• ICS Volume 14(9) • September, 1993 ISSN 1054-4305 • $3.50 In This Issue ... Technical Estimates of Success in Cryonics by Ralph Merkle, Ph.D. -And- Deathist Bias in Popular Culture by Steve Neal Plus: Steve Harris,. M.D., reviews Chiller the fascinating new cryonics-based novel by Sterling Blake Cryonics is ...... Alcor is ...... Cryonic suspension is the application of low-temperature The Alcor Life Extension Foundation is a non-profit tax­ preservation technology to today's terminal patients. The exempt scientific and educational organization. Alcor goal of cryonic suspension and the technology of cryonics is currently has 27 members in cryonic suspension, hundreds the transport of today's terminal patients to a time in the of Suspension Members-people who have arrangements to future when cell/tissue repair technology is available, and be suspended-and hundreds more in the process of becom­ restoration to full function and health is possible--a time ing Suspension Members. Our -Emergency Response when freezing damage is a fully reversible injury and cures capability includes equipment and trained technicians in exist for virtually all of today's diseases, including aging. New York, Canada, Indiana, North California, and As human knowledge and medical technology continue to England, and a cool-down and perfusion facility in Florida. expand in scope, people who would incorrectly be The Alcor facility, located in Southern California, considered dead by today's medicine will commonly be includes a full-time staff with employees present 24 hours a restored to life and health. This coming control over living day. The facility also has a fully equipped and operational systems should allow us to fabricate new organisms and research laboratory, an ambulance for local response, an sub-cell-sized devices for repair and resuscitation of patients operating room, and a patient storage facility consisting of waiting in cryonic suspension. several stainless steel, state-of-the-art storage vessels. Subscribe to Cryonics!!! Cryonics magazine explores and promotes the practical, scientific, and social aspects of ultra-low temperature preservation of humans. As the publication of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation-the world's largest and most advanced cryonics organization-Cryonics takes a realistic, real-world approach to the challenge of maintaining in a biologically unchanging state patients who have reached the limitations of modern medicine. Cryonics contains thoughtful, provocative discussions of cryonic suspensions performed by Alcor, related research, nanotechnology and molecular engineering, book reviews, the phy­ sical format of memory and personality, the nature of identity, and more. First-time subscribers get one entire year ...... that's twelve issues-- for only $15. SUBSCRIBE!!!! Want Detailed Information? Cryonics: Reaching For Tomorrow is truly the world's only "textbook" introduction to cryonics. Over one hundred pages long, C.R.F. T. is a fantastic and unique examination of the social, practical, and scientific arguments that support the continuing refinement of today's imperfect cryonic suspension techniques, with an eye toward eventual perfected suspended animation. C.R.F. T. is also a comprehensive introduction to the Alcor Foundation. This book is free with your $15 subscription to Cryonics magazine, or can be purchased separately for 7.95. • r ODICS Feature Articles Volume 14(9) Deathist Bias In Popular Culture September, 1993 Steve Neal 14 Issue 157, ISSN 1054-4305 Estimates of Technical Success and Survival Strategies In Cryonics Ralph Merkle, Ph.D. 16 Alcor MidWest Moves Forward Cryonics is the magazine of the Alcor Courtney Smith 18 Life Extension Foundation, Inc. Editor: Ralph Whelan It's Our Problem Production Editors: Eric Geislinger Thomas Donaldson 19 and Jane Talisman Review: Chiller Published monthly. Individual subscrip­ Steven B. Harris, M.D. 20 tions: $35 per year in the U.S.; $40 per year in Canada and Mexico; $45 per year Review: How Monkeys See the World all others. Back issues are $3.50 each in Thomas Donaldson 22 the U.S., Canada, and Mexico; $4.50 each all others. Please address all editorial correspon­ dence to ALCOR, 12327 Doherty Street, Columns Riverside, CA 92503 or phone (800) 367-2228 or (714) 736- 1703. FAX#: (714) For the Record 9 736-6917. E-mail: [email protected] Mike Perry Understanding Alcor: Notes from the President Stephen Bridge 11 Contents copyright 1993 by the Alcor Future Tech Life Extension Foundation, Inc., except H. Keith Henson 13 where otherwise noted. All rights reserved. The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation or its Board Departments of Directors or management. Up Front 2 Alcor Board of Directors Letters to the Editor Steve Bridge, President 3 Ralph Whelan, Vice President David Pizer, Treasurer Membership Status 8 Carlos Mondragon Keith Henson Business Meeting Report 24 Hugh Hixon Brenda Peters Advertisements & Personals 26 Mark Voelker Allen Lopp Recent Abstracts of Interest 27 Meetings and Announcements 30 Issue to press: August 6, 1993. Cover: ... and we didn't even mention our lively Letters column. up Front by Ralph Whelan Alcor's Moving Plans Solidify necessary if we move there) be stored in be working on a four-page brochure that hermetically sealed containers is obvious­ will present as much factual information July was a month of steady progress ly not consistent with storage of cryonic about the buildin_g as possible, to be toward the planned move of Alcor's suspension patients, but after receiving a mailed to Alcor members upon comple­ headquarters to a new facility in Scotts­ quick lesson on the unpleasant dynamics tion. Hugh Hixon, Scott Herman, and I dale, Arizona. This "Acoma Building" of hermetically sealed passive liquid recently had our first meeting with a rep­ (so dubbed after its location on Acoma nitrogen vessels, it seems likely that resentative of a large-scale industrial Street in the Scottsdale Airpark), on they'll be flexible on this point as well. moving company, during which we began which Alcor placed a $20,000 deposit on Further study of the general environs fleshing out some of the complicated July 15, grows more attractive the more of the Acoma Building and the Scottsdale physical aspects of moving our entire we learn about it. This latest update is Airpark are painting an ever-prettier operation (and most importantly, the written just as this issue of Cryonics goes picture of this "bird in the hand." It now patients!) several hundred miles. More on to press, and just a few hours after Alcor appears that the only umented office/ all of this as we proceed. President Steve Bridge's return from his warehouse spaces between 3,000 and Lastly, I want to thank all of the latest trip to Scottsdale. 20,000 sq.ft. in the entire Airpark are the members who have already contributed The main purpose of Steve's visit unoccupied sections of... the Acoma time and/or money to this incredibly was an appointment with the Arizona At­ Building! (Other types of available space, demanding and time-consuming but cru­ torney General's office, which Steve and such as hangar space or office-only or cial project, and encourage other mem­ Alcor Directors David Pizer and Mark small single-tenant, etc., would not be ap­ bers and readers to please follow their Voelker attended, along with two offi­ propriate for Alcor's use.) The area is in­ lead and help out. Donations to the Alcor cials representing the Arizona State deed "booming." (And not in the seismic Building Fund are tax-deductible. Department of Health Services. The sense!) What's more, the premier tenant Arizona Attorney General was not candidates have recently stated that they present, but was represented by attorney would be happy to move in if Alcor buys Shrinking the Not-So-Pearly Terri Skladany. The meeting was called the building, but aren't interested if the Gates after a meeting with the Health Depart­ current ownership prevails. Apparently ment last month uncovered an absence of head and body freezings are not always The July 1 issue of Nature contains Arizona statute or rules regarding the the stigmas we think they are ... heartening news for cryonicists and nano­ status of Alcor's neuropatients. The Other interesting facts recently un­ computing enthusiasts alike: a research Health Department suggested that an covered: There is only one building in the team from Queen's University in Ireland A.G. decision might be necessary to Scottsdale Airpark that has sold for less has succeeded in creating a logical "And" clarify the status of these "anatomical than the $39/sq.ft. Acoma Building in the gate - essential to computing on any donations." past several months. This was sold at a level- out of a single benzo-15-crown­ The upshot of this latest meeting ap­ loss to avoid repossession, and was a ether-aldehyde molecule. pears to be that Alcor's neuropatients - single-tenant building only partly air­ The molecule's fluorescence inten­ and whole bodies, for that matter - can conditioned. Despite this, the Acoma sity ("output") varies depending on legitimately be stored only by a "properly Building is by all accounts and examina­ whether its "input" consists of hydrogen licensed or approved" organization. How­ tions a first-rate building, one of the only ions or sodium ions or both. Science ever, inquiries by Steve into the applica­ buildings in the Airpark with heavy-duty News, in reporting this advance, made the tion process for such licensing appeared floors, full air conditioning throughout uncharacteristically optimistic observa­ to show that no such licensing process in the building, and ceilings high enough to tion that "This technology offers the fact exists. (Sound familiar?) Univer­ allow second-story construction. Another promise that single molecules could re­ sities, hospitals, sperm banks, etc., that realtor familiar with this building but not place whole electronic components, such require such authorization have always involved with this deal in any way has as transistors," and Leonard F.