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November 2013 • Volume 34:11

The High Price of Life on Hold: Sheskin’s Study and Other Reflections on Cryonics in New York Page 6

Cryospan Facility 171 Eads St West Babylon, NY July 1972 Bitcoin and Cryonics, Part 2: by Mike Darwin Brain Wallets Page 13

The Transhumanist Reader:

Classical and Contemporary Essays ISSN 1054-4305 on the Science, Technology, and Philosophy of the Human Future Page 22

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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 • Cryobiology • 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. A Non-Profit Organization

CONTENTS 5 Quod incepimus rofit Organization A Non-P conficiemus Ultrastructural Signatures of lume 34:11 er 2013 • Vo Novemb Information-Theoretic Death ld: Wrapping corpses in plastic may not Ho e on preserve the brain, but how long the of Lif brain can be held at cold temperatures, gh Pricedy and The Hi s Stu ns kin’ and what preservation methods are hes S r Reflectio available for patients with very long Othe nics in Cryo COVER STORY: PAGE 6 cold ischemic times, are important on rk New Yo practical research questions for Alcor. Page 6 The High Price of Life on Hold:

Facility Sheskin’s StudyCryospan and Other 171 Eads St 11 COOLER MINDS PREVAIL West Babylon, NY July 1972 Reflections on Cryonicse Darwin in New York by Mik An End to the Virus In the 1970s Arlene Sheskin, a Despite minimal funding over an 2: Part nics, sociologist, made a study of cryonics eleven year course of development, yo ISSN 1054-4305 oin and Cr tc allets in New York that was unique in its Dr. Todd H. Rider and colleagues at Bi r: ys Brain W y Essa rar Page 13 manist Readethoroughness, and as well$9.95 as its early MIT have announced a new broad hu ntempoology re man Futu spectrum anti-viral therapeutic The Trans nce, Techn date. Though her main thrust was to Classical and Co the Hu the Sciephy of on oso that appears to be effective against Phil consider the effects of cryopreservation Page 22 on relatives or “survivors,” here we all known viruses. The treatment, DRACO, could mean an end to the focus on the historical narrative, virus. But will it ever make it to clinical supplemented by some lively trials and into your medicine cabinet? commentary by contemporary cryonicists, mainly Curtis Henderson. 18 Twenty Minutes Into the Future? Book Review of The Transhumanist Wager 13 IN PERPETUITY Alcor Member Mark Plus reviews Bitcoin and Cryonics, Part 2: Brain Wallets Zoltan Istvan’s The Transhumanist Wager, a novel that tells the story of In this month’s column, Keegan Macintosh completes his two transhumanist Jethro Knights and his part series on the virtual currency, Bitcoin, delving into its unwavering quest for immortality via legal status, and exploring some cryonics-specific uses for the science and technology. technology. 26 Tech News We read the news to uncover the most 22 Book Review: The Transhumanist Reader: Classical and promising and exciting developments Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology, and in science and technology. Philosophy of the Human Future 29 membership Statistics The Transhumanist Reader, edited by Alcor CEO Max More and How many members, associate Natasha Vita-More, is an ambitious collection of classical and members, and patients does Alcor new writings about human enhancement. Many of the book’s have and where do they live? contributors are cryonics supporters and Alcor members.

www.alcor.org Cryonics / November 2013 3 A Non-Profit Organization The James Bedford 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 Saul Kent G first person to be cryopreserved, and the first to make a bequest to Ralph C. Merkle, Ph.D. R. Michael Perry, Ph.D. a cryonics organization, exemplified the determination of the early pioneers of cryonics. We invite you to follow in his footsteps, and Editor join the James Bedford Society. Aschwin de Wolf The James Bedford Society recognizes those who make a bequest of any size to the Alcor Life Extension Contributing Writers Foundation. If you have already provided a gift Aschwin de Wolf for Alcor in your estate, please send a copy of your relevant documents Chana de Wolf to Alcor’s Finance Director, Bonnie Magee. Keegan Macintosh If you’d like to learn more about setting up a bequest, send an email Max More, Ph.D. to [email protected] or call 480-905-1906 x114 to discuss your gift.  Mike Perry, Ph.D. Mark Plus Natasha Vita-More

Copyright 2013 by Alcor Life Extension Foundation 2013 Annual Giving Program All rights reserved. Reproduction, in whole or part, without lcor provides a wide array of services for you the member, and the general permission is prohibited. Apublic. We inform and educate, we protect and preserve, and we strive to remain at the forefront of cryonics technology. Cryonics magazine is published monthly. Since its founding, Alcor has relied on member support to maintain its mission and attract new members. Your support, regardless of size, can provide a better To subscribe to the printed edition future for all cryonicists. Please act now. and/or change your address, please call 480.905.1906 x101or visit the magazine Suggested Giving Levels website: www.alcor.org/magazine $20 Friend $60 Junior Supporter Please note: If you change your address less than a month before the magazine is mailed, it may $120 Sustaining Supporter be sent to your old address. $500 Advocate Supporter Address correspondence to: Cryonics Magazine $1,000 Leading Supporter 7895 East Acoma Drive, Suite 110 Scottsdale, Arizona 85260 $2,500 Visionary Supporter Phone: 480.905.1906 Toll free: 877.462.5267 $5,000 Silver Supporter Fax: 480.922.9027 $10,000 Gold Supporter

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

4 Cryonics / November 2013 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.

Ultrastructural Signatures of Information-Theoretic Death By Aschwin de Wolf

n October 11, 2013, the Wall Street just warm ischemia slowed down (and vice cannot accept every case brought to its Journal featured a cover story about versa). attention. Othe unintended consequences of My company Advanced Neural We have now produced electron Norway’s long-time insistence on “plastic Biosciences, Inc. is currently collaborating micrographs of up to 1 month of cold graves” (“Grave Problem: Nothing is with Alcor to produce a series of electron ischemia. When we shared the one month Rotting in the State of Norway”). You micrographs of brain tissue exposed to images with the Alcor Research and see, after World War II the Norwegians very long times of cold ischemia (0 degrees Development committee one member wrapped the dead in plastic prior to burial Celsius). One of the reasons we are doing remarked that he “would not have guessed and now they are faced with…corpses that this project is to bring actual data to the that so much structure could remain after are not decomposing. Since cemetery real decision making process concerning the one month.” When we presented an image estate is scarce in Norway this creates a question when to accept and when no longer from this series at a recent conference, rather complicated and sensitive problem. to accept a patient who has been stored at attendees were also surprised about this One of the solutions is to poke holes in the low temperatures prior to contacting Alcor level of preservation. ground and plastic to inject a lime-based for cryonics arrangements. Of course, this is not the end of the solution to accelerate decomposition. Ultimately, what we are looking for is an story because a patient with such a long Not many people would expect the brains ultrastructural signature of “information- period of cold ischemia will still need to of these plastic-preserved Norwegian theoretic death.” This presents a formidable be cooled to cryogenic temperatures for corpses to be in pristine condition at the problem because information-theoretic long-term care and a “straight freeze” on ultrastructural level but this strange story death is not an unambiguous identifiable top of such extensive ischemic damage does illustrate that decomposition is a property of an image but concerns our could tip the balance towards information- process that is highly sensitive to variables best guestimate about how much structure theoretic death. These results raise one like the presence of oxygen, water, micro- a future technology might still be able to interesting possibility, however. If the organisms, and temperature. Of course, infer from a given state of damage. For damage of a straight freeze is a lot worse some of these variables are related. When existing patients and members who want than the damage from moderate times of temperatures are lower there will be reduced to be preserved under any conditions this is cold ischemia, cryoprotecting the brain (or microbial activity. As a consequence, at cold not a directly relevant question (the future both hemispheres separately) by soaking temperatures the rate of decomposition will tell). But when you have to make a it in cryoprotectant could be a superior can be even slower than what one would decision whether to accept a third-party protocol for a select number of Alcor predict based on the decrease of the brain’s “post-mortem” patient, arbitrary decisions cases. There is still much to be learned.  metabolism alone. Cold ischemia is not have to be made because Alcor simply www.alcor.org Cryonics / November 2013 5 FOR THE RECORD

The High Price of Life on Hold: Sheskin’s Study and Other Reflections on Cryonics in New York By R. Michael Perry

haaat? the reader may ask. Yet important cases, however, and I have done of what I shall call, for want of a better another column on cryonics so as a convenience to readers without, I term (does anyone know of one?) mortic Win New York?! Yes, indeed hope, unduly invading privacy, inasmuch systems, that is to say, systems of attitudes, (and one more is planned after this!). But as these details have long been public. beliefs, and practices for coping with the not without good reason, as I hope you As a second objective, I will consider problem of death. The thrust of the book will agree. New York, was, after all, an the various assessments and judgments is to situate cryonics within the panoply important early staging area for cryonics, of cryonics, cryonics organizations, and of mortic systems in our culture and and its history has important lessons people that Sheskin makes and offer my compare it with the others on issues such to teach, besides being just downright own perspective. The other main source as the demands made on adherents for interesting. I’ve used is the 1992 interview, “Thus acceptance and participation, survivors’ With assistance from other sources, Spake Curtis Henderson,” parts 4 and 5. bereavement, and so on. I am not so much the present column is based around First, then, an overview. The book interested in comparisons of this sort as Arlene Sheskin’s 1970s study, Cryonics: deals mainly with a single cryonics I am in what can be found in the book A Sociology of Death and Bereavement. organization, the “Eastern Cryonics about the people and history of New York Unique in cryonics literature both for Society” or Cryonics Society of New cryonics in the twilight of its early period, its thoroughness and its early date, this York (CSNY) and covers the gamut of its from a different perspective than is found book attempts to assess the then-fledgling history from the startup phase in the mid- in the rather scanty coverage elsewhere movement from a mainstream though 1960s to about 1975, when its activity had (newsletters for instance). sympathetic perspective, comparing it virtually ceased. Emphasis is on the latter, Going on, then, to the history of to other systems of beliefs and practices “twilight” period, when the study was CSNY, the following is pieced together relating to life’s number one problem, made and on “survivors” who had relatives from interviews in the book with Curtis death. My perspective is different, what cryogenically stored and were available for Henderson and Saul Kent, respectively Sheskin would call that of a “believer,” interview. (The interviews alone constitute president and vice president of CSNY. which I think applies also to most readers. important source material not duplicated These appear to date from around 1975, So here I am not interested in simply elsewhere.) Reasons are offered for the when no more patients were being summarizing the book or in offering a burnout, the brief history of two splinter maintained.1 “review” as usually conceived, but instead groups is related, and the problems of SHESKIN: What is the state of CSNY the objectives are twofold. First, there is the survivors are considered in detail. now? a historical problem, to report on what Comparatively little attention is devoted HENDERSON: CSNY never did actually transpired with the early cryonics to the question of whether cryonics amount to much more than me and Saul group in New York that is not covered patients can eventually be resuscitated, or Kent … Nobody else was willing to do or to be covered elsewhere. A small the technical details of procedures used in any of the work that was necessary to decipherment issue is that Sheskin went cryoprotection and cooldown. The overall keep it going. to lengths to use pseudonyms in her study, attitude is not to minutely examine or SHESKIN: What happened to make both for individuals and organizations. It question the basic premise or procedures, you stop your efforts in cryonics? is not difficult to restore the real names in but to treat cryonics as on par with other KENT: I wouldn’t say that I stopped

6 Cryonics / November 2013 www.alcor.org my efforts. I would say that when what we about September 1971, they had to move. were doing wasn’t any good we changed. I Curtis Henderson reminisced about this haven’t by any means given up on the idea. in the 1992 interview.2 It’s a good idea. But you’re talking about “Paul [Segall] and Harry [Waitz, of freezing an individual and all I can say is CSNY’s volunteer staff and antiaging that whoever does it better have plenty researchers on the side] would go handing of money because I’m not paying for it. out cryonics literature at funerals, wearing As far as the Society—the time and effort their long hair and beads. This didn’t we put into it—it was me and Henderson go over too well with the cemetery who carried the idea. That’s all it ever was. management at Washington Memorial SHESKIN: When did things start to Park. Cryonics was a constant media decline? attraction; camera crews and journalists

HENDERSON: Things didn’t progress were always coming around and reporters https://www.facebook.com/arlene.sheskin, CREDIT: PHOTO accessed 22 Oct. 2013. in the way that we expected. We began to would enquire about cryonics at the Arlene Sheskin get discouraged. We were losing money cemetery offices. It was a terrible hassle and we didn’t accomplish the goals we set for them. Campbell, the cemetery director out for. had left, and another person came in. didn’t tell the people who were using the SHESKIN: What were those goals? They wanted more rent, but basically they church every Sunday. DeBlasio went down HENDERSON: To become a large wanted us out of there. We were a lot of to Brookhaven Town Hall and asked for organization that would generate a lot of trouble for them and the constant media a building permit to store bodies. They funds and information, promote the idea presence wasn’t conducive to the nice, turned him down, so he went ahead effectively and also sign up large numbers quiet, ‘final resting place’ they were selling without it. Halloween night, the local of persons to be frozen. We hadn’t done to the dearly beloved. And we weren’t citizens all gathered around this church any of those things. Publicity was all we happy there, because we were keeping with torches. That was the end of their succeeded in doing. So it didn’t look as if bodies in the garage, and the people who operation which, ironically, they called we were going anywhere. And stopping worked on the grounds were always joking Cryo-Crypt.” was really all my decision. If I was still about the frozen bodies and leaving their The group was still not ready to rejoin doing all the things I was doing before, lunch on the dry-ice boxes. CSNY however. there would still be an organization. In our “Another thing that was a real problem “―So, we had a parting of the ways. group, the activities were more centered was that there was no way for us to lock Nick Deblasio, John Bull, Mrs. Mandell, in two or three individuals than in other the door. The groundskeepers used the they split off from CSNY and formed groups but more was done in our group room where the bodies were stored as a their own organization, [the short-lived] than in the others. [But now, w]e don’t lunch room and they would throw their Cryonics Unlimited.3 DeBlasio came and even bother with the membership. We cigarette butts on the floor. This used to got his wife and carted her off to a hole used to have members and we used to enrage Nick DeBlasio [whose wife Ann in the ground [Robert] Nelson[, president have meetings. It’s just that this kind of had been frozen by CSNY and was stored of the Cryonics Society of California] and organization is not suited for what we there in an upright capsule, the ‘Forever he had dug in a cemetery in Butler, New wanted to do. Flask.’] He said it was disrespectful, and it Jersey. Nelson showed up at Washington SHESKIN: Why? was. However, there was nothing we could Memorial Park, crated up Steven Mandell HENDERSON: I’m not sure but if do about it. The facility was used to store in our tank, and took him off to his you have a model airplane club, everyone grounds keeping equipment and supplies other hole in the ground in a cemetery in makes model airplanes. In a political club, for the cemetery, and that was just the way Chatsworth, California. I packed up our everyone goes out to try to get the votes it was. If you’re going to do this, you’ve remaining patient, [Paul Hurst,] and we to get a job out of it. These things all really got to have your own place, so you rented this industrial bay in West Babylon; have activities that tend to hold people can control the situation, so people aren’t 171 Eads Street, unit C. We sublet most together. They can all participate on some always coming in, and so family can visit of the space to the business next door and level. Cryonics is not something a whole and you can be sure that the place will be just occupied the front; we had the small bunch of people can do. We put out the clean and orderly.” office and some of the open space behind newsletter—a propaganda sheet—and got A sporadic attempt by some to open a it and the roll up door. It wasn’t much, but involved in the actual freezing of bodies. new storage center ended in humiliation. it was ours, and we could control what There’s only a limited number of people “There was a group of CSNY members went on there, and who came and who who can participate, there just wasn’t that that wanted to find another facility. They went.” much going on. were unhappy about the way I was doing It’s often said, however, that “you get Other problems too were important in things. They found a church in Suffolk what you pay for,” and though the West the shutdown. As background, for years County, and bought it. Thought they Babylon site was affordable and in some CSNY stored its patients in a garage on could store cryonics patients legally in a ways convenient, these benefits came with the grounds of Washington Memorial cemetery. They decided they would dig a peculiar downside. Park Cemetery in Coram, NY. Finally, under the church and build a facility. They “I think one of the reasons the place

www.alcor.org Cryonics / November 2013 7 did me great favors. He took these people away from me! He stole that tank [the horizontal capsule of Steven Mandell]. You know, I clapped when he loaded it on a truck and ran out of here. Mandell’s mother had no intention of paying, she never did pay anything. We had paid about $2,000 for the liquid nitrogen to keep that tank cold. And you had to run that pump day and night. Every time the power utility gave us a brownout, not only would the pump stop and lose the vacuum, but the end of the tank would fall off! I had C-clamps on it so it wouldn’t fall off. When the power failed and the vacuum pump quit running, the suction from the vacuum in [the] tank would suck the oil out of the vacuum pump. All that oil loaded with crap from the air would be pulled into the vacuum space, and no amount of valves or anything seemed to stop that. It was a horrendous tank. , Nov. 1971, cover. The Outlook , Nov. CREDIT: PHOTO Nelson took that one.”6 After the move to the new facility in West Babylon, about September Going back to the survivors, Sheskin 1971. From left: Bruce Cohen, Saul Kent, Curtis Henderson. reports how the move to West Babylon was from “a cemetery to a warehouse” and this was upsetting to Mrs. Mandell. came so cheap was that it was located pressured the cemetery to allow another “I didn’t feel that I wanted my son’s body right in the middle of a bunch of body. The cemetery couldn’t stand the in a warehouse. The fact that they’re cemeteries with a landfill just a street or pressure and made us all move.”4 frozen shouldn’t mean that they have an two over. The landfill was this gigantic At the time of Beverly’s call, her undignified resting place. A cemetery is heap of garbage several stories tall. It was father had been briefly buried, thus had dignified—that’s where they should be.” a skyscraper of garbage with thousands to be exhumed for cryopreservation. She Mr. DeBlasio, also dissatisfied, thought his of gulls constantly circling around it. In immediately became an official in the new, below-ground facility (constructed the summer, well, let’s just say the aroma Society, which caused others, rightly or using funds from a medical malpractice coming off it wasn’t Chanel Number 5.” wrongly, to question the motives of the suit over the death of his now-frozen The need to move is described from president in the actions that were taken.5 wife7) was better. “We were trying to a different perspective in Sheskin’s After the move, Greenberg was added to keep out undesirables [CSNY officials]. book. There were three patients in the the Hurst capsule, which was built for two I understand how it’s a business to them Coram facility (Steven Mandell, Ann occupants like the others. Both the Hurst and how they want to make profits. But Deblasio, Paul Hurst). According to and DeBlasio capsules were upright, while you must understand that it’s a very Pauline Mandell, mother of Steven, “He Mandell’s container was an older-style, emotional thing. My facility looks like a [the person in charge of maintaining the horizontal unit that also required constant furnished basement. We shied away from capsules, Curtis Henderson?] would come pumping to harden its vacuum jacket and an industrial area—it’s an underground around at all hours of the night to put keep the nitrogen boiloff to manageable facility. After all, there’s a certain amount in liquid nitrogen. They [the cemetery levels. of dignity involved in this.”8 owners] said he always looked terrible and Though Hurst and Greenberg were Another (anonymous) cryonicist saw that they didn’t want anything more to do retained, the move deprived CSNY of it quite differently. “I don’t like holes in with him because he was a circus clown.” its other two patients, Steven Mandell the ground or cemeteries and actually if Mrs. Mandell added, “[Curtis Henderson] and Ann DeBlasio. In both cases, as you are a gung ho cryonicist the last place was told that he couldn’t bring [in] any we’ve seen, Robert Nelson of the rival you’d want to put your relative or yourself more bodies. When [Beverly Greenberg] Cryonics Society of California (CSC) was is in a cemetery. What could be more final called about having her father [Herman] instrumental in finding new locations, at than in a cemetery? After all, the idea suspended [cryopreserved], we [Mrs. the insistence of the survivors. Though of this is that it’s a long term scientific Mandell and another, unnamed relative of Henderson had an enduring dislike for experiment. …”9 a CSNY patient, possibly Nick DeBlasio] Nelson he was grudgingly grateful, as As for complaints of survivors, told him not to do it. But he did it anyway expressed in the 1992 interview. “[A] relatives of “the man in the can,” Curtis and kept the body on dry ice while he ctually, much as I hate Nelson, in a way he Henderson commented: “The man in

8 Cryonics / November 2013 www.alcor.org the can, he ain’t going to bother you… members of SACS. Again Mrs. Mandell as an experiment with a quite uncertain These people running around outside, reports: “A minimum of $25,000, in prognosis but not a hopeless prospect to be their lives change, things happen to them. the form of insurance, trust, or other pursued only at the whim of the decedent. Pretty soon they start saying they never personal funds, is required, to be divided (Riley is now at Alcor, along with his wife, liked that old geezer anyway. See? Now as follows. (1) a minimum of $20,000 both converted to neuropreservation you’ve got troubles, because they don’t for the individual’s perfusion, capsule, when funding ran low; the son who had like to admit that. I went through this with storage, etc., with the balance to be placed no cryonics arrangements was killed in an any number of people. They don’t want in an individual trust fund. It is hoped the accident and was not cryopreserved.)16 to actually say, ‘Oh, I don’t want to keep interest from the trust will cover costs of Overall, Sheskin offers a positive him frozen, pop him in the ground.’ They maintenance, storage, repairs, and new assessment of cryonics, comparing start with complaining that I’m charging capsules when necessary. It is anticipated it to conventional medicine: “In its too much, the liquid nitrogen level isn’t that any funds beyond these requirements concentration on the critically ill and the high enough, and why didn’t I get them will be reinvested, so the trust itself will initiation of new technologies to service on the last TV show. That was one of the grow. (2) A minimum of $5,000 is to go them, medical science is not very different biggest complaints. They come here and to SACS, upon the individual’s death, to from cryonics where the emphasis is see people making a TV show, and they be used exclusively for research in cryonic on investing in someone who has been complain if I don’t get them on it. … we sciences.” declared dead. Both place tremendous didn’t ever get all the money up front. The high hopes of these two efforts and resources on a small sector of That was a mistake.”10 organizations, however, were not fulfilled. the population to the exclusion of the rest. This is not to say that catastrophic disease should be left unattended while medical “Comparatively little attention is devoted to the question of whether researchers devote themselves to curing everyday diseases like the common cold, cryonics patients can eventually be resuscitated, or the technical details but if cryonics is considered a waste of of procedures used in cryoprotection and cooldown.” resources, then is not the emphasis on life preservation in medical science a similar misuse? How is one to know when life Pauline Mandell, paradoxically, was CU never did any cryopreservations preservation and extension is legitimate not interested in cryonics for herself. “I and both organizations (along with the and when it is worth the costs involved?”17 don’t think I’d want another chance at this aforementioned Cryo-Crypt) effectively However, cryonics is not given an life,” she said in a newspaper interview ceased to function within a short time and unqualified endorsement, mainly because shortly after her son’s freezing, “but I can accomplished little beyond brief notice in it is viewed from the perspective of see where a man like my son would.”11 some newsletters. Sheskin, in analyzing survivors who often underwent emotional Though apparently unwilling to pay for this failure, noted that while CSNY had as well as financial hardship to maintain the capsule maintenance (a habit that its problems, it stayed active longer and a freezing. When pressed, Sheskin is continued after the capsule was taken to was more successful because it had at inclined to treat cryonics as on par with Nelson’s facility12), she both insisted on people (Curtis Henderson, Saul Kent) other forms of disposition such as burial continuing the freezing and also, when who could devote full time to its needs or cremation, that is to say, in accordance dissatisfaction led to the rupture with and tenaciously persevere in the face with the dictum that “dead is dead”: “If CSNY, started her own organization, the of obstacles.14 The two simply worked individuals, for example, who wanted to Society for Advancement of Cryonic harder and longer than the others, despite be cremated explained their reasons to Sciences, offering this comment: “SACS eventually giving up the effort (though not relatives and helped them overcome their is being set up exclusively for scientific their involvement in cryonics). aversion to the practice, cremation might research and education within the field Two more freezings are treated in be assured. However, there is always of cryonics. We are seeking classification Sheskin’s book, one entirely by CSNY the possibility that relatives will not be which would make contributions tax (Clara Dostal, 1972), the other a Trans convinced—that they will be unable to deductible. A minimum of 10% of all Time case assisted by Curtis Henderson accept cremation, cryonics, donating a dues collected for membership in this (“Frank Riley,” 1974). The Dostal body to science, or a living will. When organization shall be devoted exclusively children, a son and a daughter, are this possibility is considered, the perils of to scientific research in cryonics. Any presented as having firm doubts that legislation in this area become apparent. donor may specify whether funds shall their frozen mother would ever return to Legislation that assures the rights of be used for research, education (SACS life, believing instead that “dead is dead” the dying or dead over the disposition report, Bulletins, etc.) or both.”13 so the cryopreservation was done only of their bodies might consign survivors Accompanying SACS was another because the mother wanted it. (After two to a difficult, and perhaps irresolvable, organization, Cryonics Unlimited (CU), years of frustrating, expensive effort they bereavement. Survivors, then, must have which would do cryopreservations and decided “enough was enough” and had the right to choose a death disposition whose patients were required to leave her buried.)15 For Riley, the survivors, with which they can live—no matter what specified amounts of funding and to be a wife and a son, thought of cryonics the desire of the dying or deceased. In

www.alcor.org Cryonics / November 2013 9 short, the rights of the dead must recede reactions to the research as well as to the favor of curing terminal disease. Finally in the face of the living.”18 practice were extreme and sometimes one friend—a nurse—walked out of the The problem with this reasoning for hostile. People told me that cryonicists room whenever cryonics was discussed cryonicists is, of course, that “dead” is not were ‘sick’ and that I must have something because she felt it to be an unnatural necessarily dead, and we view cryonics as wrong with me to be spending time with practice.”20 a type of medical practice not a mortuary them. Individuals who felt it wrong and/ In short, cryonics was very widely seen practice. Cryonics is not simply another or depressing to talk about death charged as disturbing, unnatural, and repulsive, means of “disposal” like cremation and that cryonicists had unresolved problems something that “normal” people would burial. The cryopreserved patient instead with death that a ‘normal’ person did not. not feel a need for and would not be has the status of someone in a deep coma When I talked about the possible benefits involved in. Though the study ended who could possibly regain consciousness to be accrued from the suspension of one’s nearly four decades ago, and though and for which the termination of life relatives, a friend told me that she would people are usually polite when we talk to support (in this case thawing and burial or not and could not discuss her mother’s them, this prejudice appears to be largely cremation) must not be left to the whim death and that she did not think she could still in place. So we are waiting for an of relatives. Yet cryonics is expensive. survive the eventual event. Consequently, “attitude changing event”—a research Few of those in the early days who had she could not bring herself to discuss breakthrough perhaps—that will make relatives frozen had substantial wealth. To any possible benefits, or detriments, of such thinking less tenable and encourage accommodate the less well-to-do, full up- cryonics since she could not bring herself the mainstream to consider a proactive front payment at the start of a freezing to accept the conditions which would response to clinical death that is aimed at was not demanded but, in keeping with precipitate the practice. Of course, many alleviating it.  an American tradition, interested parties others told me that there was a time to live could get the desired service (freezing and a time to die and that it was unnatural the relative) “on payments”—only the to affect these times through freezing, payments had to continue indefinitely. although they all admitted to being in This was a disastrous error, as shown in the fact that nearly all the early freezings terminated with thawing and loss after Sources: CH4. “Thus Spake Curtis Henderson,” part only a few years (including all the ones 4, http://chronopause.com/chronopause.com/ Abbreviations as indicated are used in note considered here except the Rileys as index.php/2011/02/10/thus-spake-curtis- references. noted). Today, in general, up-front henderson-part-4/index.html, accessed 22 payments are required, with maintenance (“Thus Spake Curtis Henderson” is a 6-part Oct. 2013. costs to be paid from interest income. The interview conducted in 1992 by Charles Platt CH5. “Thus Spake Curtis Henderson,” part and annotated by Mike Darwin, now online.) high cost can be managed through means 5, http://chronopause.com/chronopause.com/ such as life insurance for the less wealthy index.php/2011/02/11/thus-spake-curtis- (but arrangements need to be made in AS. Arlene Sheskin, Cryonics: A Sociology of Death and Bereavement, New York: Irvington, henderson-part-5/index.html, accessed 22 advance of need, in a state of good health. 1979. Oct. 2013 A few needy people have also been helped by fundraising efforts, though resources and opportunities for this are limited19). ReferenceS When this is taken into account, the 1. AS 56-57. 13. Pauline Mandell et al., “Cryonics objections of Ms. Sheskin lose much of Unlimited,” The Outlook 3(1), 4-5 (Jan. 1972) 2. CH5 (next eight paragraphs). their force, though it is fair to admit that (this and following paragraph). 3. Original gives the name as “Cryonics those who are not able to make the upfront 14. AS 69-70. payment may find it more difficult than in International” but it appears the correct earlier times to arrange cryopreservation name was “Cryonics Unlimited,” cf. note 15. AS 144-50. 13. in the first place. In practice, though, cryopreservation need not impose an 4. AS 53. 16. AS 150-56; Michael Federowicz et al., “Postmortem Examination of Three 5. Ibid. ongoing financial burden on the survivors Cryonic Suspension Patients,” Cryonics, Sep. and differs little from other forms of 6. CH4. 1984, 16-28; http://www.alcor.org/Library/ disposition—other than the hope it offers 7. Ibid. html/postmortemexamination.html, for those who endorse it. accessed 22 Oct. 2013. 8. AS 63. One additional feature of Sheskin’s 17. AS 173. 9. AS 37. study emerged when, early on, she tried 18. AS 169. to tell others about it—their response was 10. CH4 not what she thought it would be. “When 19. An organization that has carried out 11. AS 11. fundraising of this sort is The Society for I began the research, I expected friends 12. Robert Nelson et al., “Robert Nelson Venturism, http://www.venturist.info/. to find cryonics interesting and perhaps Speaks,” Physical Immortality 2Q 2004, 15-16. 20. AS 164. unusual. I was most surprised to find that

10 Cryonics / November 2013 www.alcor.org COOLER MINDS PREVAIL

An End to the Virus By Chana de Wolf

reakthroughs in medicine have mouth, or breaks in the skin. Once inside body temperature, and the induction of increased substantially over the last the host, the virus particle finds a host cell cell death (apoptosis). In some cases simply Bhundred years, and most would to infect so it can reproduce. continuing the natural immune response is agree that the introduction of antibiotics There are two ways that viruses enough to eventually halt viral infection. in 1942 has been one of the largest reproduce. The first way is by attaching But the virus kills many host cells in the milestones in the history of medicine to the host cell and entering it or injecting meantime, leading to symptoms ranging thus far. The success in treating bacterial viral DNA/RNA into the cell. This causes from the characteristic runny nose and sore infection has only accentuated the glaring the host cell to make copies of the viral throat of a cold (rhinovirus) to the muscle lack of progress in developing effective DNA and translate that DNA to make aches and coughing associated with the flu therapeutics for those other enemies of viral proteins. The host cell assembles new (influenza virus). the immune system, viruses. But Dr. Todd viruses and releases them when the cells Rider and his team at MIT have dropped a break apart and die, or it buds the new bombshell with their announcement of a viruses off, which preserves the host cell. “...Dr. Todd Rider and his new broad spectrum antiviral therapeutic, This approach is called the lytic cycle. DRACO, which appears not only to cure The second way that viruses reproduce team at MIT have dropped the common cold, but to halt or prevent is to use the host cell’s own materials. A a bombshell with their infections by all known viruses. viral enzyme called reverse transcriptase Before talking specifically about this makes a segment of DNA from its RNA announcement of a new broad exciting news, let us first review viral using host materials. The DNA segment spectrum antiviral therapeutic, biology and why viral infections have been gets incorporated into the host cell’s DNA. so difficult to treat. There, the viral DNA lies dormant and DRACO, which appears not As you may recall from your early gets reproduced with the host cell. When only to cure the common cold, but education, a virus particle, or virion, some environmental cue happens, the viral consists of DNA or RNA surrounded DNA takes over, makes viral RNA and to halt or prevent infections by all only by a protein coat (i.e., naked virus) proteins, and uses the host cell machinery known viruses.” or, occasionally, a protein coat and a lipid to assemble new viruses. The new viruses membrane (i.e., enveloped virus). Viruses bud off. This approach is call the lysogenic have no organelles or metabolism and cycle; these viruses are called retroviruses and Any virus can be deadly, especially to do not reproduce on their own, so they include herpes viruses and HIV. hosts with a weakened immune system, cannot function without using the cellular Once free from the host cell the such as the elderly, small children, and machinery of a host (bacteria, plant, or new viruses can attack other cells and persons with AIDS (though death is animal). produce thousands more virus particles, actually often due to a secondary bacterial Viruses can be found all throughout spreading quickly throughout the body. infection). And any viral infection will our environment and are easily picked up The immune system responds quickly by cause pain and suffering, making treatment and transferred to areas where they may producing proteins to interfere with viral a very worthwhile goal. So far, the most enter our bodies, usually through the nose, replication, pyrogenic chemicals to raise successful approach to stopping viral

www.alcor.org Cryonics / November 2013 11 infections has been prevention through the own defense mechanisms in order to design asked whether DRACO-triggered cell death ubiquitous use of vaccines. The vaccine— DRACO. First, he observed that all known could lead to a lesion in a tissue or organ. either a weakened form of a particular viruses make long strings of double- Rider responds that “Virtually all viruses virus or a mimic of one—stimulates the stranded RNA (dsRNA) during replication will kill the host cell on the way out. Of immune system to produce antibodies inside of a host cell, and that dsRNA is not the hand-full that don’t, your own immune specific to that virus, thereby preventing found in human or other cells. As part of system will try to kill those infected cells. infection when the virus is encountered the natural immune response, human cells So we’re not really killing any more cells in the environment. In another approach, have proteins that latch onto dsRNA and with our approach than we already have antiviral medications are administered start a biochemical cascade that prevents been. It’s just that we’re killing them at an post-infection and work by targeting some viral replication. But many viruses have early enough stage before they infect and of the specific ways that viruses reproduce. evolved to overcome this response quite ultimately kill more cells. So, if anything, easily. So Rider combined dsRNA detection this limits the amount of cell death.” with a more potent weapon: apoptosis, or So far, DRACO has been tested in “An interesting question is cell suicide. cellular culture and in mouse models whether any viruses are actually Basically, the DRACO consists of two against a variety of very different virus ends. One end identifies dsRNA and types. Rider hopes to license DRACO to beneficial and whether wiping the other end induces cells to undergo a pharmaceutical company so that it can all viruses out of an organismal apoptosis. When the DRACO binds to be assessed in larger animal trials and, dsRNA it signals the other end of the ultimately, human trials. Unfortunately, it system may have negative DRACO to initiate cell suicide, thus killing may take a decade or more to complete consequences...” the infected cell and terminating the this process and make the drug available infection. Beautifully, the DRACO also for human therapeutic purposes, and carries a protein that allows it to cross cell that’s only if there is enough interest to However, viruses are very difficult to membranes and enter any human or animal do so. Amazingly, the DRACO project defeat. They vary enormously in genetic cell. But if no dsRNA is present, it simply was started over 11 years ago and has composition and physical conformation, does nothing, leaving the cell unharmed. barely survived during that period due to making it difficult to develop a treatment An interesting question is whether any lack of interest and funding. Even now, that works for more than one specific viruses are actually beneficial and whether after the DRACOs have been successfully virus. The immense number of viral types wiping all viruses out of an organismal engineered, produced, and tested, no one in nature makes even their classification a system may have negative consequences has yet reached out to Rider about taking monumental job as there is more enormous (as happens when antibiotic treatment them beyond the basic research stage. structural diversity among viruses. Viruses eradicates both invading pathogenic Let us hope that those of us who do find have been evolving much longer than bacteria and non-pathogenic flora, often this work unbelievably exciting can make any cells have even existed and they have leading to symptoms such as digestive enough noise that Rider’s work continues evolved methods to avoid detection and upset). After his recent presentation to the benefit of all mankind.  to overcome attempts to block replication. at the 6th Strategies for Engineered So, while we have made some progress in Negligible Senescence (SENS) conference individual battles, those pesky viruses have in September 2013, Dr. Rider fielded this definitely been winning the war. question and stated quite adamantly that Which is why the announcement of a there are no known beneficial, symbiotic, broad spectrum antiviral therapeutic agent or non-harmful viruses. is such huge news. In their paper, Rider et al. describe a drug that is able to identify cells infected by any type of virus and “Basically, the DRACO which is then able to specifically killonly the infected cells to terminate the infection. The consists of two ends. One drug, named DRACO (which stands for end identifies dsRNA and Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) Activated Caspase Oligomerizer), was tested against the other end induces cells to 15 viruses including rhinoviruses, H1N1 undergo apoptosis.” influenza, polio virus, and several types of hemorrhagic fever. And it was effective against every virus it was pitted against. This point is further emphasized in a Dr. Rider looked closely at living cells’ recently published interview in which he is

12 Cryonics / November 2013 www.alcor.org IN PERPETUITY

Bitcoin and Cryonics, Part 2: Brain Wallets By Keegan Macintosh

n my last article, I introduced property, in the legal sense, that the ledger randomly generate the exact same ones, and the cryptocurrency, Bitcoin from is tracking. Even where this property is just be able to transact any bitcoins happening Ia technological and conceptual a “right” to something else (think shares in to be there..? perspective, giving a brief history a company), there’s usually some material Other virtual currencies, like World of its origin and mysterious creator, thing (often money) at the end of the line. of Warcraft “gold” and Amazon coins, Satoshi Nakamoto, and its subsequent Even bank notes and coins, the physical while conceptualized as currency, derive development and eventual rise into manifestations of traditional currency, are their value, and any legal rights their users the mainstream consciousness. I also “referring” to something else—namely may have, from the contract agreed upon pointed out some (I think interesting) the respective territorial government’s between issuer and user (however cursory early connections between the Bitcoin acceptance of that currency for payment that agreement may have been). Often, and cryonics communities. In this article, of taxes, etc., and its authority to insist these agreements actually bar the user from I will be considering the legal status of that merchants within the territory accept trading the virtual currency to another user bitcoins, both in the abstract as well as the currency as “legal tender.” Sometimes in exchange for traditional currency, and some concrete (albeit early) examples of the governments will have some kind of the issuer reserves the right to unilaterally regulatory treatment. I will briefly canvas reserve of another valuable thing (like gold) change the contract on notice to the user. some other risks and concerns that are in place to “back” the value of its currency, Nevertheless, the users of these currencies sometimes raised in connection with but in more recent times this has become do have some legal rights, arising out of Bitcoin. The remainder of the article will less common, and a territory’s currency has contract. be devoted to exploring some cryonics- value by government fiat. Bitcoin defies all specific uses for Bitcoin. this. There is nothing “backing” Bitcoin, only communal trust in the protocol itself, “There is nothing “backing” Legal Status of Bitcoins which is basically faith in cryptography and Part of the reason Bitcoin is difficult for in the Bitcoin community’s collective will Bitcoin, only communal lawmakers and regulators to categorize to see the project succeed. And so, Bitcoin trust in the protocol itself, which is because it does not lend itself to defies or at least confuses the current analogy very well. Or perhaps it does legal conceptualization of what property is basically faith in this too well—that is to say Bitcoin can is. Could it be said that a Bitcoin user has cryptography and in the be meaningfully analogized to different “rights” to particular bitcoins, even though and competing schemas. Fundamentally, they don’t actually exist anywhere other Bitcoin community’s collective as I discussed in the first part, Bitcoin is than on a ledger? Or does it make more will to see the project succeed.” a ledger of transactions. But normally, a sense to say they have exclusive rights to ledger of transactions refers to a unit which the address and private key that they have represents some physical thing, and even if claimed for themselves—even though Bitcoin defies this too. There is no single that physical thing rarely actually changes those were generated by a publicly available issuer, and no one entity has the ability hands in the vast majority of transactions algorithm, with some real (but very, very, to change the Bitcoin protocol. The limit of it, somewhere there is some form of very small) chance that someone else could of the “powers” of those most closely

www.alcor.org Cryonics / November 2013 13 involved with developing the protocol, is to state licensing requirements—though how be held responsible for the moral acts of release an update to the basic client, which and why this would be enforced against the its users, good or bad. Law enforcement is open source, and suggest that the update latter group is unclear to say the least.[2] agencies will simply adapt, as they already be adopted by the many users of the Meanwhile, up north, the Canada are doing. network—miners in particular. For major Revenue Agency has indicated that the The above is by no means an exhaustive changes, all users must accept the update rules which apply to bartering apply to analysis of the legal status of Bitcoin or of or risk a “hard fork” of the blockchain, trades involving bitcoin, which means that any particular uses for the technology, it is with two parallel ledgers each purporting purchases of goods, services, or other just meant to give you an idea. Generally to be a true representation of the state of currencies with bitcoins will result in taxable speaking, owning and using bitcoins seems the network. Thus, it needs to already be a capital gains (or losses) if the value of the to be legal, but doing things with Bitcoin foregone conclusion that a large majority of bitcoins (in Canadian dollars) has increased that would be illegal to do with money the network will accept such major changes or decreased since they were acquired.[3] or with the Internet, remain illegal. It’s as before it is even released, else doing so will And, in contrast with the U.S., Canada’s simple as that. undermine the project itself. In legal terms, Financial Transactions and Reports we could perhaps conceive of the Bitcoin Analysis Centre (“FINTRAC”; agency Cryonics-specific uses for protocol as a multi-party, majority-guided, equivalent to FinCEN) has informed bitcoins consensus-driven contract regarding the bitcoin exchanges that they are not subject formulation of a ledger of transmissions to regulation as money services businesses (1) Asset preservation of a unit that all the contractors accept under the applicable anti-money laundering It has been suggested that since bitcoins have some value—value derived from the laws (for the time being, at least).[4] appear to store value (in a somewhat erratic, nature of the system thus described. But volatile fashion, if that isn’t a contradiction this “contract” is written in computer Other concerns regarding in terms), they could provide an alternate code, and is constantly self-executing (or the technology means to those currently employed by to continue the metaphor, self-enforcing) Aside from uncertain, sometimes cryonicists seeking to maintain possession in real time all the world over. And far conflicting legal classification and treatment, of their accumulated wealth during their from a simple contract of sale or services, other concerns have been raised regarding period of cryopreservation (namely, asset or even a complex corporate transaction, the use of bitcoins in illegal drug and preservation trusts). And in fact, since the Bitcoin contract describes an entire weapons trade, and for money laundering Bitcoin is designed to be a deflationary economic system, not tied in any way to by criminals and terrorists. However, these currency[6], assuming that it survives and the geographic territories its users reside arguments flounder somewhat when faced is adopted widely, wealth stored as bitcoins in, or, more importantly, the laws of those with the simple fact that as a public ledger, will likely be worth much more in the future territories. Bitcoin is living law, created, it is technically easier to trace dirty bitcoins than it is now. This might be attractive to sustained and refined by the supranational than it is to trace dirty cash. That said, cryonicists for whom volatility on shorter community of its users. bitcoin mixing (read: laundering) services timescales is not terribly concerning. Now, with all that said, it is still have sprung up for bitcoins too. It is worth So how could cryonicists accomplish completely within the purview of courts noting here that the Silk Road, one of the this? The all-important piece of and lawmakers to “admit” bitcoins as a largest marketplaces for all things illegal, information that gives a particular person form of property. And while it is still early operating on the near-anonymous Tor the ability to send bitcoins stored at a days, it appears that at least one court network and using bitcoin as its primary particular address is the private key for that has done just that. In an early ruling in trade currency, was recently shut down by address. Trouble is, no matter how that the prosecution of a rather notorious the U.S. government—its alleged operator private key is stored, whether digitally on Ponzi scheme involving Bitcoins, a Texas arrested on drug charges and conspiracy to a computer owned by the cryonicist, or District Court judge ruled that “Bitcoin is murder.[5] on a secure cloud server controlled by the a currency or form of money,” and thus Others point to the fact that it is possible cryonicist under some agreement entered the defendant’s claim that Bitcoin was not to use the Bitcoin protocol to encode other into with the cloud server provider, or even money and therefore his offerings were not kinds of content into the blockchain— written down on a simple piece of paper securities within the jurisdiction of the SEC including illegal content, like links to child (the so-called “paper wallet”), none of was baseless.[1] Also, the Financial Crimes pornography—immortalizing it there in these records of the private key will escape Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”), the the computers of every user of the network the effects of estate law if they remain anti-money laundering enforcement agency (whether they have the means or the desire the cryonicist’s property upon legal death. of the U.S. Treasury has stated that both to decode the content or not). Of course, Thus the information required to transmit bitcoin exchanges as well as miners that this is not a new argument—it has been the cryonicist’s bitcoins would end up in exchange their newly-mined bitcoins for leveled against the Internet itself. And like the hands of beneficiaries—beneficiaries money are money transmitters subject to the Internet, the Bitcoin protocol cannot who today might not even know what to do

14 Cryonics / November 2013 www.alcor.org with them! This could result in either the Conceivably, brain wallets could even be of it into the successor. That said, Bitcoin loss of the bitcoins to the cryonicist, or the used to incentivize resuscitation, by telling still has a strong first mover advantage, and permanent loss of the bitcoins altogether, your cryonics provider about the bitcoins as a protocol, any deficiencies identified since if the private key is outright lost, and promising them some portion of them through experimentation with the the bitcoins stored at that address are no upon your return.[8] Of course, that idea numerous “altcoins” that exist can simply longer accessible. leads to a potential pitfall of storing the key be implemented into Bitcoin, which has The only way to avoid this would be to use to your wealth in your brain, as it makes considerable network effect favouring its essentially the same mechanism currently your brain potentially quite valuable—that competitive survival. However, due to this used for cryonics asset preservation, i.e. is, valuable to people other than yourself and the aforementioned risks, it would giving the medium with the private key on and those that care about you for you. be seriously inadvisable to make storing it to a trustee to hold for the cryonicist until If it became common knowledge that wealth in Bitcoin brain wallets one’s only they are successfully resuscitated. But then cryonicists were using this as a strategy asset preservation strategy. we haven’t actually come up with a new for asset preservation, mightn’t this make solution to the problem we set out to solve, cryonics facilities attractive to the future’s (2) Collection of donations, and because this trust will have to be drafted version of tomb-raiders, lusting after the payments for services in more or less the same way as other riches locked away in cryopreserved brains? Case in point: I created a Bitcoin address cryonics asset preservation trusts, such as The best case scenario there would be that for the Institute for Evidence Based the Alcor Model Trust, with an interim the technology exists to somehow “read” Cryonics just before the symposium on beneficiary standing in for the cryonicist the private key from a brain while still Resuscitation of Cryonics Patients in while they are not a legal person. And there cryopreserved. A worse scenario would be May, and merely because we accepted is nothing wrong with that in principle, but that the cryonicist, having been abducted bitcoins, someone in the audience, with since bitcoins are informational in nature, from their long-term care provider, is whom we had no prior relationship, made there might be another way of preserving later resuscitated under rather different a donation. And all he had to do was scan them for later use, without using trust law circumstances than they intended—as the QR code of IEBC’s public address that mechanics—perhaps as a way of hedging hostages of their resuscitators, and only was on my phone. oneself against the possible failure of the of continued value to them until they give In addition to soliciting donations this trust for one reason or another. up the goods, as it were. I will say however way, cryonics service providers could This alternate method relies on the fact that both those scenarios sound more like also accept member dues and lump-sum that, as information, bitcoin private keys premises for science fiction stories than prepayments via Bitcoin. Compared with can be memorized. However, private keys likely futures. the transaction fees charged by credit card are even longer than bitcoin addresses Another, less fantastical problem with companies and PayPal, which are generally themselves, and thus not the easiest things using brain wallets for asset preservation is a percentage of the value of the transaction to memorize. So, some clever people have the possibility that part of the cryonicist’s itself, the default suggested transaction fee devised a way of generating private keys by brain that is involved in storing the private is only 0.0001, or at today’s exchange rate hashing series of words that are much easier key—or more likely the passphrase a little over one cent[9]. And historically, for the average human being to remember, used to generate it—is damaged during as the price of bitcoins has increased, the like “correct horse battery staple.”[7] These cryopreservation in a way that is not default transaction fee has been reduced, approaches to securing bitcoins are referred reparable. However, without delving too since transaction fees only need to be a to as brain wallets. Fair warning, though: far into the subject, I wonder if there are small component of the miners’ incentive short, simple combinations of ordinary mnemonic strategies that would reduce the while the block reward is still quite high. words are vulnerable to “dictionary likelihood of this undesirable outcome. Anyway, this is much cheaper than the attacks.” For similar reasons, a beloved Even something as simple as ritualized, competition, and also much faster, as section of poetry, in unaltered form, is not periodic recall of the passphrase to Bitcoin transactions “settle” securely in a wise choice of phrase to generate a private continually reactivate the memory and about an hour, and realistically can be relied key either. As with ordinary passwords, strengthen it might result in a memory that on even sooner when dealing with relatively addition of numbers, special characters, has sufficient physical redundancy in the small transactions, as the risk of a double- and variations of case are advisable. brain to resist some amount of damage. spend attempt is very low there due to the In their brain wallet, the cryonicist Lastly, there is always the chance that cost of the computing power required to stores some of their wealth in bitcoins during the patient’s cryopreservation, successfully pull it off. using a secret passphrase known only to Bitcoin fails for some reason, either However, for organizations worried them. Upon resuscitation, they generate because some major flaw in the protocol about the extra level of accounting the private key from the passphrase, is discovered and exploited, or a successor complexity created by accepting payments and they have everything they need to technology comes along, and the value and in a currency with a value that fluctuates transact with the bitcoins as they desire. wealth currently stored in Bitcoin drains out relative to their home currency, there is an

www.alcor.org Cryonics / November 2013 15 alternative. Numerous payment companies is capable of. Blockchain technology is an Conclusion are springing up in the Bitcoin service layer incredibly powerful tool, that has already Hopefully, this article and the last have that aim to make accepting bitcoins easier been adapted for use as a cryptographically served as an understandable yet accurate on companies, Coinbase being a well- secure, peer-to-peer messaging system[11], introduction to Bitcoin, from both a funded frontrunner that gives merchants as well as a decentralized domain name technical and a legal perspective, with special the option to have incoming bitcoin system[12]. Automated contracts with attention to its historical connections to the transactions converted immediately into built-in dispute resolution mechanisms, cryonics community, and its possible future USD at the current exchange rate, plus a aka “smart contracts” are in the works, and uses for cryonics.  1% service fee (which is still significantly “smart wills” should be possible as well, cheaper than credit cards and PayPal).[10] though cryonicists will probably be more interested in ways of maintaining personal Other cryonics-relevant uses control over their wealth, as described The surface has only just been scratched above. with respect to what the Bitcoin protocol

FOOTnotes USD worth of “new money” in traditional currencies needs to enter the bitcoin market just for the price of bitcoins to 1. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Shavers, No. 4: 13- remain flat; thus, the rising price of Bitcoin, while appearing CV-416 (E.D. Tex. Aug. 6, 2013). like deflation, is actually merely a function of supply versus 2. “Application of FinCEN’s Regulations to Persons demand (and also exchange bottlenecks). Administering, Exchanging, or Using Virtual Currencies,” 7. This example is rather famous in the Bitcoin community, as FIN-2013-G001. Available at http://fincen.gov/statutes_ it was used in the popular online comic strip, xkcd: http:// regs/guidance/html/FIN-2013-G001.html xkcd.com/936/ 3. http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/revenue-canada-says- 8. I must credit this idea to Danila Medvedev, who floated bitcoins-aren-t-tax-exempt-1.1395075 it on Cryonet Asset Preservation mailing list in August: 4. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/20/canada_ http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/New_Cryonet/ welcomes_bitcoin_traders_fintrac_letter/ conversations/messages/5448 (requires joining the mailing 5. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/02/us-crime- list to view). silkroad-raid-idUSBRE9910TR20131002 9. Remembering that the transaction fee is only required if 6. The mining reward will halve approximately every 4 years, you want your transaction confirmed relatively quickly. resulting in the total number of bitcoins never exceeding If there is no rush on the recipient’s end, one can send 21 million—the design rationale being that over time the bitcoins without any fee at all, though it may take some number of transactions on the network will increase to the time to be included in blocks, as transaction fees are part point where competition for rapid inclusion in blocks (and of the miners’ incentive, though for now a relatively small thus, faster confirmation of the transactions) will result in incentive compared with the 25 bitcoin block reward... but sufficient transaction fees to incentivize miners’ continued this will change over time. support of the network without the block reward. So while 10. https://coinbase.com/merchants technically the supply of bitcoins is increasing, it is expected 11. https://bitmessage.org/ to eventually behave like a deflationary currency, relative to traditional currencies. Since 25 new bitcoins are created 12. http://dot-bit.org/ approximately every 10 minutes, at present over $3,000

Already a Bitcoin user? Consider making a donation to Keegan Macintosh is Executive Director of the Lifespan Society of the Lifespan Society of British Columbia using the address in British Columbia, where he is working the article above. The Institute for Evidence Based Cryonics to address issues of access to life (www.evidencebasedcryonics.org) also accepts bitcoins, at extension technologies (keegan@ 1Mouv8BcRUmqVHRRNPaQPmFkzskMqoiSDk. lifespanbc.ca). (see QR code to the right)

16 Cryonics / November 2013 www.alcor.org Preserving Minds, Saving Lives: 35 Years of the Best Cryonics Writing of The Alcor Life Extension Foundation Available for Pre-Order NOW!

Featuring stimulating articles from the pages of CRYONICS Magazine by Steven Harris, Hugh Hixon, Saul Kent, Mike Darwin, Stephen Bridge, Thomas Donaldson, Aschwin de Wolf, Brian Wowk, 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. The book will be published the second half of 2013.

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www.alcor.org Cryonics / November 2013 17 Twenty Minutes Into the Future? By Mark Plus

The Transhumanist Wager, by Zoltan Istvan. Futurity Imagine Media LLC, 2013. ISBN 978 0988616110.

A BOOK Review of The Transhumanist Wager

oltan Istvan 1, a former freelance cease to exist. To attempt something writer for National Geographic, has scientifically constructive towards Zstated in interviews2,3 that he learned ensuring immortality beforehand is about cryonics and transhumanism during the most logical solution.” his college days at Columbia University in the early 1990s. After graduating from The novel’s associated website6 says it Columbia and going on a solo sea voyage more clearly: around the world, he visited places remote from the lives of most National Geographic The Problem: You’re going to die. The readers; nearly detonated a landmine in Solution: The Transhumanist Wager one of the countries he explored and learned to appreciate the fragility of his The novel then goes to show how life; wrote stories and made videos4 about Knights, a philosophy major at the fictional his adventures; and then returned to the “Victoria University” in the novel, acts U.S. Eventually, after marrying a physician on the implications of this Wager as he and establishing himself in business for develops and spreads a transhumanist his livelihood5, he decided to write a novel philosophy he calls “Teleological about the transhumanist issues which, he Egocentric Functionalism,” or TEF. This claims, have preoccupied him for years. story happens in a world recognizably has the authority to make that happen, This novel, The Transhumanist Wager, based on our own, but set perhaps “twenty despite the poor survival prospects. The suffers from many of the flaws of minutes into the future.” cryopreserved character’s fate remains novice efforts at novel writing, notably Without giving too much of the plot unresolved at the end of the novel. by featuring a hero named Jethro Knights away, the novel left me ambivalent, with (Apparently Istvan plans to write a sequel.) who acts as an idealized avatar for the a tendency to warm up to some of its However, the novel’s portrayal of author. Yet it also shows a level of energy message as I’ve thought about it and reread cryonics presents us with the “cryonics and and passion for the one thing cryonicists parts of it since my first reading in April of something else” (CASE) problem, which tend to care about above all else, namely, this year. Cryonics does feature in the plot Aschwin de Wolf has discussed in Cryonics what the Transhumanist Wager refers to, as as a Wager-oriented technology, though magazine recently. We can defend cryonics explained by Knights: not in a form as currently practiced. In on its own terms as a form of experimental “The Wager is the most logical the novel, physicians work for cryonics medicine and applied neuroscience to try conclusion to arrive at for any sensible organizations, and they make judgments to turn death from a permanent off-state human being: We love life and therefore about which patients could benefit from into a temporary and reversible off-state. want to live as long as possible—we cryopreservation and which probably could Cryonics therefore doesn’t need the “help” desire to be immortal. It’s impossible not. The novel even shows a thwarted of speculations about dubious future to know if we’re going to be immortal terrorist attack on one of these cryonics technologies, predictions of imminent once we die. To do nothing doesn’t facilities. Yet, despite the stricter standards “immortality” or arguments based on help our odds of attaining immortality, for who qualifies for cryopreservation, a fringe ideologies about its ethical necessity since it seems evident that we’re fragment of the brain of a main character or historical inevitability. going to die someday and possibly goes into cryo because another character As an example of this novel’s CASE

18 Cryonics / November 2013 www.alcor.org baggage, Ayn Rand’s novels way over- as a stronghold to establish a technocratic sheer incontinence and stupidity, the inspired Istvan in writing The Transhumanist dictatorship over the planet. In the novel’s men of the New Republic will have Wager. Knights appears at first as a cross climax, Knights deploys advanced drones little pity and less benevolence. To between Howard Roark and John Galt, produced by his transhumanist engineers make life convenient for the breeding despite his education in the classics to destroy the world’s capitals of faith and of such people will seem to them not of literature and philosophy. But then force—religious compounds like Vatican the most virtuous and amiable thing in we’ve known all along that personality City and political structures like the White the world, as it is held to be now, but an doesn’t derive from reason or education. House—to clear the way so that he can exceedingly abominable proceeding. Istvan indicates that Knights enjoys enforce his new order of affairs which Procreation is an avoidable thing for reading the great books as a means of allegedly demonstrates “transhumanism” sane persons of even the most furious personal development, which separates in power. passions, and the men of the New Knights from the way Rand portrays her Uh, no, I don’t think cryonicists would Republic will hold that the procreation protagonists7; yet Istvan doesn’t show necessarily want to associate cryonics with of children who, by the circumstances that Knights’s exposure to the best that that goal. Though at times I can understand of their parentage, must be diseased others have thought throughout the ages the temptation. … bodily or mentally—I do not think it changes or matures him. Knights stays And this gets to the heart of the problem will be difficult for the medical science pretty much the same focused, obsessive, I have with Istvan’s novel: I’ve seen a of the coming time to define such and self-absorbed character throughout the movie rather like this, titled Things to Come circumstances—is absolutely the most novel, despite his romance and marriage (1936), based on the philosophy of H.G. loathsome of all conceivable sins. They with a transhumanist physician character Wells. Knights basically acts like Raymond will hold, I anticipate, that a certain named Zoe Bach who advocates more Massey’s character in the film, John Cabal, portion of the population—the small of a Buddhist form of transhumanism. who saves civilization after decades of minority, for example, afflicted with Knights knows that this relationship war and dysfunction by organizing the indisputably transmissible diseases, threatens to turn him into a gentler and technical people and taking power away with transmissible mental disorders, more compassionate individual, especially from the warriors and politicians. Cabal with such hideous incurable habits of after Zoe talks him into starting a family; calls his organization, based on 1930’s ideas mind as the craving for intoxication— but he resists the influence because it about “futuristic” aircraft, “Wings over the exists only on sufferance, out of pity interferes with his goal of becoming a World.” Knights uses his “Drones over the and patience, and on the understanding transhuman master of the universe called World” to accomplish similar goals. that they do not propagate; and I do an “omnipotender,” whatever that would The idea of doing away with warriors not foresee any reason to suppose mean in real life. and politicians has some merit, given their that they will hesitate to kill when that Ironically the Randian aspect of the novel history in mismanaging societies. But sufferance is abused. And I imagine can alienate people on both sides of the Wells had more on his agenda than that also the plea and proof that a grave Rand fandom divide. People who disdain in his writings. In his nonfiction book, criminal is also insane will be regarded Rand may not like the novel because of Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and by them not as a reason for mercy, but the Randian influence; while the Kool-Aid Scientific Progress upon Human Life and Thought as an added reason for death. I do not drinkers may not like it because they think (1902)8, Wells writes about a precursor to see how they can think otherwise on Rand got her philosophy right the first the idea of a technocratic global governance the principles they will profess. time around, and they dismiss Istvan as a which he calls the New Republic, and he “second-hander” for trying to appropriate proposes the following philosophy for it: I can see why this part of Wells’s agenda or supplant Rand’s greatness. didn’t make it into the film. Related to the Ayn Rand influence, The new ethics will hold life to be Compare this with Knights’s Knights also sounds at times like a badass a privilege and a responsibility, not a pronouncement about the fate of allegedly Nietzschean from a pulp novel or comic sort of night refuge for base spirits inadequate people, which sounds like a post book. Again, cryonicists don’t necessarily out of the void; and the alternative on the LessWrong website. Just replace need advocates like that, though they in right conduct between living fully, “friendly AI” for “omnipotenders” and might come in useful under different beautifully, and efficiently will be to “singularitarian” for “transhuman:” circumstances. (More on that below.) die. For a multitude of contemptible The novel heads into controversial and silly creatures, fear-driven and The optimum transhuman territory when Knights organizes the helpless and useless, unhappy or trajectory of civilization is that which world’s transhumanist men and women of hatefully happy in the midst of squalid creates the most efficient way to the mind and persuades them to join him on dishonour, feeble, ugly, inefficient, produce omnipotenders. Currently, a technologically advanced seastead called born of unrestrained lusts, and the best way to accomplish this is to Transhumania. Knights uses this seastead increasing and multiplying through achieve as expediently as possible

www.alcor.org Cryonics / November 2013 19 the highest amount of productive I hope he has assumed these poses for transhuman life hours in the maximum dramatic purposes instead of presenting Zoltan Istvan, amount of human beings; however them as real proposals. an American- not all human beings will be a net- Nonetheless, Istvan’s vision does Hungarian, began positive in producing omnipotenders. intrigue me despite its flaws and some a solo, multi-year Any individual who ultimately hampers the horrific implications. He wants to start a sailing journey optimum transhuman trajectory of civilization conversation that cryonicists really should around the world at should be eliminated [emphasis added]. have: How badly do we want to survive? the age of 21. His The Humanicide Formula addresses And how should we respond to the people main cargo was 500 this issue directly. It determines who throw up barriers in our way? The handpicked books, whether an individual should live or time might come when we’ll need to find mostly classics. He’s explored over 100 die based on an algorithm measuring and actualize our inner Nietzscheans to countries—many as a journalist for the transhuman productivity in terms of confront real enemies to the cryonics National Geographic Channel—writing, that individual’s remaining life hours, project who want to ensure that we filming, and appearing in dozens of their resource consumption in a finite die irreversibly and “on schedule” like television stories, articles, and webcasts. system, and their past, present, and everyone else. His work has also been featured potential future contributions. Read The Transhumanist Wager at your by The New York Times Syndicate, own risk. It has received recognition on Outside, San Francisco Chronicle, BBC Do cryonicists want to associate the kinds of websites transhumanists and Radio, NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, Animal cryonics with the idea of a “humanicide” science fiction fans tend to visit10, and it Planet, and the Travel Channel. He of the people who don’t meet some geek’s does expose people to a CASE version of is a philosophy and religious studies standards for measuring their transhuman the cryonics idea. Perhaps some readers graduate of Columbia University usefulness? Robert Ettinger, by contrast, new to this view of “the future” will and resides in San Francisco with his argues in his writings9 that biologically want to unbundle the cryonics part from daughter and physician wife. The disadvantaged people don’t deserve death; the “something else,” namely Istvan’s Transhumanist Wager is his first novel. cryonics could give them a chance to philosophy of TEF, and examine cryonics (see http://www.goodreads.com/author/ enjoy better lives someday. The ordinary on its own terms.  show/7032826.Zoltan_Istvan, accessed guy could, upon revival, receive upgrades 4 Nov. 2013). to make him competitive with Ettinger’s example of Winston Churchill in his prime as a high-functioning individual. Istvan’s novel seems to reflect at least some of his real views, but I can’t tell how seriously he takes the parts about destroying religious and political institutions and exterminating the weak.

FOOTnotes 7. In The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand shows that the novel’s villain, Ellsworth Toohey, lives as a parasite on the minds of others 1. Mr. Istvan identifies his ethnicity as “American-Hungarian.” by having a home library and reading constantly. By contrast, 2. Zoltan Istvan: The Transhumanist Wager Is A Choice We’ll Rand’s heroes own few or no books, and apparently seldom All Have To Make. http://www.singularityweblog.com/ read anyway. zoltan-istvan-the-transhumanist-wager-is-a-choice-well-all- 8. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19229/19229-h/19229-h. have-to-make/ htm 3. http://www.simulet.com/2013/05/12/9-author-of- 9. For example, scroll down to “The Fallacy of Just-Freeze- the-transhumanist-wager-zoltan-istvan-on-the-techno- the-Elite”: http://www.cryonics.org/1chapter11.html optimist-podcast/ 10. See, for example: “The Transhumanist Wager and the terrifying 4. Go to YouTube and find the video of Istvan’s “volcano struggle for the future”: http://io9.com/the-transhumanist- boarding”! wager-and-the-terrifying-struggle-for-510012440 5. http://ziventures.com/ 6. http://ziventures.com/TranshumanistWager.html

20 Cryonics / November 2013 www.alcor.org

The Transhumanist Reader: Classical and Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology, and Philosophy of the Human Future

Edited by Max More and Natasha Vita-More (Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013).

Book Review by R. Michael Perry

he work under review is a hopes. Today we see such innovations might bring. In response a “precautionary compilation of writings about as self-driving automobiles, the cloning principle” has been proposed. It urges Tthe idea of transcending human of mammals, and surgical changes of that it is more important to prevent the limitations, such as aging and disabilities, gender, all of which are technological and, possibility of harm “to human health or to through advanced future technology, it appears, will soon be overshadowed by the environment” than to allow an activity something now called transhumanism. even greater accomplishments covering that might cause such harm. Prevention Different definitions of this concept these and many other facets of life. It is should follow, at least in one notable are offered, the best in my view for seriously proposed that the grand vision is version, “even if the causal link between the uninitiated being: “the intellectual not something to be realized only through the activity and the possible harm has not and cultural movement that affirms the divine or other outside help, at an unknown been proven or the causal link is weak and possibility and desirability of fundamentally future time when others besides ourselves the harm is unlikely to occur.” improving the human condition through deem it suitable, but something instead This line of thinking, needless to say, applied reason, especially by developing that we can realize for ourselves, as an will not get an enthusiastic endorsement and making widely available technologies outcome of our own, continuing advances. from transhumanists. Max More, in The to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance By “ourselves” the possibility is included Transhumanist Reader, offers a counter- human intellectual, physical, and that we individually will develop in the proposal, a “proactionary principle,” based psychological capacities.” To “eliminate course of our progress, through wisely on a careful assessment of benefits and risks. aging” should grant us near-immortality applied enhancements, to form an ever- Certainly we do not want to be recklessly (with time for additional progress). If we strengthening talent pool for engineering risk-prone, but also not foolishly fearful, add to that “great enhancement of human further advances. (Thus we may eventually forgoing advances that might benefit us intellectual, physical, and psychological be influential on an astronomical or cosmic greatly. Moreover, something of potentially capacities,” we are effectively transitioning scale, ever seeking more of a life with great enough benefit might justify taking to godhood. Is there something wrong meaning and purpose and reaching levels some extra, carefully considered risk. with this grand vision? It is, after all, really of advancement scarcely imaginable today.) Continuing technological innovation is vital nothing new in our thinking. Variations Such possibilities understandably raise and we do not want to block it for what, in of it have been wanted, sought, promised, concerns about misuse. Could more harm our best judgment, are insufficient reasons. and believed in, since time immemorial, than good follow from some technology A good, short statement of the principle and many cultures have approved or even that seems, on the face of it, to be of Max offers is: “Protect the freedom to demanded endorsement of one or another possibly great benefit? One such possibility, innovate and progress while thinking and of these variants. feared by some, is the elimination of planning intelligently for collateral effects.” The grand, transhumanist vision might aging or radical life extension, which is Those who are more fearful about the thus be naively supposed to be a fairly seen as leading to overpopulation with possible negative effects of advancing uncontroversial one, not arousing more its many attendant ills, including adverse technology than hopeful about the positive concern than the numerous immortality environmental impact affecting civilization effects will continue in their opposition to hopes that coexist in today’s world, many as a whole. Concerns extend more any suggestion of radical innovations that connected with ancient religious traditions. generally over a wide field of possible might impact human life. A few years ago But transhumanists have more than just new technologies with the changes they it seemed possible that such people might

22 Cryonics / November 2013 www.alcor.org gain enough influence to seriously impede which are current today, such as those progress. For example, Leon Kass, who connected to transgenderism (surgical Max More has was chairman of the (U.S.) President’s change of gender). In Part 8 “trajectories” a degree in Council on Bioethics 2001-20051 said, of progress are considered, mainly, the idea Philosophy, Politics, “… unqualified endorsement of medical that a “singularity” will occur, at which and Economics from progress, and the unlimited pursuit of point artificial intelligence exceeds the St. Anne’s College, longevity, cannot be the counsel of wisdom human level and society may have reached Oxford University ….”2 a level that is beyond our ability today to (1984-87). He The years since Kass’s Council tenure comprehend. The concluding Part 9 offers studied and taught have fortunately, by impression, not some thoughts on how awesome the philosophy at the witnessed any particularly virulent or transhumanist idea really is, a prospect of University of Southern California with mounting opposition to transhumanism. actually achieving ancient dreams and going an emphasis on philosophy of mind, Instead the subject appears to be slowly beyond them, that appears to be open to us ethics, and personal identity, completing gaining in acceptance and respectability, through nothing beyond our own, if very his Ph.D. in 1995, with a dissertation even as advancing technology is slowly considerable, efforts. that examined issues including the making the case for transhumanism more Overall I imagine the book will probably nature of death, and what it is about plausible, and able defenders are fielding serve as a reference, not something many each individual that continues despite questions and answering objections. The readers will devour cover-to-cover. But great change over time. A longtime Transhumanist Reader seems comfortably many parts might serve such purposes as cryonicist, Alcor Member, and cryonics situated within this positive evolutionary furnishing material for discussion groups, advocate, Max became Alcor’s CEO trend, a reference for the calm inquirer suggesting possibilities for advances, or in 2011. Marvin Minsky, “the father of more than either a revolutionary manifesto providing source material for studies of artificial intelligence,” said of Dr. More: or a beleaguered apology. With over 450 transhumanism. It is worth mentioning a “We have a dreadful shortage of people pages of closely-printed text it offers a forerunner, The Scientific Conquest of Death, who know so much, can both think linkup to many avenues of transhumanist edited by Bruce Klein, which explores so boldly and clearly, and can express thought, some of it stretching back two many of the themes in The Transhumanist themselves so articulately.” (http://www. decades, though not exactly light reading. Reader with some overlap of authors.3 alcor.org/AboutAlcor/meetalcorstaff. Much of this is speculation about what Also, the more recent study by George html, accessed 4 Nov. 2013) should or might be possible in the future, Young, The Russian Cosmists, explores the but some current practices such as cryonics movement of Cosmism in Russia, with its Natasha Vita-More also are treated. pervasive transhumanist component and is an American The book is divided into nine major the present strong focus of some activists designer and parts, each in turn consisting of several on anti-death technology, including theorist. She differently-authored chapters. Part 1 is, cryonics.4 Transhumanism and its literature received a doctorate appropriately, about “roots and core increasingly offer a new hope for the future from the Planetary themes,” keynoted by Max More’s chapter of humanity.  Collegium, University on the philosophy of transhumanism. of Plymouth, United Natasha Vita-More introduces the theme Kingdom. Her Ph.D. of aesthetics: “bringing the arts and design thesis focused on human enhancement into the discussion of transhumanism.” and radical life extension. She has a Next (Parts 2-3) is consideration of M.Phil. in Media Art & Design from enhancements, both somatic (body- the University of Plymouth, a M.Sc. in related) and cognitive. Core technologies Future Studies, University of Houston; expected to be important (nanotechnology and a B.F.A. in Fine Art, University in particular) are the subject of Part 4. Part ReferenceS of Memphis; and was filmmaker-in- 5 considers “identity and beyond death,” 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Kass, residence, University of Colorado. She including a chapter on cryonics by Brian accessed 11 Oct. 2013. also holds certificates in Physical Fitness Wowk and a more speculative chapter 2. http://www.youtube.com/ and Sports Nutrition from the American by Giulio Prisco on advanced future watch?v=3Wq6DI4XMwc, 7:35-7:43, Muscle and Fitness Association. In 1983, technology and whether it might bear on accessed 12 Aug. 2013. Vita-More authored the “Transhuman the problem of resurrecting all who have 3. Bruce J. Klein, ed., The Scientific Conquest Manifesto”; and founded Transhumanist lived. In Part 6 Max More and others of Death: Essays on Infinite Lifespans, Arts and Culture in 1993. She is address the problem of how to responsibly Birmingham, Ala.: Immortality Institute, a lecturer on transhumanism and approach the prospect of human 2004. longtime cryonicist and Alcor Member. enhancements and other benefits expected 4. George M. Young, The Russian Cosmists: Natasha and Max were married in 1996 from developing technology. (There the the Esoteric futurism of Nikolai Fedorov and at a Venturist wedding. (see http:// proactionary principle is presented.) Part His Followers, Oxford; New York: Oxford en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natasha_Vita- 7 is concerned with legal issues, some of University Press, 2012. More, accessed 4 Nov. 2013). www.alcor.org Cryonics / November 2013 23 Comment on review of The Transhumanist Reader

By Alcor CEO, Max More

iven the recent discussion of “Cryonics and something else,” I would like to add a comment to GMike Perry’s review of the book I co-edited. First, transhumanism has been an excellent source of members for Alcor. (In fact, Alcor’s founders were/are transhumanists.) This is likely to remain true in future. Second (and closely related), there is a natural connection between transhumanism—and its core goal of extending life—and cryonics. Cryonics can easily been seen as a natural accompaniment to other efforts to extend life.

“Cryonics can easily been seen as a natural accompaniment to other efforts to extend life.”

Third, it seems absurd to believe that we will be able to repair whatever led to clinical death plus the additional damage unavoidably done by the cryopreservation process plus reverse aging and yet not be able to enhance ourselves somatically, cognitively, or emotionally in any way. It would be difficult to make a plausible argument against the proposition that the workability of cryonics (at least as currently practiced) implies the workability of least a modest form of applied transhumanism. Finally, despite the natural and strong connections between a transhumanist perspective and the practice of cryonics, it is “We explain cryonics as essentially an important to understand that many people may see only part of the picture at a time, or may be uninterested in other parts of extension of emergency medicine. That requires the picture. We explain cryonics as essentially an extension of no support for or interest in any particular emergency medicine. That requires no support for or interest in any particular philosophy—just a desire to live and a belief philosophy – just a desire to live and a belief that our current techniques and future repair technologies make that our current techniques and future repair that possible. It would therefore be a mistake to talk about cryonics—outside of explicitly transhumanist forums—while technologies make that possible.” insisting that accepting its feasibility means that you must also be a transhumanist. That approach can only limit our appeal. 

24 Cryonics / November 2013 www.alcor.org Please go to this website for a full packet with all details and application forms:

http://www.alcor.org/YC5.pdf

www.alcor.org Cryonics / November 2013 25 Tech News Reported by R. Michael Perry

Flawed Diamonds Promise old mice, which develop thickened heart University of Texas Arlington Sensory Perfection walls in a manner similar to aging humans, 16 May 2013 the hearts were reduced in size and http://www.uta.edu/news/ From brain to heart to stomach, the thickness, resembling the healthy hearts releases/2013/05/optogenetic-stimulator. bodies of humans and animals generate of younger mice. Even more important php weak magnetic fields that a supersensitive than the implications for the treatment of detector could use to pinpoint illnesses, diastolic heart failure, the finding by Lee trace drugs—and maybe even read minds. and Wagers may ultimately rewrite our Viable Human Embryonic Stem Sensors no bigger than a thumbnail could understanding of aging. A report on Lee Cells Created By Cloning map gas deposits underground, analyze and Wagers’ findings was published May chemicals, and pinpoint explosives that 9 by the journal Cell. “The most common A paper in this week’s Cell describes how a hide from other probes. Now scientists at form of heart failure [in the elderly] is team in Oregon finally achieved what many the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence actually a form that’s not caused by heart scientists have expected—and many others Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley attacks but is very much related to the have dreaded: they derived embryonic Lab), the University of California at heart aging,” said Lee, who, like Wagers, is stem cells from human embryos that they Berkeley, and Harvard University, have a principal faculty member at HSCI. created in the lab themselves. Shoukhrat improved the performance of one of the Mitalipov and his team at Oregon Health most potent possible sensors of magnetic Harvard Gazette and Science University were able to fields on the nanoscale—a diamond defect 9 May 2013 generate the embryos through somatic no bigger than a pair of atoms, called a http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/ cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), otherwise nitrogen vacancy (NV) center. “The spin story/2013/05/making-old-hearts- known as cloning. Mitapilov and his team states of NV centers are stable across a younger/ took donated egg cells and swapped their wide range of temperatures from very nuclei for the nuclei of cells from fetal hot to very cold,” says Dmitry Budker of tissue. But there was an added twist, from Berkeley Lab’s Nuclear Science Division. Physicist’s Tool Has Potential an unlikely domestic source, caffeine. What Even tiny flecks of diamond costing for Brain Mapping is the immediate scientific importance of pennies per gram could be used as sensors Mitalipov’s breakthrough? It could have because, says Budker, “we can control the A new tool being developed by a University an impact on the research into induced number of NV centers in the diamond of Texas Arlington assistant professor of pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). These stem just by irradiating and baking it,” that is, physics could help scientists map and track cells do not require the use of human annealing it. the interactions between neurons inside embryos for their derivation, and they can different areas of the brain. The journal be generated from any cell in the adult body. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Optics Letters recently published a paper by If patient-specific stem cells made from 9 May 2013 Samarendra Mohanty on the development SCNT embryos turn out to be healthier http://newscenter.lbl.gov/feature- of a fiber-optic, two-photon, optogenetic and more robust than the “standard” stories/2013/05/09/flawed-diamonds/ stimulator and its use on human cells iPSCs, there could be a significant demand in a laboratory. The tiny tool builds on for SCNT-derived stem cells. Mohanty’s previous discovery that near- Making Old Hearts Younger infrared light can be used to stimulate a Forbes light-sensitive protein introduced into 17 May 2013 Two Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) living cells and neurons in the brain. This http://www.forbes.com/sites/ researchers—Amy Wagers, a stem cell new method could show how different johnfarrell/2013/05/17/viable-human- biologist and Richard T. Lee, a practicing parts of the brain react when a linked area embryonic-stem-cells-created-by-cloning/ cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s is stimulated. The technology would be Hospital—have identified a protein in useful in the BRAIN mapping initiative the blood of mice and humans that may recently championed by President Barack Molecular Trigger for prove to be the first effective treatment for Obama, Mohanty said. BRAIN stands Alzheimer’s Disease the form of age-related heart failure that for Brain Research through Advancing affects millions of Americans. When the Innovative Neurotechnologies and will Researchers have pinpointed a catalytic protein, called GDF-11, was injected into include $100 million in government trigger for the onset of Alzheimer’s investments in research.

26 Cryonics / November 2013 www.alcor.org disease—when the fundamental structure a novel, synthetic designed computing Engineered Stem Cell Advance of a protein molecule changes to cause a machine that computes iteratively and Points toward Treatment for chain reaction that leads to the death of produces biologically relevant results,” says neurons in the brain. For the first time, lead researcher Prof. Ehud Keinan of the ALS scientists at Cambridge’s Department of Technion Schulich Faculty of Chemistry. Chemistry, led by Dr. Tuomas Knowles, Transplantation of human stem cells in an Professor Michele Vendruscolo and Kevin Hattori, Technion-Israel experiment conducted at the University of Professor Chris Dobson working with Institute of Technology Wisconsin-Madison improved survival and Professor Sara Linse and colleagues at 23 May 2013 muscle function in rats used to model ALS, Lund University in Sweden have been http://www.ats.org/site/News2?page=Ne a nerve disease that destroys nerve control able to map in detail the pathway that wsArticle&id=7848&news_iv_ctrl=1161 of muscles, causing death by respiratory generates “aberrant” forms of proteins failure. ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) which are at the root of neurodegenerative is sometimes called “Lou Gehrig’s disease.” conditions such as Alzheimer’s. They According to the ALS Association, the Two Sons Have Deadly condition strikes about 5,600 Americans believe the breakthrough is a vital step Disease, Only One Can Get closer to increased capabilities for earlier each year. Only about half of patients are diagnosis of neurological disorders such ‘Miracle Drug’ alive three years after diagnosis. In work as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and opens recently completed at the UW School of up possibilities for a new generation Each day brings Jenn McNary another dose Veterinary Medicine, Masatoshi Suzuki, of targeted drugs, as scientists say they of hope and heartache as she watches one an assistant professor of comparative have uncovered the earliest stages of the son get healthier while the other becomes biosciences, and his colleagues used adult development of Alzheimer’s that drugs sicker. Both of McNary’s sons were born stem cells from human bone marrow could possibly target. with Duchene muscular dystrophy. Max, and genetically engineered the cells to 11, is receiving an experimental therapy produce compounds called growth factors Cambridge University that appears to be making him better, while that can support damaged nerve cells. 21 May 2013 14-year-old Austin is slowly dying. Austin The researchers then implanted the cells http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/ was too sick to be included in the clinical directly into the muscles of rats that were scientists-identify-molecular-trigger-for- trials for a promising new drug called genetically modified to have symptoms and alzheimers-disease Eteplirsen. “He can’t get into a chair, out nerve damage resembling ALS. of his wheelchair, into his bed and onto the toilet,” McNary told NBC’s Janet Shamlian. Eurekalert / University of Wisconsin- Max, however, was exactly what researchers Madison Advanced Biological Computer were looking for. He was put on Eteplirsen, 28 May 2013 and now he’s back to running around, http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_ Using only biomolecules (such as DNA and climbing stairs and even playing soccer. releases/2013-05/uow-esc052413.php enzymes), scientists at the Technion-Israel Eteplirsen is designed to partially repair Institute of Technology have developed one of the common genetic mutations that and constructed an advanced biological causes DMD. Even a partial repair may be transducer, a computing machine capable How Computers Can Learn enough to improve life for boys struck by Better of manipulating genetic codes, and using the condition, which results from a defect the output as new input for subsequent in the dystrophin gene. The FDA tells NBC At the Association for Uncertainty in computations. The breakthrough might that it is currently reviewing the application someday create new possibilities in Artificial Intelligence’s annual conference for accelerated approval of the drug for this summer, researchers from MIT’s biotechnology, including individual gene general clinical use. therapy and cloning. The findings appear Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) and Computer Science today (May 23, 2013) in Chemistry & Biology Linda Carroll, TODAY (Cell Press). Interest in such biomolecular and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory will 27 May 2013 present a new reinforcement-learning computing devices is strong, mainly because http://www.today.com/health/moms- of their ability (unlike electronic computers) algorithm that, for a wide range of problems, heartache-two-sons-have-deadly-disease- allows computer systems to find solutions to interact directly with biological systems only-one-can-6C10077829 and even living organisms. No interface much more efficiently than previous is required since all components of algorithms did. The paper also represents molecular computers, including hardware, the first application of a new programming software, input and output, are molecules framework that the researchers developed, that interact in solution. “Our results show which makes it much easier to set up and

www.alcor.org Cryonics / November 2013 27 run reinforcement-learning experiments. Monash University of a patient with end-stage kidney disease. Alborz Geramifard, a LIDS postdoc and 30 May 2013 The procedure, the first U.S. clinical trial first author of the new paper, hopes that the http://www.monash.edu.au/news/show/ to test the safety and effectiveness of the software, dubbed RLPy (for reinforcement fish-study-raises-hopes-for-spinal-cord- bioengineered blood vessel, is a milestone learning and Python, the programming injury-repair in the field of tissue engineering. The new language it uses), will allow researchers vein is an off-the-shelf, human cell-based to more efficiently test new algorithms product with no biological properties and compare algorithms’ performance on New Resin for Making that would cause organ rejection. Using different tasks. It could also be a useful tool Electrodes uses Lasers for 3-D technology developed at Duke and at a spin- for teaching computer-science students off company it started called Humacyte, the about the principles of reinforcement Micromolding vein is engineered by cultivating donated learning. human cells on a tubular scaffold to form A new resin material that can be molded into a vessel. The vessel is then cleansed of Larry Hardesty / MIT News Office complex, highly conductive 3-D structures the qualities that might trigger an immune 29 May 2013 with features just a few microns across response. In pre-clinical tests, the veins http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/ has been developed by Tokyo Institute of have performed better than other synthetic machine-learning-algorithm-outperforms- Technology and C-MET, Inc. Combined and animal-based implants. “This is a predecessors-0529.html with state-of-the-art micro-sculpting pioneering event in medicine,” said Jeffrey techniques, the new resin holds promise H. Lawson, M.D., PhD., a vascular surgeon for making customized electrodes for fuel and vascular biologist at Duke Medicine cells or batteries, or biosensor interfaces Fish Study Raises Hopes for who helped develop the technology and for medical uses. The research team, which performed the implantation. Spinal Cord Injury Repair includes physicists and chemists from Yokohama National University, presents Scientists have unlocked Duke Medicine News and its results in a paper just published in Communications the secrets of the zebra the Optical Society’s (OSA) open-access fish’s ability to heal its 6 Jun. 2013 journal Optical Materials Express. “One of http://www.dukehealth.org/health_ spinal cord after injury, the most promising applications is 3-D in research that could library/news/surgeons-at-duke-university- microelectrodes that could interface with hospital-implant-bioengineered-vein deliver therapy for paraplegics the brain,” says Yuya Daicho, graduate and quadriplegics in the future. A team student at Yokohama National University from Monash University’s Australian and lead author of the paper. These Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI), brain interfaces, rows of needle-shaped led by Dr. Yona Goldshmit and Professor electrodes pointing in the same direction Peter Currie, discovered the role of a like teeth on combs, can send or receive protein in the remarkable self-healing electrical signals from neurons and can ability of the fish. The findings, detailed in be used for deep brain stimulation and The Journal of Neuroscience, could eventually other therapeutic interventions to treat lead to ways to stimulate spinal cord disorders such as epilepsy, depression, and regeneration in humans. Professor Currie Parkinson’s disease. said when the spinal cord is severed in humans and other mammals, the immune Kurzweil AI system kicks in, activating specialized cells 31 May 2013 called glia to prevent bleeding into it. “Glia http://www.kurzweilai.net/a-new- are the workmen of nervous system. The material-for-3d-printing-electrodes glia proliferate, forming bigger cells that span the wound site in order to prevent bleeding into it. They come in and try to U.S. Surgeons Implant sort out problems. A glial scar forms,” Professor Currie said. However, the scar Bioengineered Vein prevents axons of neighboring nerve cells from penetrating the wound. (Axons are In a first-of-its-kind operation in the United threadlike structures of nerve cells that States, a team of doctors at Duke University carry impulses to the brain.) Hospital helped create a bioengineered blood vessel and transplanted it into the arm

28 Cryonics / November 2013 www.alcor.org Membership Statistics

2013 JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC Members 981 983 985 974 980 982 980 967 Patients 114 115 117 117 117 117 117 117 Associate 37 40 42 44 45 49 51 52 Total 1132 1138 1144 1135 1142 1148 1148 1136

International MembersPatients Country

Aruba 1 0 Australia 13 0 Canada 40 1 Denmark 1 0 Germany 4 0 Israel 1 0 Italy 2 1 Number of Alcor members Japan 1 1 Lebanon 1 0 Mexico 4 0 Monaco 2 0 Netherlands 2 0 New Zealand 2 0 Norway 1 0 Portugal 4 0 Spain 2 0 Thailand 3 0 United Arab Emirates 1 0 United Kingdom 21 0

Number of Alcor patients TOTAL 106 3 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 the Alcor’s Emergency Response capability includes specially trained technicians and Portland area is Chana de Wolf: chana. customized equipment in Arizona, northern California, southern California, and [email protected]. south Florida, as well as many additional certified technicians on-call around the United States. Alcor’s Arizona facility includes a full-time staff, and the Patient ALCOR PORTUGAL Care Bay is personally monitored 24 hours a day. Alcor Portugal is working to have good stabilization and transport capabilities. The ARIZONA October. A CryoFeast is held once a year. group meets every Saturday for two hours. Flagstaff: For information on Northern California For information about meetings, contact Arizona without the inferno. Cryonics meetings, call Mark Galeck at (408) 245- Nuno Martins at n-martins@n-martins. group in beautiful, high-altitude Flagstaff. 4928 or email [email protected]. com. The Alcor Portugal website is: www. Two-hour drive to Alcor. Contact eric@ alcorportugal.com. flagstaffcryo.com for more information. FLORIDA Central Florida Life Extension group TEXAS Scottsdale: meets once a month in the Tampa Bay Dallas: This group meets the third Friday of area (Tampa and St. Petersburg) for North Texas Cryonauts, please sign up each month and gatherings are hosted at discussion and socializing. The group for our announcements list for meetings a home near Alcor. To RSVP, visit http:// has been active since 2007. Email (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ cryonics.meetup.com/45/. [email protected] for more cryonauts-announce) or contact David information. Wallace Croft at (214) 636-3790 for details At Alcor: of upcoming meetings. Alcor Board of Directors Meetings and NEW ENGLAND Facility Tours—Alcor business meetings are Cambridge: Austin/Central Texas: generally held on the first Saturday of every The New England regional group We meet at least quarterly for training, month starting at 11:00 AM MST. Guests strives to meet monthly in Cambridge, transport kit updates, and discussion. For are welcome to attend the fully-public board MA—for information or to be added information: Steve Jackson, 512-447-7866, meetings on odd-numbered months. Facility to the Alcor NE mailing list, please [email protected]. tours are held every Tuesday and Friday contact Bret Kulakovich at 617-824-8982, at 2:00 PM. For more information or to [email protected], or on UNITED KINGDOM schedule a tour, call Marji Klima at (877) FACEBOOK via the Cryonics Special There is an Alcor chapter in England. 462-5267 x101 or email [email protected]. Interest Group. For information about meetings, contact Alan Sinclair at [email protected]. CALIFORNIA PACIFIC NORTHWEST See the web site at www.alcor-uk.org. Los Angeles: Cryonics Northwest holds regular Alcor Southern California Meetings— meetings for members of all cryonics For information, call Peter Voss at organizations living in the Pacific Northwest. (310) 822-4533 or e-mail him at peter@ For information about upcoming optimal.org. Although monthly meetings meetings and events go to: http://www. are not held regularly, you can meet Los facebook.com/cryonics.northwest Angeles Alcor members by contacting Peter. A Yahoo mailing list is also maintained for cryonicists in the Pacific Northwest San Francisco Bay: at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ Alcor Northern California Meetings are CryonicsNW/. held quarterly in January, April, July, and

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!

30 Cryonics / November 2013 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 $10/month (or $30/quarter or $120 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 ($10/month or $30/quarter or $120 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 best chance at achieving future immortality is to protect the latest vitamins and supplements, backed by scientific your precious health now so you can benefit from future medical research and available through a unique buyers club. breakthroughs. Staying informed about the latest health discoveries can mean the difference between life and premature death. FREE BONUS!

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Mention Code: PIM