CRYOCOMMUNITIES?
After CI President Ben Best voiced his opinion about the WALL STREET JOURNAL article, he digressed into a discussion of ways for members to get better cryopreservation. A possible solution—Communal living, near CI.
Most cryonicists are cryopreserved after having suffered a fair amount of warm ischemic damage. The two best prospects for alleviating this problem have been wireless vital signs monitoring alarm systems and standby services. Wireless vital signs monitoring alarm systems are still not available for consumers. And, despite the showcasing of (mostly) cancer victims, less than half of those who have arranged for standby service actually receive a standby upon deanimation.
Nursing homes, hospices and retirement communities have been suggested as alternatives or supplements to standby. I would like to make a similar suggestion. For many years I lived in a housing co-op that consisted of two houses side-by-side with about 25 people who shared kitchen, bathrooms, library, TV room, etc. There were private rooms of varying sizes, in some cases with sinks and a "living room" area in addition to desks and bedroom. Administrative and maintenance issues were discussed and resolved at house meetings. It was a very inexpensive place to live. Someone wanting privacy could easily go to their room, but when feeling social it was easy to go to the kitchen. My co-op is described on my website:
http://www.benbest.com/history/coop.htmlI think that cryonicists living in a similar situation – augmented by wireless vital signs alarm monitorying would enormously reduce their chances of deanimating with considerable warm ischemia. Shared facilities would include a portible ice bath and ACDC Thumper.
I believe that cryonicists living in this kind of housing co-op would probably experience less than a half hour of warm ischemia in 95% of deanimations. And with the co-op located near CI in Michigan, cold ischemic damage associated with shipping would be minimized.
My vision is of a co-op of able-bodied cryonicists, not a nursing facility. I do expect that most of the residents would be "senior citizens." It would be reasonable to expect, however, that nursing needs would arise and that a nursing aspect would begin to form a continuum with standby.
I realize that there are substantial problems with this suggestion. Such a "boarding house" situation would seem like a pauper's life to most people. Personality conflicts could become intolerable under such close living conditions. Most people want their gobs of possessions, their own private kitchen, bathroom, yard -- lots of space and privacy in every aspect of their lives. Much less than a tiny fraction of 1% of the population would normally choose the living arrangements I described, despite its economy and social potential. A special personality may be required.
Even the idea of a community of cryonicists living in nearby houses has been a hard sell. David Pizer has tried for years to build such a community in Arizona. Attempts to encourage cryonicists to move near cryonics facilities have been mostly unsuccessful -- despite Arizona being a retirement mecca. Most older people are deeply connected to their local family and friends, and will not leave even when in a terminal condition. Nonetheless, the benefits for cryopreservation of more amenable living arrangements should be repeatedly stressed and reviewed in the hope that they can be suitably tailored to any cryonicists who might choose them.
Ben Best
Outstanding suggestion! I lived in a co-op for 4 years and was the house manager for 3 of those years because I was the only one interested in fixing various mechanical problems. There were a few personality conflicts, but we muddled through it. I would gladly give up my 2000 SF home for such a living situation, especially since all the crap in the house belongs to my wife. I've always wanted to live in more of a monastery environment. I would hope that the building would be in much better condition than the one I saw on your website. Picture a real monastery, where the structure is very well built. Spacious private rooms would seem appropriate, as would a single level to accommodate the elderly and frail. HVAC, plumbing, and electrical should be flawless. I mention this because our co-op had 2 feet of standing water in the basement for 4 months out of each year as well as electrical circuits from the 20's which were stressed by tenants plugging in space heaters because the boiler couldn't keep up. None of that was very safe, and safety is obviously a very high priority for cryonicists.
I think the advantages of such a highly monitored living situation easily outweigh any disadvantages... except that I live in Oregon without any other cryonicists nearby. So what to do? For now, even getting two cryonicists to live in a shared living situation would benefit them both. I've certainly been thinking along these lines for quite some time. As I form a nucleus of cryonicists in Oregon, I will be pushing for such a living situation. I probably won't call it a co-op, since I will want to retain total control of it. I might call it a group living facility, or something similar. So one way for me to handle it would be to have such a facility built or adapted. I could begin by filling it with tenants who are not necessarily cryonicists, but who are at least intelligent, clean living, and somewhat open to the idea. Over the years, I could shape the mix of tenants to favor cryonicists. I would probably also include plenty of storageunits, garages just in case people needed someplace to store their useless crap. But it would clearly be a different environment than an apartment complex, with at least 10 tenants sharing a kitchen and living room.
Finding an existing building and adapting it without spending too much would be the greatest challenge. I would be competing with the many assisted living facilities in the area as well as with student housing. Austerity is the key. It would have to attract people who didn't feel like they needed to have tons of stuff around them to feel complete.
Jordan Sparks
Subject: RE: [Cryonics_Institute] Co-operative Housing for Cryonicists ?
Thanks for the chuckle. Actually, I find Ben's idea very sensible and I'm very interested in how us average members could help to get something like this started.
Jones Murphy
Although I believe the idea is sensible, I actually thought that it would be many years before anything like this could begin. I would be wrong, of course if there are enough people ready to move immediately on something like this.
There are two aspects to starting: (1) getting cryonicists into a co-op house or, at least, a closely knit collection of housing units and (2) getting CI Members to move into housing close to the CI Facility. Conceivably, if there were lots of cryonicists who were wanting to live near Jordan Sparks in Oregon, there could be a collection of people who were signed-up with Alcor, CI and Oregon Cryonics
(http://www.oregoncryo.com/) living in Jordan's co-op house. That would reduce warm ischemic time, but would still not be so good for cold ischemic time. Conversely, CI Members living in Clinton Township, Michigan, but living alone in relatively distant apartments would reduce cold ischemic time, but still risk long warm ischemic times if they are not part of a cryonics community.Last year a CI Member moved to Michigan for the explicit purpose of being near CI during his retirement years. He was in a house that was an hour-and-a-half drive from the CI Facility. He suffered what may have been a mini-stroke that caused him memory problems and he is now living with his daughter in another state. At our last Annual General Meeting another one of our Members expressed great interest in moving into an apartment close by to the CI Facility. There have been more general expressions of such interest by other Members, but I haven't seen evidence that it will result in definite action soon.
In order for this idea to happen there needs to be a critical mass of people who want it to happen, and who have the resources and the determination to make it happen. If, say, three people were to buy some adjoining large houses with the intention of being the nucleus for the cryonicists' co-op, that would be one way it could start. Or one wealthy person could underwrite the project. Critical factors would be the patience of those wanting to be the nucleus, the ability of the people to get along and the number of otherswho would ultimately be attracted to the idea. Getting along with people is not always easy, and the closer together people are located for mutual aid, the greater the chances of friction between personalities.
Ben Best
To: Cryonics_Institute@yahoogroups.com
Anybody interested in Gainesville Florida?
While co-operative housing for cryonicists is an intriguing idea, the Detroit Michigan area is not that enticing. Here in Gainesville Florida we have an excellent assisted living community (Oak Hammock) that was founded by the University of Florida, we have a good hospice and a university town is full of open-minded people. So if we had even half a dozen cryonicists retire here, it may be enough of a critical mass to be able to make very good local arrangements. If anybody is interested, I will be glad to look for and provide additional details.
Rafi Haftka
I would like to stay current on possible 'Cryonics Centered Housing', please add me to your list.
George Vogler