X-Message-Number: 4898
Date:  Thu, 21 Sep 95 16:36:33 
From: Steve Bridge <>
Subject: More on cheap neuro-freeze

To CryoNet
>From Steve Bridge, Alcor
September 21, 1995

In reply to:  Message #4883
              Date: Mon, 18 Sep 1995 08:24:17 -0700 (PDT)
              From: Doug Skrecky <>
              Subject: cryonics organization prices

   (and others subsequently)

>    I think CI is sitting on a potential gold mine with possible prices
> of just $10,000 for neuros. Ok, so this doesn't include a top-of-the-
> line $40,000 washout, etc by Mike Darwin. However I am convinced that
> there is a large market out there waiting for the right price in
> cryonics, since many people already have over $10,000 in company
> sponsored life insurance.

     First, I don't believe that $10,000 was what CI would charge to
*perform* a neurosuspension.  It was what they might charge to *store* a
neuropatient for another organization.  If this were the total amount
charged, the suspension not only wouldn't include a "top-of-the-line
washout," it wouldn't include ANY TREATMENT AT ALL.  I do not see CI
making much, if any, profit on $10,000 neuros, no matter how many they do.
It might be a gross goldmine, but a net break-even.

     Secondly, where in the world do you get the idea that there is a
"large market waiting for the right price" out there?  Most people turn
down cryonics long before they know what the price is.

> They are skeptical about cryonics so high prices of even
> $28,000 essentially eliminate it from consideration.
> With already existing insurance in place to cover the $10,000 minimum it
> is not going to take much effort for a religious skeptic to sign over
> this benefit in order to avoid rotting in the cold hard ground.

     Read your own first sentence again, Doug:  "They are skeptical about
cryonics..."  From my experience, that means skeptical at ANY price.

>     Now there is nothing wrong with being a Bloomingdales and offering
> only top-of-the-line merchandise. However it is the Walmart's and
> McDonalds of the world that become giants. I dare Alcor to take the
> plunge and test market a low end product (brain freezing?) which would
> appeal to the masses, who after all know very well what the alternative
> is.

     We don't know if we are "top-of-the-line" or not.  The very best
suspension available today may turn out to be -- in a few decades
retrospect -- worse than the lowest end greasy spoon around, much worse
than McDonald's.  I suspect not; but it is very hard today to tell what
level of technology or which technologies will be judged adequate for
revival in the future.

     You "dare Alcor?"  Sorry, Doug, I'm old enough that "dares" don't
work anymore.  But if it works for you -- I dare YOU to start your own
brain freezing company with rates at $10,000 a head.  If it "appeals to
the masses," you make millions and run Alcor right out of business.  If
it's a sure thing, you will have a large number of investors to get the
company started out right.  Who could resist investing in such a company
that will appeal to the masses?

     By the way, it is my feeling that the vast majority of people do
indeed feel they know what "the alternative is."  Some of them *know*
there is a lovely life in heaven awaiting them, where they can share
immortality with their deeply missed spouses, parents, children, and other
family.  Some of them merely know there will be an end to this miserable
life of woe, depression, torture, and boredom.  Those two possibilities
cover well over 90% of the American population and probably the world
population as well.

     Now sure, I would accept a brain straight-freezing for myself -- IF I
HAD NO OPTIONS LEFT.  But I've been involved in cryonics for 18 years and
I know exactly what I mean by that.  I am also working very hard to give
myself much better options.  I certainly would not feel it was a good idea
to offer the very last desperate option as a primary option.  And I don't
think we would get many more members that way.

     But go ahead and try.

Steve Bridge, Alcor


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