X-Message-Number: 6092 From: (Brian Wowk) Newsgroups: sci.cryonics Subject: Re: "investing in cryonics" Date: 17 Apr 96 04:46:27 GMT Message-ID: <> References: <4kj5d9$> <> I agree with John de Rivaz that investing in the cryonics company that cares for you (or even a diversified portfolio of cryonics companies) for the purpose of funding your cryonics care is a bad idea. Yes, it is probable (but not absolutely necessary) that your cryonics organization will have grown and prospered if you are ever revived. It is even more probable (but again not absolutely necessary) that the cryonics industry as a whole will have grown if you are ever revived. But neither assumption is certain-- not certain enough to bet your life on. This recognition is what is behind the recent trend in cryonics for cryonics organizations to create an "arms-length" relationship with the funds that pay for their patients' care. Ideally, you want patient care funds sufficiently distanced from your cryonics organization that the organization could fail completely, and your funds would still remain intact and able to continue maintenance payments to a successor organization. John suggests investing in pharmaceutical companies and other "high tech" stocks to ride the wave of progress that must occur if is cryonics is to succeed. I would go further though, and suggest a downright boring conventionally-managed conservative portfolio of diversied equities and bonds. Picking winning industries like "hi tech" is easy. Picking winning companies is very, very hard. For all we know, today's trendy "high tech" companies, instead of creating the technologies of the future, may all be driven into the ground by the new companies that really will. (I wonder how many fortunes were speculatively invested in vacuum tube companies after Eniac was built?) The same may be true of today's for-profit cryonics companies. They may all fail, and yet cryonics as a movement may still succeed (driven by companies that don't yet exist). Still, for those interested in some speculation, and (much more importantly) *pushing cryonics technology ahead* I list below all for-profit companies I know of that are tightly involved with cryonics. They are (in order of apparent size): 21st Century Medicine Trans Time BioPreservation CryoSpan CryoSearch These companies are all privately held, but (with the possible exception of BioPreservation) they welcome new investors. 21st Century Medicine and BioPreservation work closely together, and now hold patents on some of the most innovative technologies in cryonics. Information about BioPreservation and CryoSpan can be found within the CryoCare Web pages. *************************************************************************** Brian Wowk CryoCare Foundation 1-800-TOP-CARE President Human Cryopreservation Services http://www.cryocare.org/cryocare/ Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=6092