X-Message-Number: 5603 Date: Tue, 16 Jan 1996 08:06:10 -0800 (PST) From: Joseph Strout <> Subject: Data Storage by cryonics providers All right, once again the cryonics community is way ahead of me, much to the impatience of many of our kind Cryonetters. (And once again, the topic, though much discussed in the past, appears neither in the FAQ nor in the archives under the keyword index, so I trust my ignorance of these past discussions is excusable.) Assuming that all the important technical issues pertaining to data archiving has been worked out, then, the important question remains: to what cryonics organization -- CI? CC? Alcor? ACS? -- should I send this month's data? All I have seen so far is suggestions as to how I might archive my own data myself. That's fine as far as it goes, but it doesn't go far enough. Much better would be to have the data controlled by the same organization which controls my frozen carcass; as Mike pointed out, mementos of ancestors tend to disappear after only a few generations. If we all go and store data our own way, scattered around the country (or planet), it seems impractical to expect the cryonics folks do the detective work necessary to locate it for each one of us. It seems clear that a cryonics organization should, as a small side enterprise, archive data for its members (and possibly for non-members as well). If they want to subcontract this to another organization they trust, then fine (this is how CryoCare handles all services anyway, as I understand it), but they still know where all the data is and can easily get it when they need it. Moreover, they should accept data for storage not when the patient is suspended, but for the decades beforehand -- as someone (Thomas Donaldson, if memory serves) pointed out, if we wait till the last minute, it won't get done at all. Now, Mike, I know this is a minor issue and far less important than improved suspension methods, sudden-death alarm systems, etc. But it *is* an issue which has apparently not been dealt with by the service providers, and which (I should think) could be fairly easily implemented. And who knows what state we'll be in when we wake up; good personal data might just make the difference. (Note: in Cryomsg #5564, ACS describes work underway to provide safe long-term data storage, and in #5551, Robert Ettinger describes simpler measures in place at CI. I applaud these efforts, but they need a bit of work to make them both safe and easily utilized.) ,------------------------------------------------------------------. | Joseph J. Strout Department of Neuroscience, UCSD | | http://www-acs.ucsd.edu/~jstrout/ | `------------------------------------------------------------------' Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=5603