In the last issue, we wrote of the homemade cooling box we had made from an Omaha Steaks shipping container, and stated "The fitting at the bottom is for draining water as the temperature rises."

Our illustrious leader wrote: Your physics is rusty concerning "draining water as it warms". A mixture of ice and water will not warm as long as ice is present. Heat is absorbed in melting the ice. Only when the ice is completely melted will any warming of the water occur. So you keep adding ice to consume heat by the "heat of fusion" ("heat of melting"). You would need the drain as water volume accumulates and more ice is added. End of physics lesson.

Ben Best (aka #24)

We haven’t carried both the CI & IS information page, and the ‘Policies to remember" pages in the past few issues, because of space constraints. One of them is on page 9 in this issue. These must be Ben’s favorite pages! He’s always unhappy if one or both of them are missing!

Ben also feels strongly about the message contained in the following essay For this reason we’re running it as a stand alone piece instead of where it was-in the Cryonics Institute Yahoo Group Digest. (CIYG DIGEST)

Why is so much attention given to the subject of "immortality" by cryonicists? Why all the philosophical ruminations about the meaning of death and the meaning of living forever? Why all the provisions for money after reanimation in contrast to the sparse attention paid to the real problems of being cryopreserved under good conditions, or ensuring that cryopreservation will be maintained?

I think that the chances of failing to be cryopreserved are over a trillion times greater than the chances of living a trillion years. I think that the chances of cryonics not working at all are over a trillion times greater than the chances of living a trillion years. And the chances of being cryopreserved under terrible circumstances (dementia, autopsy, bad ischemic damage) are over a trillion times greater than the chances of living a trillion years.

People with their heads in the clouds about "immortality" or how to live an additional trillion years are not facing reality. To a lesser extent I have a similar opinion about people who focus on squirreling away money for their reanimation. They are counting their chickens before the eggs hatch. The eggs need a lot of preparation and safeguarding if they are ever going to hatch.

Cryonicists should be ensuring that their cryopreservation funds are in place and cannot be compromised as they grow older.

Cryonicists should be concerned about the danger of dementia rotting their brains before cryopreservation occurs.

Cryonicists should be concerned about the danger of dying in their sleep or of the co-operation of those around them in their cryopreservation should they deanimate in an untimely manner.

Cryonicists should be concerned about ensuring that they are cryopreserved under the best conditions should they deanimate in a timely manner.

The latter would include things like arranging for Standby, living close to the cryonics facility, being close to people who will notice and respond to a loss of vital signs, having the equipment to detect the loss of vital signs, having the equipment to give rapid cool-down and cardio-pulmonary support and having the legal authority to use this equipment in a timely manner.

Ensuring the long-term survival of your cryonics organization is also important. Donating lots of money could help, but it is also possible to help by being more actively involved -- becoming a CI Director, for example. But too many people see such acts in light of the "public goods problem" - they would rather free-ride on the largess of others and try to benefit themselves by using their money for reanimation.

I really have no objection to this, but believe that their selfish interests would be better served by attending to the issues in the previous paragraph. Such persons should be aware, however, that the largess of others may not be adequate, and if their cryonics organization is not durably constructed and financially empowered to resist internal corruption or external destruction their attempts to keep their money for reanimation will be totally wasted.

I didn't mean to imply that donating money or becoming a Director are the only things people can do to strengthen their cryonics organization. Only twelve people can become CI Directors. In the broader sense every cryonicist can help strengthen cryonics and their cryonics organization by promoting cryonics. This not only means media presentation, but discussions with friends, relatives and other associates (including work associates -- without endangering your career, of course). It is quite an accomplishment to convince someone else to make cryonics arrangements, but it is also an accomplishment simply to have your acquaintances become familiar with cryonics as something that real and reasonable people practice -- not simply a bizarre undertaking that occasionally appears in the media as a "man bites dog" story.

The fewer people who think that cryonics is an attack on religion or a profiteering racket to squeeze money out of desperate families who have lost a loved-one the fewer enemies we will have and the better the chances that cryonics organizations can survive.

Ben Best