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OctoberJanuary 2015 2015 • •Volume Volume 36:10 36:1

The Technology of Repair, Revival, and Rejuvenation Page 10

False Modesty Hurts Page 5

The Future of Cryonics Magazine ISSN 1054-4305 Page 6

$9.95 Improve Your Odds of a Good You have your cryonics funding and contracts in place but have you considered other steps you can take to prevent problems down the road? ü Keep Alcor up-to-date about personal and medical changes. ü Update your Alcor paperwork to reflect your current wishes. ü Execute a cryonics-friendly Living Will and Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care. ü Wear your bracelet and talk to your friends and family about your desire to be cryopreserved. ü Ask your relatives to sign Affidavits stating that they will not interfere with your cryopreservation. ü Attend local cryonics meetings or start a local group yourself. ü Contribute to Alcor’s operations and research.

Contact Alcor (1-877-462-5267) and let us know how we can assist you. Visit the ALCOR FORUMS www.alcor.org/forums/ Discuss Alcor and cryonics topics with other members and Alcor officials. • The Alcor Foundation • Financial • Cell Repair Technologies • Rejuvenation • • Stabilization • Events and Meetings Other features include pseudonyms (pending verification of membership status) and a private forum. Visit the ALCOR BLOG www.alcor.org/blog/ Your source for news about: • Cryonics technology • Speaking events and meetings • Cryopreservation cases • Employment opportunities • Television programs about cryonics Alcor is on Facebook Connect with Alcor members and supporters on our official Facebook page: www.facebook.com/alcor.life.extension.foundation Become a fan and encourage interested friends, family members, and colleagues to support us too. rofit Organization A Non-P

lume 36:1 ary 2015 • Vo Janu October 2015 • Volume 36:10 COVER STORY: PAGE 10

The Technology of Repair, Revival, Page 10 and Rejuvenation The Technology of Repair, This ambitious paper reviews some of Revival, and Rejuvenation the proposals that have been made to try to solve the problem of revival,

Page 5 repair, and rejuvenation, including using nanotechnology as a part of this effort. False Modesty Hurts Cryonics MagazinePage 6 Various cell and tissue repair devices Cryonics The Future of are discussed as well as a cryobiological view of the subject of repair after

ISSN 1054-4305 exposure to cryogenic temperatures. Part I of a three-part series.

$9.95

5 QUOD INCEPIMUS CONFICIEMUS False Modesty Hurts Cryonics CONTENTS Does false modesty about cryonics command more respect from scientists? Aschwin de Wolf argues that this is not the case and 22 Membership Statistics that pessimistic claims about cryonics need to be corroborated How many members, associate with precise, empirical data, instead of careless statements about members, and patients does Alcor probabilities and “damage.” have and where do they live?

6 The Future of Cryonics Magazine 24 Resuscitation Update This month Alcor will publish its ambitious book collection of Mike Perry surveys the news Cryonics magazine articles named Preserving Minds, Saving Lives, and research to report on new The Best Cryonics Writings from the Alcor Foundation. developments that bring us closer You can read the Afterword of the book to see where we are to the resuscitation of cryonics heading in the future. patients.

www.alcor.org Cryonics / October 2015 3 The Society

ifts have played a fundamental role in the cryonics movement since its earliest days. Dr. James Bedford, a Editorial Board man whose extraordinary vision led him to become the G first person to be cryopreserved, and the first to make a bequest to Ralph C. Merkle, Ph.D. a cryonics organization, exemplified the determination of the early R. Michael Perry, Ph.D. pioneers of cryonics. We invite you to follow in his footsteps, and join the James Bedford Society. Editor The James Bedford Society recognizes those who make a Aschwin de Wolf bequest of any size to the Alcor Life Extension Foundation. If you have already provided a gift Contributing Writers for Alcor in your estate, please send a copy of your relevant documents Aschwin de Wolf to Alcor’s Finance Director, Bonnie Magee. R. Michael Perry, Ph.D. If you’d like to learn more about setting up a bequest, send an email York W. Porter to [email protected] or call 480-905-1906 x114 to discuss your gift. 

Copyright 2015 by Alcor Life Extension Foundation All rights reserved. Reproduction, in whole or part, without permission is prohibited. 2015 Annual Giving Program Cryonics magazine is published monthly. lcor provides a wide array of services for you the member, and the general public. We inform and educate, we protect and preserve, and we strive to To subscribe to the printed edition remain at the forefront of cryonics technology. and/or change your address, please call A Since its founding, Alcor has relied on member support to maintain its mission 480.905.1906 x101or visit the magazine and attract new members. Your support, regardless of size, can provide a better website: future for all cryonicists. Please act now. www.alcor.org/magazine Suggested Giving Levels Please note: If you change your address less than a month before the magazine is mailed, it may $20 Friend be sent to your old address. $60 Junior Supporter Address correspondence to: $120 Sustaining Supporter Cryonics Magazine 7895 East Acoma Drive, Suite 110 $500 Advocate Supporter Scottsdale, Arizona 85260 Phone: 480.905.1906 $1,000 Leading Supporter Toll free: 877.462.5267 Fax: 480.922.9027 $2,500 Visionary Supporter $5,000 Silver Supporter Letters to the Editor welcome: [email protected] $10,000 Gold Supporter

Advertising inquiries: $25,000 Titanium Supporter 480.905.1906 x113 [email protected] $50,000 Vanguard Supporter ISSN: 1054-4305 We encourage every member to donate. Even if you can only afford $5 right now, Visit us on the web at www.alcor.org you will make a significant contribution to Alcor’s future. Donations may be made via the Donations button on the Alcor website or by Alcor News Blog contacting Alcor’s Finance Director, Bonnie Magee, at [email protected]. Your http://www.alcor.org/blog/ donation may be made as a lump sum or divided into easy monthly payments. 

4 Cryonics / October 2015 www.alcor.org Quod incepimus conficiemus

Photo: Cryo-Care Equipment Corporation at 2340 E. Washington St., Phoenix, AZ. Dr. Bedford’s “home” in 1970 or 1971.

False Modesty Hurts Cryonics By Aschwin de Wolf

o credible cryonics organization that will need to be overcome for cryonics get up and do something about them. would ever claim that if you to succeed, a major problem is that a lot Cryonics is a field where individuals Nget cryopreserved you will be of the individual probabilities that go into and small groups of individuals can still resuscitated in the future. We tend to make these calculations are not independent. make a huge impact on the credibility and more qualified claims and even include For example, if we can produce sustainability of the field. language in our cryopreservation contracts stronger scientific evidence for brain Does false modesty about cryonics about the (potential) challenges that are cryopreservation, legal protections will command more respect from scientists? I associated with today’s procedures. One improve, membership and financial stability don’t think so. If you think that cryonics counterproductive attitude that I have will increase, etc. Also, is it reasonable causes irreversible damage, please explain encountered since becoming involved in the to do probability estimates for things this on a specific, molecular level. Claiming field, however, is to think that we look more that are considered mainstream medical that today’s cryonics procedures cause respectable and credible if we put the odds knowledge or common sense sociological “damage” is not an argument against of success really low or claim that patients prerequisites? For example, what kind of cryonics unless you can make a case who were cryopreserved with older, cruder, Alzheimer’s researcher would discuss a for how this kind of damage leads to a technologies probably will not be revived. potential new drug with the caveat that the condition where the original ultrastructure A typical statement goes like, “I think there drug will only be effective if the brain gives of the brain cannot be inferred from the is about a 2% chance that cryonics will work rise to the mind (“who knows, maybe it is damaged state. Information is hard to but I think it is a rational decision to make a disease of the soul?”), or that civilized destroy and in cryonics damage is often considering the potential benefits.” When I society should still exist to introduce such produced concurrent with decreases in hear statements like this I always wonder, drugs to patients? There are all kinds of temperature that lock these changes in “how do you arrive at such a probability conditions that can be considered necessary place. One quick rule about talking about estimate?” and “what kinds of damage do for cryonics to succeed and if we assign damage in cryonics: ask for specifics, do you exactly think irreversibly erase identity- all of these independent probabilities we not accept sweeping statements about “the critical information?” If you make strong will always end up with extraordinarily low brain.” Ask how exactly this damage makes statements about the (technical) feasibility numbers. No mainstream researcher talks information irreversibly disappear.  of cryonics you’d better back them up. about his / her aims like this. I think that most of the time these low Another important thing to recognize estimates have little rigorous reasoning about likelihood estimates in cryonics is or data behind them. True, some have that many of the things that need to go attempted to produce formal probability right for cryonics to succeed are outcomes estimates. While I consider these exercises of our own actions. We cannot just sit useful for identifying the various challenges down, calculate, and wait. We have to

www.alcor.org Cryonics / October 2015 5 The Future of Cryonics Magazine By Aschwin de Wolf

his is the Afterword of Preserving Age of the Pussyfoot) Cryonics magazine drive progress at the organization. When Minds, Saving Lives, The Best Cryonics has changed as well. As important news the editor, an Alcor official, or member TWritings of the Alcor Life Extension and new developments in cryonics can now believes in a specific improvement, a case Foundation, a collection of the best Cryonics be disseminated to Alcor members in real- can be made for it in the magazine that magazine writings of the last 40 years. time, the importance of a (paper) magazine can be scrutinized and endorsed by other This massive and beautiful book is being to keep members informed about these Alcor members and officials. And last, but published in October 2015, and is available things appears to be lessened, especially for not least, a (paper) magazine remains a in both softcover and hardcover format. younger and computer-savvy people. But popular format to publish long (technical) Copies can be purchased through Alcor just as newspapers, magazines, and books articles and highlight the human aspects right now! continue to be published, publication of of cryonics (such as member profiles). Cryonics magazine remains important for a I will also add that I personally think Afterword number of reasons. that publication of a paper magazine is When Michael Darwin and Steve Bridge particularly important for Alcor because of launched the IABS Newsletter in 1977 that its unique aspiration to both preserve and later became Cryonics magazine, Alcor barely renew. Just think of the “magic” of being existed and magazines were the product of The requirement of publishing able to present a resuscitated patient with typewriters, time-consuming layout, and all important (proposed) changes the latest paper issue of Cryonics magazine! (hand-written) letters to the editor. As I Not only has the production and write this in September 2014, Alcor employs at Alcor in the magazine presentation of the magazine changed, 7 full-time staff members and 1 part-time ensures a sense of continuity and so has the content. As a general rule staff member and has over 1,000 members we should expect the contents of the with cryonics arrangements. And perhaps facilitates member involvement. magazine to reflect the current direction most importantly, Alcor has introduced a of the organization and it usually has number of major technological advances done this. How do we conceptualize that push the organization further in the First of all, a formal publication can play cryonics? How do we promote it? To direction of human . an important role in the documentation what extent do technological advances These developments raise an important and preservation of institutional change our perception of the feasibility of question. What is the role of Cryonics knowledge (technological, logistical, and this endeavour? Can we be more specific magazine today, and what can we expect legal). The requirement of publishing all about resuscitation and reintegration of from Alcor in the next 40 years? important (proposed) changes at Alcor in our patients? Should we be satisfied with It is undeniable that with the rise of the the magazine ensures a sense of continuity the current number of members? Have the Internet and the widespread adoption of and facilitates member involvement. demographics of cryonics changed, and smart phones (a development anticipated Secondly, the structured and serial nature what does this mean for how we present in Frederik Pohl’s 1969 cryonics novel The of a publication allows it to be used to cryonics to the general public? Just think

6 Cryonics / October 2015 www.alcor.org of all the articles you have read in this cryonics needs an ideal to aim for. book with these questions in mind and it That ideal is human suspended should have become evident that Alcor has animation. If the process of evolved and will continue to evolve. cryopreservation (or any credible preservation technology) can prevent a patient from The ultimate goal of Alcor deterioration without adding further injury, the only technical aiming at human suspended objection to cryonics would be animation provides an important to claim that a disease can never be cured in the future, and who benchmark to measure our could reasonably claim that? progress and to identify future Human suspended animation remains a formidable challenge; “repair” scenarios. but now that we are on the path of eliminating ice formation and fracturing, the remaining As was indicated in the Introduction, scientific, technological, and the articles collected in this book are not logistical challenges can be a “neutral” selection of writings that have identified, i.e. conducting our appeared in the magazine over the last procedures in an environment 40 years. While ensuring not to omit any that excludes further ischemic classic and important writings, we have injury (something we already deliberately selected those articles that know how to do in ideal reflect the current perspective on cryonics circumstances), designing that guides Alcor. In a nutshell, this vitrification solutions with means a strong emphasis on cryonics as negligible toxicity that avoid an evidence-based extension of medicine, excessive dehydration, and and less emphasis on any associated developing safe re-warming philosophies or grandiose visions. This technologies. The ultimate goal of Alcor discourse about human enhancement and does not mean that we do not recognize aiming at human suspended animation paradigm-shifting technologies. Most of the value of such writings, but we think provides an important benchmark to all, it is important to convey that cryonics it evident that the widespread adoption measure our progress and to identify future is not just a technology to avoid individual of any new medical technology requires “repair” scenarios. oblivion but a means of families, friends, that it should be presented in a manner I will close this afterword on the and loved ones to remain together. When that is non-objectionable to most people. topic of resuscitation and reintegration. people read our magazine, or peruse the As I have said on occasion, “cryonics is While Alcor undoubtedly remains the Alcor website, we do not only want them controversial enough; let’s not make it leading cryonics organization in terms to think that human cryopreservation is more controversial.” of advancing new technologies, there has a good idea, but that we have also put a So what can we expect in the next 40 been an increasing recognition that most lot of work into giving members the legal years of Alcor? I am not a big proponent people reject cryonics for personal and and technological tools to preserve their of making bold predictions but I think social reasons—as opposed to scientific memories, assets, and most of all, the it reasonable to expect that we will see a and technological ones. To some extent we people dear to them in order to head into further increase in membership (provided have ourselves to blame for this because this future prepared and together. And costs are kept under control), a more we have not devoted a whole lot of time what a future it will be!  diverse membership, new advances in to specific resuscitation scenarios and cryopreservation technologies, changes the great benefits of remaining alive and in long-term care conditions, and a much reaching the future. One thing I expect stronger emphasis on resuscitation and to see more in the magazine, and other reintegration. Alcor media, is a stronger engagement Although the envisioned, almost with concerns about loss and alienation. limitless, capabilities of future medicine Clearly, we cannot promise that all will sometimes weakens the desire to make be well in the future; but we can offer a rapid technological progress in our field, counter-weight to the often dystopian

www.alcor.org Cryonics / October 2015 7 ORDER Preserving Minds, NOW! Saving Lives The Best Cryonics Writings of The Alcor Life Extension Foundation

“Cryonics magazine introduced me to Alcor and cryonics at its best back in 1983. The visions and technological breakthroughs that you will read about in this book continue to shape Alcor’s mission to preserve life through science.” – , Ph.D. President and CEO of Alcor

ryonics is an experimental medical procedure that Cuses ultra-low temperatures to put critically ill people into a state of metabolic arrest to give them access to medical advances of the future. Since its inception in the early 1960s, the practice of cryonics has moved from a theoretical concept to an evidence-based practice that uses emergency medical procedures and modern vitrification technologies to eliminate ice formation.

Preserving Minds, Saving Lives offers an ambitious collection of articles about cryonics and the Alcor Life Extension Foundation. From its humble beginnings in 1972, and its first human cryonics patient in 1976, Alcor has grown to a professional organization with more than 1,000 members, more than 140 human patients, and more than 50 pets, all awaiting a chance to restore them to good health and continue their lives.

This book presents some of the best cryonics writings from Cryonics magazine from 1972 to 2012. There are clear expositions of the rationale behind cryonics, its scientific validation, and the evolution of Alcor procedures. Also covered are repair and resuscitation scenarios, philosophical issues associated with cryonics, and debates within the cryonics community itself.

8 Cryonics / October 2015 www.alcor.org Preserving Minds, Saving Lives The Best Cryonics Writings of The Alcor Life Extension Foundation

Featuring stimulating articles from the pages of Cryonics magazine by Steven Harris, Hugh Hixon, Saul Kent, , Stephen Bridge, Thomas Donaldson, Aschwin de Wolf, , Michael Perry, Ralph Merkle, and many others.

Here are some of the classic articles that shaped cryonics thought and Alcor policy over the past three decades.

Why We are Cryonicists Notes on the First Human Freezing Dear Dr. Bedford How Cryoprotectants Work How Cold is Cold Enough? The Death of Death in Cryonics The Society for The Recovery of Persons Apparently Dead Frozen Souls: Can A Religious Person Choose Cryonics? But What Will the Neighbors Think?! Systems for Intermediate Temperature Storage for Fracture Reduction and Avoidance

You can’t really understand cryonics today unless you can appreciate how we got here. The philosophy, the history, the science and technology, the debates, the PEOPLE of cryonics—it’s all here in one indispensable volume.

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www.alcor.org Cryonics / October 2015 9 The Technology of Repair, Revival, and Rejuvenation Part I

By York W. Porter

Cryonics is a concept wherein individuals who are clinically dead are placed at liquid nitrogen temperature (‑196 degrees Celsius) where they remain essentially unchanged. The assumption of cryonics is that those individuals can be revived, repaired, and rejuvenated by future scientific knowledge and procedures. This paper reviews some of the proposals that have been made to try to solve the problem of revival, repair, and rejuvenation, including using nanotechnology as a part of this effort. Various cell and tissue repair devices are discussed as well as a cryobiological view of the subject of repair after exposure to cryogenic temperatures.

Author’s Note: What follows is, to some degree, a chronological account of revival, repair, and rejuvenation scenarios and thoughts throughout the years in cryonics, as well as some general thoughts and information about nanotechnology itself. The information available on these subjects is fairly extensive so it isn’t possible, in a single article or book chapter, or in several volumes for that matter, to cover every twist and turn in the history of things, as well as detailed explanations of each concept/objection, etc. As was pointed out extremely well in the book (and television series) Connections by James Burke, most ideas, if not all, don’t arise in a vacuum and there are always interweavings in the “tapestry of history.” Also, one needs to keep in mind that many papers in many fields, not only cryonics, are “upgrades” from previous work of the same author not “written from scratch.” In the example of Thomas Donaldson, for instance, it should be noted that in 1976 he wrote of modified biologically based repair systems in a paper entitled, “A Brief Scientific Introduction to Cryonics.”1 This seems to form the basis for his later expositions on the subject. There is also the phenomenon of people thinking along the same general lines but coming up with unique and separate solutions. Mike Darwin’s thought on the “anabolocyte” developed independently of Donaldson’s musings on biologically-based repair systems even though both occurred within a year or so of each other. Due to these scholarly concerns and the enormous amount of material to go through, what is written below should be a “start” rather than “ending” to efforts in reading on this interesting, important topic.

The Prospect of good health. This would include dealing observations as a scientifically trained and In his seminal book, The Prospect of with any damage that the processes thorough investigator, holding masters’ Immortality2, predicated his involved in cryonics caused the individuals, degrees in both physics and mathematics, revolutionary thesis on a known fact and as well as the harmful effects of aging and led him to make his postulate with a high also an assumption. The fact, true now the diseases and/or trauma they suffered degree of confidence and reasonableness. as then, is that individuals can be placed before their clinical death. From the time of Ettinger’s birth, at ultra-low (“cryogenic”) temperatures In a talk personally heard by the in December 1918, to the time he was immediately after clinical death, with author, Ettinger stated quite frankly and writing Prospect, in the early to mid-1960s, essentially no further deterioration once honestly that, at the time of writing his civilization had developed in astonishing they reach those temperatures. book, he didn’t (and, of course, couldn’t) ways. The “scientific miracles” of The assumption was, and remains, that know that the assumption was correct. high-speed computers, moon rockets, at some future point in time, scientific But he postulated it based, in part, on supersonic jet aircraft, international progress will make it possible to revive, the enormous progress that science had telecommunications, and medical advances repair, and rejuvenate those stored made during the decades preceding his ranging from penicillin to organ transplants, individuals to a state reflecting youthful writing. That progress, plus Ettinger’s own as well as many others, were either already a

10 Cryonics / October 2015 www.alcor.org reality or just on the horizon. The ability of device on the market ... by which you can Jerry White’s 1969 Proposal of a science to continue to progress to further write the Lord’s Prayer on the head of a “Repair Virus” heights of capability seemed an easy leap in pin”7 were just “the most primitive, halting For those cryopreserved in the early days, logical reasoning. step in the direction I intend to discuss.”8 friends, family and advocates could take Still, the assumption remained an Progress was just beginning. comfort that at least time was “stopped.” assumption and, in light of the fact that Not just the Lord’s Prayer, Feynman You had time to figure out what could be no such repair mechanism has yet been speculated, but the whole Encyclopedia done for the ones you cared about, while devised, still remains just that: a postulate Britannica, all 24 1,000-page, double- they were “on hold.” Just what would be which forms the second part of Ettinger’s column, fine-print volumes of the then- done, though, remained elusive even as world-changing idea. Here I will review current edition, might be written on the a topic of speculation. Which brings us some of the advances in thinking and head of a pin. He talked about whether to Jerome B. “Jerry” White. White was technology that occurred around the time computers that were then taking up an early and long-term cryonics activist of writing of the original book, and some entire rooms of floor space could be (now a cryonics patient) who attended which have developed since. shrunk down toward something like the a conference on the subject held at Ann human brain, or—who could say? Like Arbor, in April, 1969, about five Richard Feynman’s Talk Ettinger he spoke of robot surgery, but years after the commercial publication of The first “solid ground” that can be said in terms of independent units that would Ettinger’s book. to underlie the work of Ettinger appeared work inside the body itself. One of his There White gave a presentation independently back in 1959, before bolder statements anticipates full-blown entitled, “Viral Induced Repair of Ettinger had finished the first version nanotechnology: “But I am not afraid to Damaged Neurons with Preservation of of his book (in 1962). In an after-dinner consider the final question as to whether, Long-Term Information Content.”11 The talk3 that wasn’t about cryonics at all, Dr. ultimately—in the great future—we can gist of it was that viruses, which really Richard Feynman, who would share the arrange the atoms the way we want: The are little machines, could be modified and 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics, outlined some very atoms, all the way down! What would specially programmed to interact with cells basic principles that would powerfully happen if we could arrange the atoms in a beneficial way, resulting in cell repair. reinforce the cryonics assumption. one by one the way we want them (within It appears to be the first serious attempt At the time of Feynman’s presentation, reason, of course; you can’t put them to formulate a repair scenario in cryonics. most people, when talking of machines, so that they are chemically unstable, for A fledgling beginning, yes, but you had to thought about all the visible-sized devices example)?”9 start somewhere if Ettinger’s idea was ever that were (and are) in everyday use, from Could it be done? Feynman was to be made to work. watches, food mixers, and vacuum cleaners optimistic: “The principles of physics, as White’s paper begins with what is, to cars, airplanes, and ships. Further, most far as I can see, do not speak against the at least to this author, a lengthy and people’s thoughts about them tended possibility of maneuvering things atom by technically complicated excursion, not toward “the larger and more powerful, the atom. It is not an attempt to violate any lacking relevance of course, into work of better and more impressive.” Even Ettinger laws; it is something, in principle, that can Alan M. Turing and John von Neumann, in his book wrote of “huge surgeon- be done; but in practice, it has not been who are well-known luminaries in the machines working twenty-four hours a done because we are too big.”10 fields of computer science and cellular day for decades or even centuries…”4 to Feynman clearly deserves credit as automata. The upshot is that, indeed revive, repair, and rejuvenate an individual one of the principal founders of the viruses can be seen as little machines that and, in particular, the brain, “cell by cell, field now known as “nanotechnology”— could be modified in various, information- or even molecule by molecule in critical manipulating objects in a direct fashion intensive ways, that is to say, programmed, areas.”5 Ettinger would generally be on the molecular/atomic scale; proper to realize a wide variety of behaviors. While seconded by later thinkers in the “molecule apportioning of credit is something for we normally think of viruses as things to by molecule” repair capabilities that historians to decide. In any event, his 1959 avoid, there is no reason in principle they should become available, but the size of talk has generated, at least retrospectively, a couldn’t behave well, and in fact quite the “surgeon machines” would probably lot of interest among those now working in beneficially, when introduced into our shrink too, they averred, quite a lot in fact. the field. His remarks still stand out in both tissues, particularly if there is something Though it may be natural to think of their basic points and in demonstrating the wrong that needs fixing. So different there being “plenty of room at the top” (as creative thinking of the man himself. fields can help each other. In this case the in, “the sky’s the limit”), Feynman turned There the matter remained, at least specialties of computation and cellular it around that December evening in ’59. in terms of what Robert Ettinger would automata are shown, or at least strongly Titling his after-dinner talk, “There’s Plenty postulate just a few years later. No suggested, to be relevant in biology— of Room at the Bottom,” he pointed out immediate connection was made between not that the problems are solved. But that, while a lot of technological progress Feynman’s talk and cryonics. Ettinger in words sometimes attributed to Louis had been made in miniaturizing devices and wrote about “giant” surgeon-machines Agassiz, the famous 1800s science teacher, processes, more could be done, a whole lot working “molecule by molecule” if they (paraphrasing) “Once you study one thing, more. “Electric motors that are the size had to, but surely it would be make sense you find it is ultimately connected with of the nail on your small finger”6 and “a to make them smaller. everything else.”

www.alcor.org Cryonics / October 2015 11 White, in moving on to more concrete temperatures from ‑6 to ‑269 Celsius for 24 get the “fleet” of all these vehicles (or what matters, points out that, in the repair of hours (liquid nitrogen is ‑196, absolute zero once were vehicles) operational again. So damaged cells, each damaged molecule that is ‑273) with no change “...in the biological what do they do? First, inspect the scene. forms the cell can be dealt with in one or activity of the DNA.” According to the The existence of thousands and thousands more of basically three ways: same source, taking DNA to ultralow of parts, in various states of disassembly 1. Repair of the portion or “unit” of temperatures (i.e., presumably below ‑269) and/or disrepair, would certainly start the molecule that is damaged and “...provoked a disruption of the secondary giving useful clues. Our mechanics could restoration of the unit in situ (in its structure of the molecules” but “[g]ross then begin piecing out “what goes with original place) inside the cell itself, in changes in the structure of DNA occur what,” how certain components fit effect making the damaged unit of only as a result of repeated cycles of together, what gear turns what gear, etc. the molecule “brand new” in terms freezing and thawing.” Further imagine that during their attempts of its molecular/cellular utility. This While the subject is complex, in a to utilize this treasure trove of parts, they may happen either by the work of a nutshell, the primary structure of DNA also accidentally stumble upon a further biological enzyme or by modifying is the nucleotide sequence. The secondary treasure trove in the form of a complete the damaged section to alleviate its structure is the “double helix” shape and set of factory blueprints, shop manuals, detrimental effects. the particular configuration it takes. The diagrams and videos that show exactly ability to look at these structures gives what component in each type of vehicle 2. Removal of the damaged unit from one a great deal of information about went with what. Such a find might, of the molecule and replacement with things. (One side of the double helix alone course, greatly simplify and accelerate the an undamaged unit, which then determines the other side by the matching repair process. allows the molecule to function in base elements: adenine pairs only with In the case of individual parts, our its intended way and location. thymine, guanine only with cytosine.) mechanics should also be able to recognize 3. If the unit could not be repaired Very likely not exactly the same section what parts are defective and take steps to fix or removed the cell might “work of DNA will be damaged in each cell, so each defect. While it might be possible for around” the damage in some way.12 by analyzing many millions of possibly them to even make improvements upon the damaged DNA fragments found in a body, “natural order” of the things they found, White then brings up a difficulty. The the original, complete sequence or genome it should, in any event, be relatively simple basic proposal of cryonics is to stop might be reconstructed with confidence. and feasible to use the existing parts and further deterioration by storing patients at This should hold if even one tenth of one the blueprints of them to make the older cryogenic temperatures. Cryopreservation, percent of the DNA survives its journey to technology work as well as it once did. however, with procedures available at the liquid nitrogen temperature relatively intact An example of improvement (hopefully) time of White’s paper (and, hopefully, to a (and the cited reference seems to indicate a would be to take cars from, say, the 1960s, lesser degree for procedures used today), far higher percentage). when carburetors were mainly in vogue, adds an amount of damage itself. This However derived, with the knowledge of and modify them (objections of diehard leads one to conclude the obvious need an individual’s particular genome, and with classic car buffs notwithstanding) to be for, as White put it, “Concrete proposals enough computational power, it should be a fuel-injection. One might also upgrade for carrying out repair on the molecular relatively simple matter to figure out “what aircraft of earlier eras from prop-driven level.”13 goes where” and whether a particular part to jet powered, and the like. That said, White proposes that this be a two- is damaged and how. (That’s the theory, however, the alternative of just restoring pronged approach with both “a suitable anyway. Practice, of course, may well be every conveyance to its original, assembly- enriched environment”14 and an another thing. More about that and the line condition would be open too. “augmented control program.”15 The promise of nanotechnological repair later). To return to the biological problem, augmented control program would make This doesn’t mean that the DNA will the existence of relatively intact DNA, improvements in the body’s genetic material repair itself or anything else unaided. Body or the ability to figure out that state from through alterations in the DNA. (Thus it mechanisms do exist to help maintain numerous partial samples, allows the same would have to be managed carefully!) One DNA and repair it, but the DNA doesn’t sort of option. It would give future “body prospect for aiding the successful repair and have “built in” cell-repair capabilities, all on mechanics” the ability to determine, from revival of human tissue would be to try to its own. What it does have is the ability to the myriads (or they may possibly need use what DNA is left in the body’s cells to read the “blueprint” of what the organism much less) of slightly different blueprints help decipher what the original “blueprint” “should” be like, in the organism’s basic of the cell, as well as their own knowledge would have been for the whole organism. and youthful form, and how such “repair of normal human physiology, how things (Note: in terms of damage concern, liquid capabilities” as exist should be formed and should fit together and work in a normal, nitrogen is sometimes used as a cell lysing how they should function. healthy state. or perforating agent to extract DNA from Imagine, if you will, a group of highly In Jerry White’s proposal, this genome the cell itself for later analysis and use.) L. trained mechanics coming upon a vast can further be augmented by appropriate K. Lozine-Lozinskii (Studies in Cryobiology wrecking yard of various devices of “control instructions” written directly into [1974], p. 207) reports that DNA from the transport: cars, buses, planes, whatever. the DNA by viral insertion. In this manner, bacterium Bacillus subtilis was subjected to The mechanics are instructed to “fix it”— otherwise irreversible injury might be

12 Cryonics / October 2015 www.alcor.org repaired. White proposes, with considerable The general method outlined infection and against foreign substances insight for a paper written in 1969: here has its obvious use in of various kinds (the “wood splinter” the repair of nervous tissues being a pretty common example) in which Since a cell is formed and especially human. Repair of all thousands and thousands of them rush maintained under genetic control, types of damage—caused by to an affected area and try to maintain it is reasonable to suggest that factors mechanical, chemical, body integrity by eliminating the intruding genetic control also be used pathological, aging, freezing, object or substance. The resulting area will to carry out degrees of repair thawing, and so on—is intended.17 occasionally build up to the “abcess” stage greater than those the cell in its that can result in its need to be lanced and damaged condition could by and concludes with: drained (and the offending object removed, itself provide. For each degree of if possible) as hordes of the WBCs sacrifice damage greater than the normal I hope that the method themselves to the “greater good” of the regenerative abilities of a cell, a cursorily outlined here is still body as a whole. suitable enriched environment concrete enough to encourage WBCs also have particular properties and augmented control program those who are concerned with of movement referred to as “amoeboid.” should be provided. The control problems of repair of brain Rather than being passively carried along program should be augmented as damage, whatever its origin.18 the route of the bloodstream like their such, in the form of additional cousin the red blood cell, they can wriggle genetic information which will For its time it was an outstanding or crawl along on their own. Squeezing enable the cell to carry out effort, a real attempt to put some solid through much, most, or all of the available emergency repairs, such as of underpinnings to Robert Ettinger’s volume, depending on where they are, they a damaged membrane, gather assumption. It was a major step toward are constantly on the lookout for “bad nutrients from the environment, showing that cryonics was a reasonable guys” in a “cops and robbers” coexistence and restore normal functioning thing for individuals to do, and it offered with things that shouldn’t be there. according to the standard control a well-thought out proposal as to how Mike Darwin was concerned that Jerry program.16 Ettinger’s assumption might one day be White’s proposal would be problematic. realized. It needed a living, functioning cell to Where Ettinger in Prospect envisioned allow the injection of DNA-modifying “giant surgeon machines” doing the work, Mike Darwin and the Anabolocyte substances; only then could enhanced White imagined “natural processes,” Eight years went by. Then, in the July/ repair procedures begin. In a four-page albeit greatly augmented, using the built- August 1977 Life Extension Magazine, article that included several drawings by the in control mechanisms as modified by Michael G. Darwin outlined a proposal for author, Darwin elucidated an interesting intelligent guidance. The use of a virus to an artificially engineered white blood cell scenario about how injured and even non- “inject” the needed DNA strand into the that he called the “anabolocyte.” By then functioning human cells might be repaired affected cell(s) is outlined in his proposal. a well-known cryonics activist himself, and restored to their original condition Modern, advanced medical procedures Darwin had actually thought up the concept using a humanly engineered, advanced type are similar, yet the reality of modern several years before, after participating of WBC. As he put it: “If we start with medicine is still that, in most cases, it is in an early cryopreservation that didn’t something like a normal white blood cell the “wisdom of the human body” with go as well as planned (to say the least). It and assume it could be modified in most its built-in repair and recovery mechanism led Darwin to consider the formidable any way, we could build an ultraminiature, that makes the difference. Modern problem of how the enormous number of self-reduplicating repair unit.”20 Combining medicine mainly provides the conditions cells in the human body might be repaired some Greek words he arrived at the name for that “body wisdom” to exert itself and after undergoing the procedures associated “anabolocyte” for this type cell which would give time for the patient to heal on his own. with cryonics. As Darwin put it: “After a engage in constructive metabolic activities. White’s proposal is an ingenious variation restless night worrying over this problem With other adaptation of terminology the of this that would add more capability than I came up with the idea of genetically modified nucleus became the “Program Nature originally provided. engineered leukocytes that would be able to Module.” Darwin goes on to give an White then goes to a lengthy, in-depth either repair or replace damaged cells and interesting account of how damaged cells explanation of how his viruses would work tissue.”19 Thus the idea of the anabolocyte could be repaired in a several-step process, to add extraneous DNA to the natural was born. commenting that: strand inside human cells and otherwise “Leukocyte” is a slightly technical enhance the DNA’s ability to direct the name for what lay people call a “white White cells are particularly repair of cellular damage. Such repair blood cell.” Since most of the time one good candidates for this type would be particularly critical in neurons is dealing with more than one of them, a of transformation because which are, of course, the most important brief abbreviation of the plural, as used in they already embody several of cells in the human body. medical circles, is “WBCs.” These blood the properties we are seeking. White begins the last section of his cells are an integral part of the human They have the capacity to move paper: body, acting as the body’s defense against through the capillary walls to

www.alcor.org Cryonics / October 2015 13 reach sites of injury and/or In a slight extension of Darwin’s At bottom, if the information about infection, they are compatible thinking, one can envision, perhaps, a how the cell “should be” is still present, with human physiology, and group of cells cloned for no other purpose and the structures of the cell, albeit injured perhaps more importantly, than to act as a “warehouse” of needed and/or damaged, are still present, it then they have some (although very subcellular components for use by the simply remains to figure out what tools and limited) capacity for attaching anabolocyte in its repair efforts. Whatever mechanisms of repair are needed to restore themselves to damaged or the particulars one thinks up, the general the cell to a healthy and youthful state. Not malignant cells to either repair concept of the anabolocyte was, like Jerry necessarily an easy task, of course, but the them or donate a lysosome and White’s exposition, an attempt to further existence of the cells in a state of damage, destroy them.21 add concrete underpinnings to Ettinger’s coupled with the information needed for crucial assumption. their repair and the lengthy time which Darwin further breaks the problem down cryogenic temperatures allow individuals to by subdividing the proposed anabolocyte Thomas Donaldson’s Article: “How be stored, provides a reasonable possibility into components such as the “Synthesis Will They Bring Us Back, 200 Years that cryonics will ultimately succeed. Unit” where organelles (the subcellular From Now?” Thomas Donaldson approached this structures that carry out cell functions) Thomas Donaldson was a Ph.D. problem beginning with the fact that there are manufactured for transfer into the mathematician and additionally a cryonics already exist “machines” that do, at least in damaged cell. The “Storage Module” in activist who wrote extensively about the general, the types of work that are required. turn is a “depot” for molecules that provide subject. Some of his writings appeared They are biological in nature and are called energy and also for “raw materials” for the in The Immortalist, mouthpiece of The enzymes. Enzymes are protein molecules construction of needed structures. Other , an organization that that are involved in thousands of reactions proposed components are mentioned. got its start in the 1960s as the Cryonics in a cell. As Donaldson explains in the However, Society of Michigan (and still exists today). article: In the March 1981 issue Donaldson tackles, At this juncture it is important in some detail, a biological approach to They operate because they to emphasize that this particular dealing with repair issues for individuals have a particular structure, which repair process is workable only who have been cryopreserved. Believing will actually grasp a molecule for non-neuronal tissue. Nerve that finding the answer to how to revive of one reactant and when after cells with information-containing patients from their storage at cryogenic thermal motion brings them into dendrites and protein molecules temperatures would probably take several contact with the other reactant, would require an alternate repair centuries, Donaldson offers a number of will release it. Their analogy to sequence which would simply intriguing ways to begin dealing with this machines goes even further: some replace the defective metabolic problem. enzymes actually are designed equipment.22 In 1981 cryobiologists might note so that they will be turned off that cells stored at ultra-low temperature and not act if too much of Impressive as it is, the account were damaged, and ponder some general the chemical product exists; understandably omits many details mechanisms for causing this damage. others will have many complex that would be needed for any actual Yet, as Donaldson put it in his article, “... responses to many different implementation. But it helps make a even in micrographs of the most severely chemicals in their environment. plausible case that cryonics is not just disrupted cells, we can see without In short, they are machines the “wishful thinking.” It was another milestone difficulty what the cell was once and what sizes of molecules.24 attempt to seriously ponder how Ettinger’s it ought to be,” adding: “The case is very assumption might be realized. strong that all the information required Donaldson then goes on to explain that Darwin’s effort also reminds us that we to rebuild it is STILL PRESENT.”23 he expects several centuries will be needed don’t always have to “reinvent the wheel.” (emphasis original). for the chemical research necessary to Ettinger’s “huge surgeon machine” was Both these points, of course, tie develop, as he puts it, “...our own enzymes a postulated, super-sophisticated device in powerfully with Robert Ettinger’s bearing little if any relation to those made that would work on the body. In the assumption that future science would by living cells.”25 Upon that development, replacement and repair of subcellular be able to repair virtually any damage a Donaldson predicts that machines of many structures, where one needs a general cryopreserved patient might have incurred. sizes, from the smallness of bacteria and solution, i.e., needing a mitochondrion It didn’t matter whether this damage was human cells to much larger constructions, instead of “that particular mitochondrion,” from illness and/or injury prior to arrest, would ultimately be possible. It was, so Nature has already provided a mechanism or from the ravages of aging coupled with to speak, a hybrid of biological and man- for their construction along with that of and in addition to whatever damage the made capabilities somewhat like Michael other cellular and subcellular organelles. cryonics procedure itself had caused. So Darwin had written of a few years earlier. Darwin’s proposal is to make use of that long as the “time stopping” effect of ultra- Donaldson adds, referring to repair already existing natural capability to the low temperatures was employed, eventually machines of the microscopic variety: advantage of cryonics. science should be able to deal with it. “All of these could act, of course, at the

14 Cryonics / October 2015 www.alcor.org same time (in a microscope, a brain under The result, from a molecular standpoint, see the logic of Ettinger’s approach. In the repair would appear to swarm with repair would be a structure that, in a way, same article Drexler continues: bacteria!).”26 would mimic how living organisms are So then I went and dug out a (Author’s note: In March 2008, a team constructed. It would be built “from the copy of Ettinger’s The Prospect of from the University of Washington, Seattle ground up,” atom-by-atom and molecule- Immortality from the MIT library, and the Weizmann Institute of Science, by-molecule, as opposed to the “mix and and there, lo and behold, I found Israel developed a manmade enzyme that, stir” method. If (and it was, and is, a big out that these crazy cryonics though falling far short of Donaldson’s if but one with numerous and world- people not only were right, but prediction, had never before been seen in changing consequences) it could be done, they even knew why they were nature).27 the resulting structures could be quite right, that in the future we’re complex and precise, consistent, again, going to have molecular repair K. Eric Drexler and Engines of with physical laws. technology. Ettinger wrote of Creation Although some have called Drexler “the repairing cells molecule-by- One of the most exciting developments in founding father of nanotechnology,” it is molecule if need be. Of course, cryonics occurred in 1986, when a scientist obvious that Feynman deserves part of he didn’t have the numbers to by the name of K. Eric Drexler published the credit. Drexler did, however begin to demonstrate this, and there was a book with the intriguing title Engines of lay more specific foundations under the still the question of how we Creation.28 Drexler talked yet again in this generalities Feynman had talked about. In would get there. But he had the engaging volume about the possibility doing so, Drexler also helped put more basic physical perception that of being able to control matter directly specific foundations under the postulate we’d develop molecular-level on the atomic scale, similar to Richard on which Ettinger had rested his case for repair machines, and that doing Feynman a quarter-century before. Long cryonics. this doesn’t conflict with any before that and since then science had, Cryonics offered hope for the dying physical law.30 of course, produced a large number of that, by their being stored at extreme low useful and varied substances, ranging temperature with its “suspension” of time, Drexler, having the courage of his from medicines like penicillin, to alloys, future science and technology could furnish convictions, mentions cryonics in Engines plastics and other materials that pervade them revival, repair, and rejuvenation. of Creation, notably in Chapter 9, “A Door our modern life. Mostly, though, it was Ettinger’s book was a selection of the to the Future.” He uses the more general by a “mix and stir” method involving Book of the Month Club, a then-popular term “biostasis” to refer to any reasonable large masses of material, perhaps with way for books of importance to make their attempt to preserve the structure of the heating, hammering or other macroscale way to the general public. , human body after clinical death but allows, intervention, but without any ultrafine a well-known science and science-fiction in one observation well-appreciated by control. writer, had reviewed Ettinger’s work cryonicists, that “Robert Ettinger has What Drexler proposed was something before its publication and pronounced it apparently identified a workable approach entirely different. His efforts, outlined reasonable. Numerous media appearances to biostasis.”31 both in Engines of Creation and in more followed the commercial publication of Drexler’s writings, coupled with his depth in technical publications, dealt the book in June 1964, and it seemed at known expertise in nanotechnology, gave with a basically new concept, fleshing first that cryonics would “take off ”on cryonics supporters a useful tool in their out the earlier ideas of Feynman with its own and soon become part of normal discussions and added to the arguments more specifics. It would, once again, be societal activity. Not so, unfortunately. that cryonics is a reasonable thing to the ability to take individual atoms and Only a relative handful, about 2,000 people do. Ettinger’s insight that molecular molecules and combine them in any order today worldwide (most in the United repair would someday be feasible was and arrangement that the laws of science States), are signed up for the practice, with augmented with powerful new thinking allowed, and do so with a precision that, about 300 people cryopreserved. Cryonics as to how it could happen. It became to date, no feasible process could match. organizations, though continuing to gain harder for skeptics to argue that cryonics Drexler proposed that this could be members and place people in cryostasis was not something one ought to do. It carried out through devices that were or “cryonic suspension,” still struggle for showed that cryonics was not, as its critics generally called “assemblers.” Assemblers mainstream acceptance. were sometimes wont to say, “an act of were going to be tiny, programmable Even Drexler struggled with cryonics faith,” or “just wishful thinking.” It made devices that would enable one to take when he first heard about it. In the January crystal clear that cryonics is based on Atom A and place it with Atom B, add 1986 issue of Alcor’s publication Cryonics, reasonable premises that are, at bottom, Atoms C, D, and E, etc. in whatever Drexler notes that he had previously grounded in scientific fact. As Dennis order, placement, and orientation one been acquainted with cryonics and Kowalski, now president of the (Ettinger- wished, all consistent with physical didn’t get very interested in it. In fact, he founded) , once told me: laws. The resulting molecule would be thought: “It’s a nice idea, but it probably “Nanotechnology changed cryonics from “assembled” in a similar sense to the way won’t work. They’re probably a bunch of ‘It may work’ to ‘It probably will work’.” we think of manufactured goods that we crazies.”29 Years later, after his thinking in Such a small change is, of course, all the make on a macroscale. nanotechnology had matured, he began to difference in the world.

www.alcor.org Cryonics / October 2015 15 Brian Wowk’s 1988 Paper on Cell in human cells and tissues, as well as in Ralph Merkle Becomes Involved in Repair Technology the human body as a whole are quite Cryonics A native of Winnipeg, Canada, Brian impressive in their abilities, but it should Ralph Merkle was born in 1952 and is in Wowk earned undergraduate, Masters and be remembered that they developed some ways a “latecomer” to cryonics. Merkle Ph.D. degrees in physics-related majors through natural but “blind” processes that studied computer science at the University of from the University of Manitoba, and now were millions of years in the making. The California, Berkeley and received a Ph.D. in is a U.S. citizen and a well-known medical ability to direct and/or improve on those electrical engineering at Stanford University physicist and cryobiologist. Along with processes through intelligent intervention in 1979. He is well known as a co-inventor Greg Fahy he developed key technologies should lead to repair capabilities well of public key cryptography. Destined to in cryopreservation, including taking part beyond what would be necessary for eventually collaborate with Eric Drexler at in the first successful vitrification and solving the problems of cryonics. As Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, Merkle transplantation of a mammalian kidney. Wowk puts it in his paper: had not really given cryonics much thought For the July 1988 Cryonics Wowk until in his 30s, when he had completed his contributed a very interesting article, “Cell Nanotechnology will mean no doctorate and “married, bought a house, Repair Technology,” where he notes: more guesswork, uncertain cures, and settled into a Silicon Valley start-up or untreatable organic conditions; company.”35 In particular, it will be argued medicine will finally be equal to In spite of considerable personal success, in broad technical terms why the task of understanding and Merkle began thinking about the future nanotechnology implies a controlling the body in terms of course of his life and the inescapable fact medicine capable of reversing its most fundamental machine that, like everybody else, he would be dead not only any organic disease components—atoms and within a few decades. He then began, as (including aging), but also a molecules.33 many scientifically minded people do, with host of supposedly irreversible an examination of the available literature on injuries, including severe freezing Wowk in his proposals uses terminology our mortality. At first, as he puts it (emphasis injury, ischemic injury, and even somewhat reminiscent of Thomas added): destruction of all non-brain tissues. Donaldson, calling the repair mechanisms In short, a foreseeable future “medical microbes or cell repair devices.”34 Cryonics was simply one of the technology will be presented Whichever terminology one prefers, items on my list of possibilities, which would seem to give present Wowk’s or Donaldson’s “repair bacteria,” and not very high on my list cryonics practice a reasonable the concept is still fundamentally the same: at that. My initial intuition was (perhaps even good) chance of devices that are subcellular in size and that the human body was a very success.32 intelligently designed to restore individual complex machine which had not cells or groups of cells into a youthful and evolved to cope with freezing. With these intriguing and stirring words healthy condition. This intuition persisted through early on, a very readable paper begins on Wowk, in his 1988 effort, goes into my review of cryobiology, but I the enormous medical promise of the a great deal of detail about the baseline rapidly concluded that cryonics— concept that Drexler had championed. capabilities (access, disassembly, analysis, unlike any other approach—could It seemed quite applicable to keeping reassembly) that exist in cells and which, benefit from future technology developed cells (and therefore tissues and whole therefore, need to be present in cell repair any time in the course of the next few organisms) in a healthy condition to begin devices. He further talks about control, centuries.”36 with and/or returning them to a healthy communications, power needed, and condition when they become sick and/or operations at cryogenic temperatures. He At this point Merkle’s literature search damaged. also discusses practical consequences: the and thinking somewhat paralleled the Wowk points out that normal biological new capabilities would be applicable not combination of earlier writing by Ettinger processes have, in general, involved the just to cryonics patients but also the more and that of Drexler. The basic possibility of very capabilities that will be needed to deal conventionally ill. It was an outstanding putting people “on hold” through cryogenic with any of the problems mentioned in effort. storage was coupled with the promise of the previous paragraph. No doubt novel In 2006 Wowk made an addendum to future resuscitation methods based around approaches will be needed also, but this the paper stating he wished, in retrospect, nanotechnology. The details of how it remains only a difference in kind not in that he had more adequately credited would all be done were, understandably principle. The goal is still, as in the natural Eric Drexler for developing the basic vague—“advanced” nanotech was still in efforts of cells themselves, to return cell thought of molecular manufacturing very a primitive state. structure, via the appropriate positioning and its obvious implications in terms of Merkle added much to the public of atoms and molecules, to what would biological repair. Nobody’s perfect but we discussion with his paper “Molecular be found in nature in existing healthy cells can credit Wowk’s original paper (even) Repair of the Brain” in the October 1989 and to do this, if need be, atom-by-atom. for the impressive tour de force it is, in Cryonics.37 This was followed in 1992 by Present mechanisms that attempt to approaching the important problems of “The Technical Feasibility of Cryonics,” maintain homeostasis (“steady state”) cryonics. which appeared in the peer-reviewed

16 Cryonics / October 2015 www.alcor.org journal, Medical Hypotheses.38 Early in this most) for digitally encoding the needed perspective, “information theoretic death” second paper Merkle makes a telling point: description and addressing information to has not occurred. There is still enough “Perhaps the most important question in locate a single atom in the brain. The total information to infer the original brain evaluating cryonics is its technical feasibility: for all the brain would thus be about 1,000 structure with reasonable fidelity. will it work?”39 A little further down he adds times the volume of the brain itself. (This From the foregoing it is pretty evident (combining two paragraphs and adding would hold assuming, for example, that the that the technology for cryonics to work emphasis): storage medium, like the brain, had about will probably be neither simple nor, at the density of water, a common value for first glance, obvious. Based on the 1992 Before we can decide whether many substances, and atoms roughly the paper, and just some routine thinking, this future medical technology can size of the brain’s, also reasonable.) This sort of endeavor would have to involve repair freezing injury, we must works out to be, according to Merkle’s a load of sophisticated computation, consider what fundamental limits calculations, a needed storage device about shading to advanced general intelligence. constrain such technologies. a cubic meter in size. The three basic questions must, of Human tissue and human beings “Information-theoretic death” (2) is a course, be answered and answered well. are made of atoms. Whether a concept Merkle introduces whereby death Merkle acknowledges in his paper that his person is healthy or ill, alive or is not considered to have occurred until proposed “off board repair,” despite his dead, depends entirely on the “the structures in the brain that encode lavished attentions, is not necessarily the arrangement of those atoms. The memory and personality have been so only workable approach for the problem it’s fundamental purpose of medicine disrupted that it is no longer possible in intended for. As he writes near the end: is to cure the ill and heal the sick. Put principle to restore them to an appropriate another way, the purpose of medicine is functional state.”42 This definition means A wide range of approaches to change arrangements of atoms that are that if those structures can be realistically other than the one considered “unhealthy: to arrangements of atoms repaired, using either the existing atoms in here are feasible. The present 40 that are “healthy.” the structure or, if necessary, atoms from method is not proposed as the outside the structure (as occurs in many, if “right” or “best” method, it is Phrased this way, it is obvious that the not all, normal bodily repair mechanisms), proposed as a conceptually simple limits of future medical technology depend then the person cannot be considered and feasible method. A single on the limits of our ability to control the actually “dead.” feasible method of repairing structure of matter. The better our tools for Sometimes, of course, death would make freezing injury establishes doing this, the better our medical technology an appearance. Suppose someone is at the the effectiveness of cryonics, can be. Echoing the clarity of Ettinger and center of a thermonuclear explosion and regardless of the methods that Drexler in their thinking about cryonics, completely vaporized. That person is truly are eventually implemented.43 Merkle focuses on the central problem and fully “dead” since there is no longer of the correct repositioning atoms as the a way to figure out what essential brain In short, this paper shows that one pathway to resuscitation—then goes on structure they had. The application of doesn’t have to conjure up all the revival, to subdivide the problem into three basic nanotechnology to cryonics, or anywhere repair, and rejuvenation possibilities that issues: else for that matter, can’t be expected to might conceivably work, for cryonics to 1. Where are the atoms? solve every problem. be considered a rational approach to the Someone whose structures are problem of human mortality. It only has 2. Where should they go? completely preserved can be thought of to be shown that one such pathway or 3. How do we move them from where as “alive,” however, even though they may mechanism is feasible. If that one pathway they are to where they should be?41 have reached the point that conventional can be developed, then cryonics must be medicine would declare them “clinically taken seriously as a means of life extension. The attempt to provide some answers to dead” (i.e., heart, lung, and brain activity As was stated more reservedly earlier in these very basic questions results in some have ceased). The ability to repair any the paper: pretty in-depth thinking that is far beyond nonfunctioning structures and return them the scope of this article—but I summarize. to normal activity would be equivalent to Examination of likely future Merkle delves, among other things, into a situation in present day society where technical capabilities supports (1) what computational power would be someone after cardiac arrest is “brought the argument that unprecedented necessary to accurately identify and describe back to life” by resuscitative efforts. abilities are likely to be developed. the position of every atom in a human brain, “Off board repair” (3) can be thought Restoration of the brain down (2) a definition of death that Merkle refers of as disassembling the brain down to to the molecular level should to as “information theoretic death,” and (3) whatever level is needed (cellular, sub- eventually prove technically a repair scenario he describes as “off-board cellular, molecular and/or atomic) to repair feasible.44 repair.” A brief synopsis of each point it, then reassembling the brain with all the follows. structural elements in the proper place so Merkle’s 1994 “Upgrade” In dealing with (1), Merkle concludes as to reestablish normal functioning. This Merkle reworked and expanded the 1989 that it is possible to use 1,000 atoms (at assumes, of course, that in Ralph Merkle’s and 1992 papers into “Molecular Repair

www.alcor.org Cryonics / October 2015 17 of the Brain” which appeared as a two- ultimately be accomplished, Merkle says it part serial in Cryonics (January, April best, again, in all three papers: “Perhaps About The Author 1994).45 Details again will need to be highly the most important question in evaluating York W. Porter, born in 1952, abridged, but a few salient point are worth this option is its technical feasibility: will it attended Berea College in Berea, noting. work?” Kentucky for two and a half years First is that the basic “fact” that Here, again, Merkle hits the crux of and, in Fall 1974, began working underpins cryonics continues to hold true, the matter. It doesn’t matter what one’s in a rural Kentucky hospital in the as Merkle noted in all three of the writings philosophical leanings are, or political Department of Radiology. Diversifying we have considered: views, or what one may think of the through the years, Mr. Porter worked wisdom of a particular action, the bottom for one year on an ambulance crew Tissue preserved in liquid line for pursuing the storage of human and spent several years in a hospital nitrogen can survive centuries organs is the same as for human organisms laboratory setting, plus about a year without deterioration. This (cryonics): a belief that the effort will, doing respiratory therapy work. He simple fact provides an imperfect ultimately, be successful. If that belief has worked fairly continuously in the time machine that can transport is based on reasonable premises, that field of medical radiography, working us almost unchanged from the is to say, in Merkle’s excellent words, if as a staff tech at various times in four present to the future: we need no “fundamental limits constrain such rural Kentucky hospitals, primarily merely freeze ourselves in liquid technologies,” then the pursuit of any in the fields of general radiography nitrogen.46 goal that will be beneficial to human life and computed tomography. He and health and improve human living also works on rare occasions at In the 1994 paper Merkle quotes conditions is a reasonable goal. a Magnetic Resonance Imaging cryobiologist (and cryonics critic) Dr. Peter There may turn out to be practical limits (MRI) center. He presently holds Mazur in support: that would preclude such a goal, such as certifications as a Kentucky EMT-B, an excessive energy requirement—as an as a Licensed Radiation Operator “Cryobiologists are often asked absurd example, if the revival, repair, and (Kentucky’s phrase for an x-ray tech), how long cells can remain viable rejuvenation of a human being took more and as Medical Laboratory Scientist, cm at ‑196 degrees C, the temperature than the expected energy output of the ASCP( ). He is the President of of boiling liquid nitrogen (which sun over its whole lifetime. (Maybe then the Immortalist Society, at the time is the usual cryogenic fluid). The you would just use other stars as well; there of this writing, and serves also as answer is clear—more than 1,000 are lots of them!) No such limitations are the Executive Editor of Long Life years. The reason is that direct known to exist, however. Cryonics, as far as Magazine, the “house publication” of ionizations from background we can see, is worth pursuing.  the Immortalist Society. radiation are the only source of damage at such temperatures. This article is an updated version of Ordinary chemical reactions a chapter which appeared in the book cannot occur.” Mazur then The Prospect of Immortality: Fifty Years Later goes on to state: “The pertinent edited by Charles Tandy, Ph.D. Readers question then is not storage interested in a copy of the book may stability, it is how can one get cells check on Amazon.com down to ‑196 degrees C and back without killing them.”47

(The person interested in cryonics would change this query just slightly and say “… how can one get cells down to ‑196 degrees C and back and have them be in a living and healthy state”? A very small change in wording, perhaps. But it implies that the pertinent question may not be whether they are “killed” by exposure to ultra- low temperatures, i.e., totally and forever beyond help, but whether it is simply that our present methodology at revival may just be too crude to revive them. Future methods may not be so limited.) As for some cryobiologists who are trying to find ways to store human organs in the belief, rather than certainty, that it can

18 Cryonics / October 2015 www.alcor.org Sources (referred to in Endnotes, below) E Robert C. W. Ettinger, The Prospect of Immortality, Doubleday, 1964. Da Michael G. Darwin, “The Anabolocyte: A Biological Approach to Repairing Cryoinjury,” Life Extension Magazine (July-August 1977):80-83. Reprinted in Cryonics 29(4) (4th Quarter 2008):14-17, http://www.alcor.org/Library/pdfs/ anabolocyte.pdf, accessed 20 Sep. 2015. Do1 Thomas Donaldson, “A Brief Scientific Introduction to Cryonics” (1976), http://www.alcor.org/Library/html/ DonaldsonBrief.html, accessed 19 Sep. 2015. Do2 Thomas Donaldson, “How Will They Bring Us Back, 200 Years From Now?” The Immortalist, Vol. 12, March, 1981. Dr1 K. Eric Drexler, Engines of Creation, Doubleday, 1986 (Updated version, 2007). Dr2 “Molecular Technology and Cell Repair Machines,” K. Eric Drexler, Cryonics 7(1) (January 1986) 19-28 (Part II); full article http://www.alcor.org/Library/html/moleculartechnologycellrepairmachines.html, accessed 20 Sep. 2015. Fe Richard P. Feynman, “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom,” http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/feynman.html, accessed 20 Sep. 2015. FM “Interview with Robert Freitas & Ralph Merkle,” Cryonics 29(4) (4th Quarter 2008) 9-11. Fr , Volume I: Basic Capabilities, 1.3.2.1 The Biological Tradition, Robert A. Freitas, Landes Bioscience, Georgetown, TX., http://www.nanomedicine.com/NMI/1.3.2.1.htm (Darwin’s remarks are in red at the very bottom of the web page), accessed 20 Sep. 2015. Ma Peter Masur, “Stopping Biological Time: The Freezing of Living Cells,” Ann NY Acad Sci 541: 514-531 (1988). Me1 Ralph C. Merkle, “Molecular Repair of the Brain,” Cryonics 10(10) (October 1989) 21-45. Me2 Ralph C. Merkle, “The Technical Feasibility of Cryonics,” Med Hypotheses (1992) 39, 6-16. Me3 Ralph C. Merkle, “The Molecular Repair of the Brain,” Cryonics 15(1) (January 1994):16-31 (Part I) & Cryonics 15(2) (April 1994):20-32 (Part II). We Weizmann Institute of Science, “New Synthetic Enzymes Undergo ‘Evolution In A Test Tube’,” ScienceDaily, 27 March 2008, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080326200653.htm, accessed 20 Sep. 2015. Wh Jerome B. White, “Viral-Induced Repair of Damaged Neurons with Preservation of Long-Term Information Content,” Second Annual Conference of the Cryonics Societies of America, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, April 11-12, 1969. Reprinted in Cryonics 35(10) (October 2014) 8-17. Wo Brian Wowk, “Cell Repair Technology,” Cryonics 9(7) (July 1988) 21-32.

ENDNOTES 1 Do1. 13 Wh, 11. 25 Do2, 6. 37 Me1. 2 E. 14 Wh, 11. 26 Do2, 8. 38 Me2. 3 Fe. 15 Wh, 11. 27 We. 39 Me2, 6. 4 E, 38. 16 Wh, 11. 28 Dr1. 40 Me2, 6-7. 5 E, 38. 17 Wh, 16. 29 Dr2, 22. 41 Me2, 8. 6 Fe. 18 Wh, 16. 30 Dr2, 22. 42 Me2, 9. 7 Fe. 19 Fr. 31 Dr1, 136. 43 Me2, 15. 8 Fe. 20 Da, 15. 32 Wo, 22. 44 Me2, 14-15. 9 Fe. 21 Da, 15. 33 Wo, 27. 45 Me3. 10 Fe. 22 Da, 16. 34 Wo, 24. 46 Me2, 6. 11 Wh. 23 Do2, 5. 35 FM, 9. 47 Ma. 12 Wh, 11, author’s paraphrase. 24 Do2, 6. 36 FM, 9.

www.alcor.org Cryonics / October 2015 19 Reduce Your Alcor Dues With The CMS Waiver

Alcor members pay general dues to cover Alcor’s neurocryopreservation members under this election would operating expenses and also make annual contributions to be $110,000). Once this election is made, the member the Comprehensive Member Standby fund pool to cover the cannot change back to the original minimums in the future. costs of readiness and standby. Benefits of Comprehensive To have the CMS fee waived, these are the minimums: Member Standby include no out-of-pocket expense for standby services at the time of need, and up to $10,000 for • $220,000 Whole Body Cryopreservation relocation assistance to the Scottsdale, Arizona area. ($115,000 to the Patient Care Trust, $60,000 for Instead of paying $180 per year in CMS dues, Alcor also cryopreservation, $45,000 to the CMS Fund). provides members the option to cover all CMS-associated • $100,000 Neurocryopreservation ($25,000 to the costs through life insurance or pre-payment. Members who Patient Care Trust, $30,000 for cryopreservation, provide an additional $20,000 in minimum funding will no $45,000 to the CMS Fund). longer have to pay the $180 CMS (Comprehensive Member Standby fund) fee. This increase in minimums is permanent If you have adequate funding and would like to take (for example, if in the future Alcor were to raise the cost of advantage of the CMS waiver, contact Diane Cremeens at a neurocryopreservation to $90,000, the new minimum for [email protected].

Become An Alcor Associate Member! Supporters of Alcor who are not yet ready to make cryopreservation arrangements can become an Associate Member for $5/month (or $15/quarter or $60 annually). Associate Members are members of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation who have not made cryonics arrangements but financially support the organization. Associate Members will receive:

• Cryonics magazine by mail • Discounts on Alcor conferences • Access to post in the Alcor Member Forums • A dollar-for-dollar credit toward full membership sign-up fees for any dues paid for Associate Membership

To become an Associate Member send a check or money order ($5/month or $15/quarter or $60 annually) to Alcor Life Extension Foundation, 7895 E. Acoma Dr., Suite 110, Scottsdale, Arizona 85260, or call Marji Klima at (480) 905-1906 ext. 101 with your credit card information. Or you can pay online via PayPal using the following link: http://www.alcor.org/BecomeMember/associate.html (quarterly option is not available this way). Associate Members can improve their chances of being cryo- preserved in an emergency if they complete and provide us with a Declaration of Intent to be Cryopreserved (http://www.alcor.org/Library/ html/declarationofintent.html). Financial provisions would still have to be made by you or someone acting for you, but the combination of Associate Membership and Declaration of Intent meets the informed consent requirement and makes it much more likely that we could move ahead in a critical situation.

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1020

TOTAL 115 11

Number of Alcor patients Alcor of Number

25 2 nited Kingdom nited U

1 0 nited Arab Emirates Arab nited U

3 1 Thailand

3 1 Spain

1 0 Singapore

4 0 Portugal

1 0 Norway

1 0 New Zealand New

2 0 Netherlands

1 0 Monaco

4 0 Mexico

4 0 Japan

3 0 Number of Alcor members Alcor of Number Italy

1 1 Israel Israel

1 0 Hong Kong Hong

7 0 Germany

0 1 China

42 2 Canada

11 3 Australia Australia

Country

Patients Members

International

1350 1339 1332 1327 1316 1306 1301 Total

170 163 157 159 155 152 151 Associate

139 139 138 135 134 134 134 Patients

1041 1037 1037 1033 1027 1020 1016 Members

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Breakthrough Bionic Leg intelligence and the first comprehensive to make rigid probes smaller and smaller, Prosthesis Controlled By model of planarian regeneration, which but no one has addressed this issue—the had eluded human scientists for over 100 electronics/cellular interface—at the level Subconscious Thoughts years. The work, published in the June 4, at which biology works.” 2015, issue of PLOS Computational Biology, Biomedical engineering company Ossur demonstrates how “robot science” can help Peter Reuell, Harvard Gazette has announced the successful development human scientists in the future. “Our goal 8 Jun. 2015 of a thought controlled bionic prosthetic was to identify a regulatory network that http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/ leg. The new technology uses implanted could be executed in every cell in a virtual story/2015/06/injectable-electronics- sensors sending wireless signals to the worm so that the head-tail patterning promise-sharper-view-of-brain/ artificial limb’s built-in computer, enabling outcomes of simulated experiments subconscious, real-time control and faster, would match the published data,” said the more natural responses and movements. paper’s first author, Daniel Lobo. Lobo and The sensors are implanted in the limb Genome’s ‘Dimmer Switches’ senior author Michael Levin developed an Should Shed Light on stump’s remnant muscles The sensor- algorithm using evolutionary computation with-computer allows the limb to act to accurately predict the results of Hundreds of Diseases faster and smoother. The technology published laboratory experiments. works with a variety of Ossur bionic Release Date: June 15, 2015 limbs, using sensors wirelessly connected TuftsNow FAST FACTS: to the prosthesis. Prosthetics controlled 4 Jun. 2015 Up to one-fifth of human DNA acts as by muscle impulses have been around http://now.tufts.edu/news-releases/ dimmer switches for nearby genes, but since the late 1960s, but the technology planarian-regeneration-model-discovered- scientists have long been unable to identify has severe limitations. It works by laying artificial-intelligence precisely which mutations in these genetic sensors on the skin of the vestigial limb, control regions really matter in causing which pick up electrical impulses that common diseases. Now, a decade of work control, for example, an artificial arm. The at Johns Hopkins has yielded a computer trouble is, these sensors pick up impulses Injectable Device Delivers formula that predicts with far more accuracy from more than one muscle. This degrades Nano-View of the Brain than current methods which mutations performance, requires a lot of practice to are likely to have the largest effect on the operate properly, and makes the prosthesis It’s a notion that might have come activity of the dimmer switches, suggesting slow, imprecise, and frustrating to use. from the pages of a science-fiction new targets for diagnosis and treatment of novel—an electronic device that can be many diseases. A summary of the research David Szondy, Gizmag injected directly into the brain, or other will be published online June 15 in the 24 May 2015 body parts, and treat everything from journal Nature Genetics. “Our computer http://www.gizmag.com/ossur-first-mind- neurodegenerative disorders to paralysis. program can comb through the genetic controlled-bionic-leg-prosthesis/37614/ Sounds unlikely, until you visit Charles information from a specific cell type and Lieber’s Harvard University lab. Led by predict which ‘dimmer switch’ mutations Lieber, an international team of researchers are most likely to alter the cell’s gene Planarian Regeneration Model has developed a method of fabricating activity, and therefore its function,” says nanoscale electronic scaffolds that can Discovered by Artificial Michael Beer, Ph.D., associate professor be injected via syringe. The scaffolds of biomedical engineering at the Johns Intelligence can then be connected to devices and Hopkins University School of Medicine. used to monitor neural activity, stimulate An artificial intelligence system has for tissues, or even promote regeneration of Johns Hopkins Medicine the first time reverse-engineered the neurons. The research is described in a 15 Jun. 2015 regeneration mechanism of planaria—the June 8 paper in Nature Nanotechnology. Said http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/ small worms whose extraordinary power Lieber, “This opens up a completely new news/media/releases/vulnerabilities_in_ to regrow body parts has made them a frontier where we can explore the interface genomes_dimmer_switches_should_shed_ research model in human regenerative between electronic structures and biology. light_on_hundreds_of_complex_diseases medicine. The discovery by Tufts University For the past 30 years, people have made biologists presents the first model of incremental improvements in micro- regeneration discovered by a non-human fabrication techniques that have allowed us

24 Cryonics / October 2015 www.alcor.org Futuristic Brain Probe Allows stress, depression, addiction, and pain. potential to grow billions of stem cells. The for Wireless Control of Typically, scientists who study these circuits research, published in the academic journal have to choose between injecting drugs Advanced Materials, could forge the way for Neurons through bulky metal tubes and delivering the creation of ‘stem cell factories’—the lights through fiber optic cables. Both mass production of human embryonic A study showed that scientists can wirelessly options require surgery. (pluripotent) stem cells. The £2.3m research determine the path a mouse walks with project, “Discovery of a Novel Polymer for a press of a button. Researchers at the Eurekalert! / NIH / National Institute of Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Expansion Washington University School of Medicine, Neurological Disorders and Stroke and Multilineage Differentiation,” was St. Louis, and University of Illinois, 16 Jul. 2015 led by Morgan Alexander, Professor of Urbana-Champaign, created a remote http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_ Biomedical Surfaces in the School of controlled, next-generation tissue implant releases/2015-07/nion-fbp071615.php Pharmacy and Chris Denning, Professor that allows neuroscientists to inject drugs of Stem Cell Biology in the School of and shine lights on neurons deep inside the Medicine and funded by the Engineering brains of mice. The revolutionary device and Physical Sciences Research Council is described online in the journal Cell. Its New Material Forges the Way for “Stem Cell Factories” (EPSRC). The material could provide an development was partially funded by the off-the-shelf product for clinical use in the National Institutes of Health. “It unplugs a treatment of the heart, liver and brain. world of possibilities for scientists to learn If you experience a major heart attack the damage could cost you around five billion how brain circuits work in a more natural ScienceDaily / University of Nottingham, setting,” said Michael R. Bruchas, Ph.D., heart cells. Future stem cell treatments will require this number and more to ensure UK associate professor of anesthesiology and 22 Jul. 2015 neurobiology at Washington University those cells are replaced and improve your chances of survival. Experts at The http://www.sciencedaily.com/ School of Medicine and a senior author of releases/2015/07/150722101938.htm the study. The Bruchas lab studies circuits University of Nottingham have discovered that control a variety of disorders including the first fully synthetic substrate with

A Roadmap to Resuscitation uccessful rejuvenation of cryonics patients will Magazine (July-August 1977):80-83. Reprinted in Cryonics Srequire three distinct technologies: (1) A cure for the 29:4 (4th Quarter 2008),14-17. disease that put the patient in a critical condition prior to cryopreservation; (2) biological or mechanical cell Greg Fahy, “A ‘Realistic’ Scenario for Nanotechnological repair technologies that can reverse any injury associated Repair of the Frozen Human Brain,” in Brian Wowk, with the cryopreservation process and long-term care at Michael Darwin, eds., Cryonics: Reaching for Tomorrow, low temperatures; (3) rejuvenation biotechnologies that Alcor Life Extension Foundation, 1991. restore the patient to good health prior to resuscitation. OR it will require some entirely new approach such as (1) Ralph C. Merkle, “The Molecular Repair of the Brain,” mapping the ultrastructure of cryopreserved brain tissue Cryonics 15(January 1994):16-31 (Part I) & Cryonics using nanotechnology, and (2) using this information to 15(April 1994):20-32 (Part II). deduce the original structure and repairing, replicating or simulating tissue or structure in some viable form so the Ralph C. Merkle, “Cryonics, Cryptography, and Maximum person “comes back.” Likelihood Estimation,” First Extropy Institute Conference, Sunnyvale CA, 1994. The following list is a list of landmark papers and books that reflect ongoing progress towards the resuscitation of Aubrey de Grey & Michael Rae, “Ending Aging: The cryonics patients: Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime.” St. Martin’s Press, 2007 Jerome B. White, “Viral-Induced Repair of Damaged Neurons with Preservation of Long-Term Information Robert A. Freitas Jr., “Comprehensive Nanorobotic Content,” Second Annual Conference of the Cryonics Control of Human Morbidity and Aging,” in Gregory M. Societies of America, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Fahy, Michael D. West, L. Stephen Coles, and Steven B. April 11-12, 1969, by J. B. White reprinted in Cryonics Harris, eds, The Future of Aging: Pathways to Human Life 35:10 (October 2014), 8-17. Extension, Springer, New York, 2010, pp. 685-805.

Michael G. Darwin, “The Anabolocyte: A Biological Chana de Wolf (now Phaedra), “Reconstructive Approach to Repairing Cryoinjury,” Life Extension Connectomics,” Cryonics 34:7 (July 2013), 26-28.

www.alcor.org Cryonics / October 2015 25 MEETINGS

About the Alcor Foundation British Columbia (Canada): The Alcor Life Extension Foundation is a nonprofit tax-exempt scientific and The contact person for meetings in educational organization dedicated to advancing the science of cryopreservation the Vancouver area is Keegan Macintosh: and promoting cryonics as a rational option. Being an Alcor member means [email protected]. knowing that—should the worst happen—Alcor’s Emergency Response Team is ready to respond for you, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Oregon: The contact person for meetings in Alcor’s Emergency Response capability includes specially trained technicians and the Portland area is Aschwin de Wolf: customized equipment in Arizona, northern California, southern California, and [email protected]. See also: https://www. south Florida, as well as many additional certified technicians on-call around the facebook.com/portland.life.extension United States. Alcor’s Arizona facility includes a full-time staff, and the Patient Care Bay is personally monitored 24 hours a day. ALCOR PORTUGAL Alcor Portugal is working to have good ARIZONA stabilization and transport capabilities. The Flagstaff: San Francisco Bay: group meets every Saturday for two hours. Arizona without the inferno. Cryonics Alcor Northern California Meetings For information about meetings, contact group in beautiful, high-altitude Flagstaff. are held quarterly in January, April, July, Nuno Martins at n-martins@n-martins. Two-hour drive to Alcor. Contact eric@ and October. A CryoFeast is held once com. The Alcor Portugal website is: www. flagstaffcryo.com for more information. a year. For information on Northern alcorportugal.com. California meetings, call Mark Galeck at PHOENIX (650) 969-1671, (650) 534-6409 or email TEXAS VALLEY OF THE SUN: [email protected]. Dallas: This group meets monthly, usually North Texas Cryonauts, please sign up in the third week of the month. Dates FLORIDA for our announcements list for meetings are determined by the activity or event Central Florida Life Extension group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ planned. For more information or to meets once a month in the Tampa Bay cryonauts-announce) or contact David RSVP, visit http://cryonics.meetup. area (Tampa and St. Petersburg) for Wallace Croft at (214) 636-3790 for details com/45/ or email Lisa Shock at lisa@ discussion and socializing. The group of upcoming meetings. alcor.org. has been active since 2007. Email [email protected] for more Austin/Central Texas: At Alcor: information. A new group for the Austin area Alcor Board of Directors Meetings and has been started for those interested in Facility Tours—Alcor business meetings are NEW ENGLAND discussion and understanding of the generally held on the first Saturday of every Cambridge: relevant technologies and issues for month starting at 11:00 AM MST. Guests The New England regional group cryopreservation, genomics, epigenetics and are welcome to attend the fully-public strives to meet monthly in Cambridge, medical research for increased life/health board meetings. Facility tours are held every MA—for information or to be added span. Contact Tom Miller, 760-803-4107 or Tuesday at 10:00 AM and Friday at 2:00 PM. to the Alcor NE mailing list, please [email protected]. For more information or to schedule a tour, contact Bret Kulakovich at 617-824-8982, call Marji Klima at (877) 462-5267 x101 or [email protected], or on JAPAN email [email protected]. FACEBOOK via the Cryonics Special Cryonics meetings are held monthly in Interest Group. Tokyo. Send queries to grand88(at)yahoo. CALIFORNIA com. Los Angeles: PACIFIC NORTHWEST Alcor Southern California Meetings— A Yahoo mailing list is also maintained UNITED KINGDOM For information, call Peter Voss at for cryonicists in the Pacific Northwest Alcor members in the UK can contact (310) 822-4533 or e-mail him at peter@ at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ Garret Smyth at [email protected] for optimal.org. Although monthly meetings CryonicsNW/. information about local meetings. are not held regularly, you can meet Los Angeles Alcor members by contacting Peter.

If you are interested in hosting regular meetings in your area, contact Alcor at 877-462-5267, ext. 113. Meetings are a great way to learn about cryonics, meet others with similar interests, and introduce your friends and family to Alcor members!

26 Cryonics / October 2015 www.alcor.org What is Cryonics?

ryonics is an attempt to preserve and protect human life, not reverse death. It is the practice of using extreme cold to attempt to preserve the life of a person who can no longer be supported by today’s medicine. Will Cfuture medicine, including mature nanotechnology, have the ability to heal at the cellular and molecular levels? Can cryonics successfully carry the cryopreserved person forward through time, for however many decades or centuries might be necessary, until the cryopreservation process can be reversed and the person restored to full health? While cryonics may sound like science fiction, there is a basis for it in real science. The complete scientific story of cryonics is seldom told in media reports, leaving cryonics widely misunderstood. We invite you to reach your own conclusions.

How do I find out more?

he Alcor Life Extension Foundation is the world leader in cryonics research and technology. Alcor is a non- profit organization located in Scottsdale, Arizona, founded in 1972. Our website is one of the best sources of Tdetailed introductory information about Alcor and cryopreservation (www.alcor.org). We also invite you to request our FREE information package on the “Free Information” section of our website. It includes:

• A fully illustrated color brochure • A sample of our magazine • An application for membership and brochure explaining how to join • And more!

Your free package should arrive in 1-2 weeks. (The complete package will be sent free in the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom.)

How do I enroll? Signing up for a cryopreservation is easy! Step 1: Fill out an application and submit it with your $90 application fee. Step 2: You will then be sent a set of contracts to review and sign. Step 3: Fund your cryopreservation. While most people use life insurance to fund their cryopreservation, other forms of prepayment are also accepted. Alcor’s Membership Coordinator can provide you with a list of insurance agents familiar with satisfying Alcor’s current funding requirements. Finally: After enrolling, you will wear emergency alert tags or carry a special card in your wallet. This is your confirmation that Alcor will respond immediately to an emergency call on your behalf.

Not ready to make full arrangements for cryopreservation? Then become an Associate Member for $5/month (or $15/quarter or $60 annually). Associate Members will receive: • Cryonics magazine by mail • Discounts on Alcor conferences • Access to post in the Alcor Member Forums • A dollar-for-dollar credit toward full membership sign-up fees for any dues paid for Associate Membership

To become an Associate Member send a check or money order ($5/month or $15/quarter or $60 annually) to Alcor Life Extension Foundation, 7895 E. Acoma Dr., Suite 110, Scottsdale, Arizona 85260, or call Marji Klima at (480) 905-1906 ext. 101 with your credit card information. You can also pay using PayPal (and get the Declaration of Intent to Be Cryopreserved) here: http://www.alcor.org/BecomeMember/associate.html

Call toll-free TODAY to start your application:

877-462-5267 ext. 132 • [email protected] • www.alcor.org Your body deserves the best. That’s why we make the best supplements money can buy.

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