that went from New York to
California in two hours had travelled back in time by one hour.
Acquitted Man Vows to Seek Legalization of Aided Suicide
--------------------------------------------------------
This was the title of a May 12, 1991 Boston Globe article.
This article mentions that it is not technically illegal to aid a
suicide in Michigan but that there is legislation pending to make
this explictly illegal. The reason there have been so many court
cases in Michigan is because there was no specific law saying that
aiding suicide is legal. On the positive side, a Nov. 5 initiative
in Washington State will make this act specifically legal. Similar
good legislation is pending in the Oregon Legislature and a 1992
initiative is planned for California. We only need one state to pass
such laws to save people like Thomas Donaldson from having to
dehydrate themselves until they are legally dead. Ideally, the
California initiative will pass next year.
Finances
--------
Charlie Hartman sent me a xerox of part of the January 1991 Money
article. Unfortunately, the part he sent me didn't specify the
capital gains rates of each state, does anyone have a copy of such
information? By the way, I have learned that owning an offshore bank
can have positive tax consequences. Particularly if our government
continues to increase our tax rates.
Entertainment
-------------
We discussed the possibility that as entertainment options grow that
this may cause a significant minority to believe that life is better
than death. The BattleTech Virtual Reality Center that will soon
open in Boston (at $7 for 10 minutes play) and how virtual reality
will become very popular in the future was talked about.
The refusal of the city of Los Angeles to allow a second cable
company in their city was discussed. In this case, a firm has been
trying since 1979 to install cable, and despite a 9-0 U.S. Supreme
Court decision ruling against the city in 1986, the city fights on.
In July 1990, the FCC proposed federal legislation to "forbid local
franchising authorities from unreasonably denying a franchise to
potential competitors who are ready and able to provide service." We
can only hope that such laws will eventually be passed and enforced.
Having many cable companies to choose from would dramatically lower
cable rates and increase cable options such as being able to receive
a specific movie within two minutes of asking to see it. And having
control of fast forward, reverse, and pause while watching it.
The recent FCC ruling allowing limited competition for local phone
service was mentioned. This ruling only applies to large businesses
hooked up to local phone companies, but it could eventually be
modified so it applies to both small businesses and the regular
public. Because of the current restricitions against local
competition, it can cost me more to call within the state then to
call localities 3000 miles away.
It was mentioned that the FCC is holding up approval of a HDTV
standard. Reason magazine said "Why? The FCC is like most
regulatory bodies; it has become a defender of the interests it
regulates. In this case, the FCC is defending local broadcasters and
trying to make sure they can compete on an equal technological
footing with cable, tape, and satellite televison."
It was also brought up that the FCC is still refusing to allow ABC,
NBC, and CBS to produce their own programming. This is crippling
the big three and causing the Japanese to buy up the companies that
are allowed to create this programming. Hopefully, the recent
modification of the rules to allow FOX to produce its own programming
despite the fact that it now exceeds 15 hours of air time per week is
a positive sign for future legislation.
Hopefully, if the FCC will soon allows us to have unregulated cable,
local phone service, HDTV, and big three programming. This increase
in entertainment options may add to the amount of people who think
life is better than death.
How to Go Faster Than Light
---------------------------
This Thomas Donaldson article from Analog was discussed. He believes
that the Fermi Paradox is the major difficulty with FTL drives.
(Fermi Paradox = No intelligent beings have taken over our galaxy.
FTL = Faster Than Light travel.) But he goes on to say that even if
faster than light travel is only possible under very limited
circumstances that this would still be very significant. I quote
"Tachyons might only exist within a special field or medium, and
transmission of tachyons might only be possible between stationary
objects within that medium." This would give us a very fast
tachyonic computer!
Venturists
----------
If the Venturists are planning on burying any more time capsules,
please let me know. The same goes if any other cryonics groups are
planning on doing this.
Aren't You Dying To Know if a Phorid Is In Your Future?
-------------------------------------------------------
This April 25, 1991 Wall Street Journal article was discussed. Here
are a few quotes: "Be doubly forewarned: If you keep reading this
article, you will encounter things so gross that Madonna wouldn't
even dream of putting them in a rock video." "The embalming fluids
preserve the bodies to the extent that they keep out molds and other
decays", Prof. Snetsinger says. This, he observes, "means the flies
have more time to eat." Needless to say, this article showed that
dying can be pretty gruesome.
A "Can-Rattler" Responds
------------------------
The following article was taken from the electronic cryonics mailing
list. I am reprinting it because it is chock full of information.
For example, I learned that Alcor is now up to 236 members, including
about 20 former TransTime members. Speaking to a person representing
TransTime, I got the impression that they only have 55 members which
makes the 20 members taken from TransTime very significant. (Alcor
has also taken two of TransTime's patients!) I also learned that
Alcor's suspension process has now become good enough that a kidney
from a neurosuspension patient who was cryonically suspended was
considered viable for transplant by a medium sodium/potassium ratio
test done by an independent biomedical laboratory.
Here's the article:
A "CAN-RATTLER" RESPONDS
by Mike Darwin
[ To conserve space, I removed the text of the (greater than 400 line) May 14
message #333. If you did not receive message #333, please let me know and I
will send it to you. - 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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