[ExI] Max More - New CEO Alcor Life Extension Foundation

[Jeff Davis]

2010/12/24 Natasha Vita-More <natasha at natasha.cc>:
> It is my pleasure to announce that Max is the new CEO of Alcor!

Congratulations, Max.

I have two suggestions.

One of your goals should be greater acceptance of cryonics by the
mainstream, leading eventually to its adoption as the end-of-life*
standard of care in conventional medicine.  To achieve this, embrace
regulatory control. Do this by dragging Cryonics under conventional
medicine's already robust regulatory regime.

Professionalize all aspects of the practice. Declare it policy, and
implement for cryonics "patients" the same rights and protections
afforded conventional living patients.

If you're really ambitious, create a more or less conventional HMO
that includes cryonic suspension as an option.  An option which, if
selected, generates a reduction in the overall cost of care (reduction
in premium, rebated upon suspension).  The theory here is that end
stage care is the most expensive part of a lifetime of health care
costs.  If a person opts out of the heroic and massively expensive,
grueling, tortuous, and largely ineffective end stage care, and opts
instead for cryonic suspension, the cost savings can be refunded to
the patient.

Secondly, and perhaps more important, is a shift of focus regarding
"enrollment" efforts -- that is, getting more "sign-ups".

So long as cryonics lies outside the sphere of social acceptance,
marketing to the end user will be a formidable task.  I suggest
refocusing marketing efforts at "motivated" third parties, motivated
by the desire to save the life of a loved one.  Such an individual is,
in my view, far more likely to respond courageously to the challenge
of social disapproval, than someone considering cryonic suspension for
him or herself.  In my view, an appeal to heroism seems particularly
promising because it affords the third party the two-fold
satisfactions of saving the loved one, and being heroic in the fight
to do so.

* Obviously, I don't mean end of life, but it's the conventional term.

Best of luck to you in your endeavors.

Jeff Davis

       "Everything's hard till you know how to do it."
                                               Ray Charles