X-Message-Number: 8825
Date: Sun, 23 Nov 1997 13:46:40 -0500
From: Robin Helweg-Larsen <>
Subject: Reasons not to join cryonics - personal
References: <>


The past couple of weeks of CryoNet have been rich, diverse, and fascinating.  I
love it!

I guess I owe an explanation of why *I'm* still not signed up.


I was aware of cryonics as a movement (as opposed to a concept) from the time of
Charles Platt's OMNI contest.  I

was in favor of it, saw no hurry, lost the contact info.  That accounts for 
several years.


When I started getting computer-literate, did a search, signed onto CryoNet, 
started investigating the

alternatives, couldn't really get a feel for what was going on until business 
trips took me to places where I
could actually start meeting people.  That took a couple more years.


My analysis at that point was: I liked people in several different organizations
(that was very important - the

warmth thing, not in terms of people being outgoing, but in terms of my personal
comfort level: integrity,

honesty, intelligence, self-knowledge, self-criticism): for example Mike Darwin,
Steve Bridge, Bob Ettinger.  I

mention these people because they were influential in my looking favorably on 
their associated organizations.

Other people I like, such as Thomas Donaldson, are not vital to my choice of 
organization.


CryoCare's structure was difficult to understand: the structure seems to evolve 
or shift, and there are hidden

dynamics to that process.  It is connected with the most interesting research 
possibilities, but my confused

motives (altruistic and self-interested) in passing money to them and otherwise 
getting involved do not allow me
to fully understand them yet.


Alcor under Steve Bridge looked the largest, most solid, perhaps a bit 
bureaucratic, but still the best

organized, the one that picked up after other failures like Bedford's 
go-it-alone, and the one most likely to
keep me suspended for the necessary hundreds of years.


CI seemed lower-tech - but that's largely irrelevant to my way of thinking - all
suspension will inevitably

involve major damage for the foreseeable future, the far enough future will be 
able to put us back together no

matter what.  But CI looked to be too small to be viable indefinitely - I 
suspected that it was dependant on too
few individuals.


So I chose Alcor for the long haul, based on their stability.  In Feb 96 at the 
techfest in Scottsdale I got all

my paperwork signed, and, because of the great numbers of signatures involved, I
proudly got members of every

group I could find to be signatories somewhere or other.  The only thing I was 
missing was insurance.


I went with an east coast insurance person, went through the process of having 
blood taken etc twice (my business

was in crisis with the withdrawal of our distribution license from our UK 
supplier, and the need to create our

own product from scratch, and a tremendous business opportunity from an 
international client occurring

simultaneously - things like insurance paperwork were very difficult to deal 
with when we were working 7 days a

week with no time for families) before having the paperwork go in to Kemper, and
then having it bounced

apparently because they didn't like the prospect of Alcor being a beneficiary.  
I was that close to being signed
up.  But that was another year wasted.


Then at the Scottsdale techfest at the beginning of this year Alcor lost a lot 
of credibility with me: Steve

Bridge's calm professionalism was replaced with what I felt was an enthusiastic,
long-term, committed, but not

very professional team.  Secondly, the new team, together with CI, behaved in a 
very gullible manner concerning

Visser, and their perceptions were clearly clouded by their wishes.  Third I was
personally offended by Michael

Cloud; his personality clearly appealed to the new team, and to an insurance 
agent present at the festival, but I
didn't see any other personal enthusiasm for him.


I am still paying $25 a month to keep my application alive.  I have received a 
package of paperwork from Mary

Naples that should allow me to get the insurance I want.  But I'm back to Square
1 in terms of being comfortable
with choosing an organization to sign up with.


My thinking now is that Saul Kent, who has dedicated his life to generating the 
funding to make his own

suspension not only possible but as likely to be successful as it can be, is the
person who is most likely to

create the best long-term security for himself, to ensure that, once suspended, 
he survives as long as necessary

and is then reanimated at an appropriate time (not too early; not unnecessarily 
late) and with enough finances

intact to allow him to continue his life.  Therefore, if only I could figure out
actually what is going on with

CryoCare and their associated groups, I would be likely to switch my allegiance 
from Alcor to them.


Obviously my concern about CI's viability being dependent on a couple of 
individuals has to apply equally to

Alcor and to CryoCare.  It would be nice for us to have a movement that was so 
large that it had more stability

than that.  But if even nations of 10s or 100s of millions of people can be led 
into instability and then have

their futures determined by only a couple of individuals, then that process is 
always going to apply in human
affairs.

Meanwhile I am wasting another year without being signed up.....

Always optimistically, however,

Robin HL

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