X-Message-Number: 3608
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 1995 19:14:45 -0500
From: 
Subject: SCI. CRYONICS survival, markets

My current rationalization for diverting time from higher priorities is "A
change is as good as a rest" or "The pause that refreshes."

For newcomers, Dr. Zimov is certainly correct in pointing out that we do not
yet know the basis of identity--or in words more obviously to the point, we
do not yet know the criteria of survival.  

In 1962 (in the preliminary version of THE PROSPECT OF IMMORTALITY) I
published a series of thought experiments, possibly the most exhaustive to
date, expanding on veins of thought that started at least as long ago as the
sixth century B.C. in India. More recently I have had more to say--and will
have much more in another year or two when I finish my new book--but the
upshot still is that we just don't know, and probably won't know until we
know the physical (physiological) basis of feeling or qualia, and perhaps
until we know much more about objective and subjective time.

Adherents of the Information Paradigm claim not only that a copy of you is
you (which may or may not be true) but that an analog of you is you
(isomorphism), which definitely is not true in general.  Some even claim that
a DESCRIPTION of you is you. The most radical among them claim that a
THERMOSTAT "thinks" or "feels" (either "It's too cold  in here" or "It's too
warm in here" or "It's just right in here.") Some radicals also think that
"you" LITERALLY survive in some degree if e.g. some of your writings survive.

Some (Arthur Clarke reputedly among them) think identity is evanescent and
long term survival impossible, since "you" at a different stage of
development are a fundamentally different person. I think it is even possible
that "you" never survive the instant, although that proof or disproof is
probably far in the future, and certainly cannot be allowed to  affect our
actions now. 

Some of these questions are extremely slippery--obviously, since some very
bright people disagree vehemently. But it should be at least equally obvious
that we should take as few risks as possible, which means we should aim for
minimum damage and for repair, not copying. Speculation about uploading is
fine; COUNTING on uploading is insanely rash. It's condition red, if you wake
up dead.

On the marketing questions, I'm glad to hear from R. Andro. All of his
questions/suggestions have been endlessly discussed over the years, but that
doesn't mean that new conditions or new blood or slightly better approaches
might not produce markedly better results. At the moment, for the benefit of
newcomers, I just want to mention a couple of points.

In earlier years we found rich and prominent people to be much worse than
average prospects, for many reasons obvious and otherwise. Steve Bridge has
recently had some comments on this. 

More recently a few big-rich people have apparently more or less come aboard;
the only one that is public, I think, is Don Laughlin, who more or less owns
and operates the city of Laughlin, Nevada and its casino, and is a member of
Alcor. Attorney Jack Zinn is organizing a get-together for high rollers later
this year, as reported in THE IMMORTALIST. 

But the important thing for most of us to remember is that we ARE gaining and
WILL grow much larger, pretty much  regardless of  particular individuals or
tactics. Every year, almost every day, advances in science make our position
more credible. Thousands, and possibly hundreds of thousands, have made vague
mental notes to get in touch with us, and by and by will do so. One of these
years some psychological trigger will make these decisions jell, possibly all
at once. 

Meanwhile, the best that most of us already in cryonics can do is just to
keep on doing it; and the best that most of those not yet in cryonics can do
is join and pitch in. G.B. Shaw warned against sacrificing the good for want
of the best. Don't delay because conditions are not yet ideal; don't withhold
your own contribution (and sacrifice your own present chances) just because
somebody else might some day make a bigger contribution.

Incidentally, Mr. Andro mentions a couple of specifics, including Australia
and funeral directors. Cryonics Institute has cooperating funeral directors
in Australia, as well as England and various parts of the U.S., with
professional campaigns probably to begin later this year.

Robert Ettinger
Immortalist Society
Cryonics Institute

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