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There’s a pretty simple explanation as to where motivated skepticism for cryonics originates. If you currently are skeptical of cryonics, you should carefully consider whether this applies. Historically, there has been a powerfully optimized meme regarding the topic known as death. If you lost vital signs, you were irrevocably lost. There...

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In an article for Slate, Jay Olshansky argues in favor of a position that one would expect to be common sense at this point: While we can extend life in aging bodies through behavioral improvements and medical treatments, the time has arrived to acknowledge that our current model of reactive medicine, of trying to treat [...]

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Cryonics advocate Eugen Leitl puts forward some hard-hitting and thought-provoking observations about cryonics (reminiscent of Mike Darwin’s more recent thoughts on the subject): Cryonics, like Natural Selection, or the theories of General and Special Relativity, is core-smashing in character, and in the case of cryonics, the idea is so...

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On the first weekend of October, 2010 I was an invited speaker at “Applied Cryobiology – Scientific Symposium on Cryonics” held in Goslar, Germany: http://www.biostase....osium2010.html. The meeting was the first effort by the German Society for Applied Biostasis (DGAB) to create a milieu for scientific discussion of...

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One of the mysterious things about cryonics is that some of the arguments that are invoked against it would be considered ridiculous, or even insensitive, if they would be raised in the context of other live-saving technologies. As Alcor member Mark Plus writes: Why do we call engineering efforts to solve a hard problem which [...]

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One of the most remarkable aspects about the ongoing debates concerning the technical feasibility of mind uploading is the excessive confidence that some people have that these issues can be resolved without further experimental validation. The (implicit) assumption seems to be that our current understanding of the neuroscience of consciousness is...

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On the cryonics discussion list Cryonet cryobiologist Brian Wowk weighed in on the topic of mind uploading in a post that merits quoting in its entirety: I read with interest Bob Ettinger’s recent remarks about Mark Gubrud’s piece in The New Atlantis. http://futurisms.the...-wont-work.html Although...

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A review of  contemporary antinatalist writings Originally published in Cryonics, 2nd Quarter, 2010 (PDF) “Coming into existence is bad in part because it invariably leads to the harm of ceasing to exist.” David Benatar “If they could get a corpse to sit up on an operating table, they would jubilantly exclaim, “It’s alive!” And so [...]

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The cryonics company Suspended Animation “will sponsor the conference, “Suspended Animation – The Company and The Goal,” which will be held in Fort Lauderdale in May, 2011. The conference will feature speakers on the latest strategies and advances toward perfecting reversible human suspended animation. During the...

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Dear Friend, Can you imagine the future?  When we’ll travel to other stars. Have super-intelligent computers.  Robot servants.  And nanomachines that keep us young and healthy for centuries!  Will you live long enough to experience all this? “Unlikely,” you say?  Not necessarily.  Suspended Animation can be your bridge to the advances of the future. The technology is here today to have you cryopreserved for future reanimation.  To enable you to engage in time travel to the spectacular advances of the future. This technology is far from perfect now.  But it is good enough to give you a chance at unlimited life and prosperity.  Remarkable advances in cryopreservation have already been achieved. Millions of dollars are being spent to achieve perfected suspended animation and new technologies to revive time travelers in the future. You can learn all about these technologies at a conference in South Florida on May 20-22, 2011.  At this conference, the foremost authorities in human cryopreservation and future reanimation will convene at the Hyatt Regency Pier 66 Resort and Spa in Ft. Lauderdale.  They will inform you about pathbreaking research advances that could make your most exciting dreams come true. This conference is being sponsored by Suspended Animation, Inc. (SA), a company in Boynton Beach, Florida where advanced human cryopreservation equipment and services ...http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlcorNews/~4/tkiP3lwAsms

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There are two kinds of hypothermia: protective or preservative hypothermia, and therapeutic hypothermia. The former is easy and straightforward to understand for most, clinicians and laymen, alike.  However, therapeutic hypothermia has proved to be a far more difficult idea to communicate, probably because it is so easy to conflate it with...

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In his book God and the Philosophers, the Austrian American atheist philosopher Paul Edwards writes: When we die we do not return to the “bosom of Nature” or the bosom of anything. After death we will have no experiences at all for ever and ever; and this is what is so terrible about death. The [...]

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This article was originally published in Cryonics magazine, 4th Quarter, 2010. Introduction The most important reasons for writing case reports are: 1. To provide a transparent and detailed description of procedures and techniques for members of the cryonics organization and the general public. A cryonics organization that never writes anything...

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Robert Ettinger‘s book Youniverse: Toward a Self-Centered Philosophy of Immortalism and Cryonics is a book containing many insights and deep thoughts, yet has such an informal writing style that many readers might not take it seriously. I know of no other work of philosophy in which the author begins a sentence with “Anyway,”....

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It has been said that if you want to persuade someone, you need to find common ground. But one of the defining characteristics of cryonics is that proponents and opponents cannot even seem to agree on the criteria that should be employed in discussing cryonics. The cryonics skeptic will argue that the idea of cryonics [...]

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Introduction Ongoing legal challenges and hostile interference of relatives have increased awareness among cryonicists that addressing the likelihood that one will be cryopreserved at all should take center stage among other strategies for survival. As a consequence, a number of individuals have recently taken on the task of working out the...

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Gerald Feinberg, a Columbia university physicist who, among other things, hypothesized the existence of the muon neutrino, had a strong interest in the future of science and life extension. In 1966 he published the article “Physics and Life Prolongation” in … Continue reading →

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On the evening of Thursday, May 19 and on Friday, May 20, I attended the 2011 (2nd annual) Teens & Twenties young cryonicists gathering which preceded the Suspended Animation, Inc. conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The Teens & Twenties gathering … Continue reading →

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One of the most predictable features of public debates about cryonics is that those arguing in favor of cryonics are held to more rigorous standards than those seeking conventional medical treatment. Advocates of cryonics do not just have to prove … Continue reading →

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Reportedly, when James Watson and Steven Pinker had their genome sequenced, they declined to know their risk for Alzheimer’s disease. Clearly this is not an option for life extensionists and cryonicists, who are better off knowing whether they have a copy … Continue reading →

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July 24-27 I attended the 2011 annual Society for Cryobiology conference in Corvallis, Oregon. A number of the first presentations were concerned with means to *avoid* cryopreservation. Room temperature storage is much less expensive and troublesome, and improves ease of … Continue reading →

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The recent issue of Cryonics magazine features a comprehensive update on intermediate temperature storage (ITS). This article contains an important observation: Acoustic events consistent with fracturing were found to be universal during cooling through the cryogenic temperature range.  They occurred … Continue reading →

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The latest issue of Cryonics magazine features my member profile. This profile was written by Cairn Idun, a long-time Alcor member and cryonics activist who is currently known for organizing the annual asset preservation and teens and twenties meetings. To … Continue reading →

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Personalized Cryonics is an approach to cryonics that emphasizes the use of individual (health) information to optimize a person’s cryopreservation circumstances and outcomes. To exchange information and empower individuals, a moderated discussion list was created by the Institute for Evidence Based Cryonics. It is a discussion list for...

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As every modern consumer knows, smartphones are today’s go-to portable technology. Everything from GPS navigation to finding a good deal on your next meal or haircut right NOW to a wide variety of games and applications may be had at the touch of a button. But developers of smartphone applications (i.e, “apps”) are only just [...]

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According to Steve Jobs, death is such a great benefit to mankind that it would have to be invented if it did not exist: No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one [...]

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Many people in the life extension community follow some kind of diet. Historically, caloric restriction (CR) has been the most popular and most discussed option. Other popular diets include the Mediterranean diet and the Paleolithic diet.  In one sense, comparing these diets is like comparing apples and pears. The emphasis of caloric restriction...

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August 31 to September 4, 2011 I attended fifth biannual SENS Conference (SENS5, Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. People who attend SENS conferences are the demographic that is the most receptive to cryonics of any identifiable group I have yet found. They are mostly scientists...

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On October 27-29 I attended CR VII, the 2011 Calorie Restriction Society Conference held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Members of the Calorie Restriction Society restrict their calories while maintaining adequate nutrition as a means of extending their lifespan (or improving their healthspan), as has been proven to work in lower animals. Although I was...

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