X-Message-Number: 3628
Date: Sat, 7 Jan 1995 12:08:35 -0500 (EST)
From: Andro <>
Subject: CRYONICS marketing

Charles Platt's comments on the difficulties of finding rich sponsors for 
the Cryonics movement trigger further thoughts:

I don't think that a higher proportion of rich or famous or dying-of-AIDS 
people will accept cryonics, than will the general public.  But still, 
the rich have money, the famous have publicity-value, and the dying have 
an urgent incentive.

But the key to a "higher proportion" for acceptance of ideas is broken up 
between intelligence, curiosity, detachment, rebellion, etc.

A successful new religion starts with a Prophet who gathers disciples and 
produces a Book.  Exponential growth, starting from one person, looks 
miniscule for many years and then explodes, dominates the culture, 
fragments, becomes orthodoxy, and is ultimately obsoleted by a new 
situation and concomitant world-view.

We have our Prophet, Book, and miniscule but exponential growth.

So, where do upstart religions look for new recruits?  Not, for numbers, 
among the entrenched haves; the numbers come from the dispossessed, those 
with no stake in and no allegiance to society.  Jesus was accused of 
hanging out with low-life and sinners; black Muslims in the US recruited 
in the prisons; eastern religions in the US drew on drop-outs and hippies.
If you want numbers, how about looking for inmates on death row?  Not 
that most of them would buy in; but the percentages should be higher, and 
the publicity should be enormous :-)

I'm smiling, but still serious.  What people would resent would be, that 
*convicted criminals were being offered a chance at immortality, and 
honest citizens weren't*.  Which could be easily rectified.

But enormous numbers of impoverished recruits don't spell success, unless 
you want to have a revolution and take over the government.  For regular 
growth, you also need wealthy patrons - only a couple, maybe; but they 
are attracted to the movement by the numbers of others too; it validates 
everything.

I think Charles was exactly right when he ended with "there must be some 
self-made maverick out there..."  It's the maverick quality that will 
relish Cryonics.

But even if we could get a mailing list of 1000 John Cleese types, their 
efficient secretaries would classify us with all the other begging 
letters they get, and garbage our junk mail.

We have to be sufficiently prominent that a) rich mavericks are fully 
aware of us, and b) they can approach us personally, discreetly, as if by 
chance, with no commitment or publicity, in a place and manner that causes 
them no inconvenience, loss of time or waste of money.

So I suggest again high-profile clients, even if despised - which doctor 
makes a moral judgement of character before saving a life?

And I suggest locating all Cryonics facilities in "high-traffic" areas - 
major business cities, major tourism locations; perhaps creating a 
Cryonics Museum; and generally making it as easy as possible for people, 
especially rich people who have little time, to personally check our 
credibility, professionalism, operations, research, financial 
reliability, etc etc.

This might involve increased security costs - but they should be more 
than offset by admissions and souvenirs revenue, quite apart from more 
rapid growth.

Always optimistically,


Robin


PS: Yes, Robin is male as in Hood/Batman/Williams.  Last name is 
Helweg-Larsen but everyone always gets it wrong.  Andro is just short for 
Andromeda Training, my business.

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