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Dear CRYONICS,
I want to see Alcor and cryonics
in general grow; but I understand
that, as of this moment, about a
thousand or so people are members
of Alcor. Hardly a trend. Maybe
there is some way we could push a
little. I call up all the local talk radio
shows and try to discuss cryonics
with the hosts. No real response
comes from this, but I’m stubborn.
Perhaps word of mouth is the
best way to inform people of the
existence of cryonics; it is apparent
that most are only very vaguely
aware of it- cryonics is like the
spacestation - “someone may be
working on it.” There seems to be
a consensus that Walt Disney is in
suspension, though he is not.
I think we should swallow our
fear of being rebuffed and tell
everyone we meet about cryonics,
yes, EVERYONE. It’s the ‘law’ of
Letters to the Editors
averages; tell 100 people about
something and though 99 may
ignore it, there’s a good chance
one individual won’t. I take my
own advice - I carry a copy of
CRYONICS all the time, it makes
a great conversation piece: “Imagine
that! A magazine about
FREEZING people!”
Sincerely,
Never T. Late
910 Portland Place
Boulder, Colorado 80304
(Never T. Late is an actual name, legally
changed, according to the writer. This is
an increasingly common practice.)
Editor’s comment:
Alcor’s membership is a bit
short of 1,000, more like 500 (see
elsewhere in the issue for figures.)
Before I signed up in 1970, I felt
the same as the writer of this letter
to CRYONICS, talking about the
idea with many people. Some of
them were relatives with terminal
illness. None of them got in touch
with the existing groups of the day
and none were suspended.
Only when my mother died
and was not suspended for lack of
prearrangements, did I see the
necessity to plan ahead; after that,
I became energetically involved.
Presently, those with active
arrangements are perhaps one or
two in each million people (in the
U.S.). By the time one person in
each hundred chooses it, we will
have grown by a factor of about
ten thousand. Over the next 30 to
40 years, such a transition might
take place. Keep carrying those
issues of CRYONICS with you,
and we’ll keep trying to make
them better “door openers!” (F)
NANOTECHNOLOGY AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL
In the last issue of Cryonics
we noted that on June 22, 1999,
Ralph Merkle and others appeared
before the 106th Congress Subcommittee
on Basic Science to
testify concerning the potential of
nanotechnology. A follow-up of
where that seems to be leading
appeared in the New York Times
recently. It’s fascinating that the
long-range goals of basic molecular
manufacturing are now being
presented by a U.S. President as a
challenge, in a similar spirit to that
which launched the space industry.
(See: http://www.nytimes.com/library/
tech/00/01/biztech/articles/21chip.html)
A Clinton Initiative
in a Science of Smallness
This was the title of an article by
John Markoff for the New York
Times, published January 21, 2000
on its website (URL at the lower left.)
Markoff noted that the Clinton
administration would soon announce
an ambitious program to accelerate
basic research in nanotechnology and
commented as follows:
“Nanotechnology is widely
considered an extremely promising
area of science and engineering, but it
has realized only limited commercial
success to date.”
Markoff’s report said President
Clinton would make a speech at Cal
Tech stressing the importance of
expanding basic research in both the
physical and biological sciences. As
part of the speech, Clinton was to
announce a plan to ask Congress to
finance a National Nanotechnology
Initiative, which would encourage
basic research in a wide range of
nanotechnology-related areas.
Specifically, Markoff said, “The
President will set out these ‘grand
challenges’: Shrinking the entire
contents of the Library of Congress
into a device the size of a sugar cube;
assembling new materials from the
‘bottom up’ — from atoms and
molecules; developing ultralight
materials that are 10 times as strong as
steel; creating a new class of computer
(Continued on page 14)
1st Qtr. 2000 • Cryonics 3