X-Message-Number: 9684
Date: Mon, 11 May 1998 06:38:26 -0400
From: Saul Kent <>
Subject: A Sense Of Perspective

        To Bob Ettinger:  Bob, as I stated in my
reply to Thomas Donaldson (9680), I've never said 
that "cryonics has 'failed'" (9679), only that the 
cryonics *movement* has failed (in many ways) to 
fulfill the enormous promise of cryonics.  I've also 
not said that cryonics is "near extinction", but that 
there is the possibility of the extinction of the 
cryonics movement.

        When I say that "promotion must take a
back seat to research," I mean in terms of money
spent and in terms of time spent by scientists 
capable of improving cryonics methods, who,
I believe should focus virtually all their time and
attention on research.  That's happening already,
with people such as Mike Darwin and Brian Wowk,
who once spent a good deal of time on cryonics
promotion, but who are now engaged in research
on a full-time basis at 21st Century Medicine. 

        Actually, I'd like to see promotion and 
membership recruitment  get *better* in a cost-
effective manner, and I've made several 
suggestions in recent posts about how that 
might be done.

        I think the most cost-effective way of 
recruiting new members is to spend our time actively 
soliciting people like Scott Badger, who are already 
interested in (and to some degree knowledgable of) 
cryonics.

        To Scott (9681) I'd like to say that I believe
that cryonics patients frozen today (under reasonably 
good conditions) have a much better chance of revival 
than of winning the lottery.  I'm signed up myself and 
have been for the past 33 years.  It isn't that I don't think 
I have a *chance* of being revived if I was frozen with 
today's methods, it's just that I want to improve my 
*odds*  of revival...as much as I can, and as fast 
as I can!

        There are other good reasons for signing 
up today apart from your chances of revival if you were
frozen tomorrow (which, I presume, is highly unlikely).  
The first is that, by supporting a cryonics society today, 
you can play a role in developing better cryonics 
methods in the future. The second is that, if you're 
reasonably young and in good health, it's relatively 
inexpensive to sign up via life insurance, an option 
that may not be affordable later on.

        I think your idea of an Internet survey to 
measure attitudes and opinions regarding cryonics 
is an excellent one, and I encourage you to help 
develop and post such a survey. I'll be looking 
forward to the results.

---Saul Kent, CEO
21st Century Medicine   

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