Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Cryonics ALCOR FM2030 PDF
Cryonics ALCOR FM2030 PDF
v Columns v
For the Record: The Mystery of the Non-Signups....................28
TechNews.....................................................................55
Now, we are asking you to join the Millers’ gesture of support and their confidence in our
future by adding your own contribution to this important membership-building campaign.
Your dollars will enable us to communicate our story in a positive and compelling manner,
develop marketing materials that will reflect Alcor’s professionalism, and create a presence
at important meetings where we can exchange information with scientists from around the
world.
We have set our goal at the $200,000 level for the year 2000. With your help, we will quickly reach this
important milestone. If you agree that we need to build the Alcor membership, for greater strength and safety,
now is the time to give a contribution that will truly make a difference.
Donations of more than $1,000 will receive honorable mention in the pages of this publication. We ask you to
help support what the Miller family has started by adding your own contribution.
If you need tax deductions for the year 2000, this is the time to take such a deduction and make a major
contribution toward your own long-term survival at the same time!
Help make all of this possible! Send your donations for the marketing project today.
Please send your marketing donations (checks made payable to “Alcor”) to Linda Chamberlain,
Alcor Life Extension Foundation, 7895 E. Acoma Dr., Suite 110, Scottsdale, AZ 85260
glycerol, frozen, and then thawed. initely. Unlike an insect in amber, striking. Vitrification essentially
Numerous voids are present on a even the cytoplasm inside cells stops biology “in place” (Figure 1c)
cellular scale where ice crystals without any structural damage.
formed and then melted. Further- Figure 3 shows rabbit kidneys that
more, glycerol becomes freeze- have been frozen (left) vs. vitrified
concentrated in the areas between (right). Both kidneys are at a
ice crystals, resulting in fatal temperature of -130° C, and are
cellular toxicity. This combination rigid solids. Yet the vitrified kidney
of structural damage and toxicity looks essentially normal. The
makes recovery of frozen neural electron micrographs of Fig. 2
tissue impossible with current show the difference between brain
technology. Fig. 1c tissue that has been cooled to -80° C
Vitrification offers a solution to turns to glass so that biological time and then rewarmed after treatment
these problems. If a very high con- is truly stopped. with a freezing solution (2a) vs.
centration of cryoprotectant is The biological difference vitrification solution (2b). The brain
rapidly cooled, the mixture can between freezing and vitrification is treated with the vitrification solu-
cool to any temperature without
forming ice. Water molecules sim-
ply don’t have time to find enough
of one another among the cryopro-
tectant molecules to form ice. The
water/cryoprotectant mixture just
becomes more and more viscous,
like cold syrup. Finally, at tem-
peratures below the “glass transi-
tion” temperature (typically near
-120° C), the mixture solidifies into
a hard glass. This is vitrification. If
cells and tissues are saturated with
the mixture, they are incorporated
into this glass like an insect in
amber and can remain stable indef-
Fig. 3
tion shows essentially no structural occurred within the past two years recently showed that a similar
disruption except for mild, revers- that dramatically change the pros- cryoprotectant formula permitted
ible dehydration. Published “freeze pects of successfully vitrifying the vitrification and rewarming of
substitution” electron micrographs large systems. First, scientists con- rat hippocampal brain slices with a
of vitrified blood vessels confirm ducting conventional organ preser- viability equal to 53% of untreated
that cooling all the way to -130° C vation research at 21st Century controls. While the formula that will
results in no structural damage to Medicine, Inc. (21CM), have be used on cryopatients is more
tissues treated with vitrification discovered new cryoprotectant concentrated than the one used in
solutions. mixtures with drastically reduced these experiments, there is still
toxicity compared to previously good reason to believe that partial
Recent Breakthroughs known solutions. Second, 21CM viability of brain tissue will be
has also discovered chemical retained during cryopatient vitrifi-
The primary problem with additives (“ice blockers”) that cation. There is no question that the
vitrification that has prevented significantly reduce the concentra- viability will be higher than what is
widespread application is cryopro- tion of cryoprotectants required for now being achieved with glycerol.
tectant toxicity. Small systems such vitrification. Third, Alcor itself has The new vitrification procedure to
as embryos and heart valves can be developed a new method for be used on cryopatients will there-
cooled and rewarmed rapidly, external cooling of cryopatients that fore eliminate structural injury and
which reduces the concentration cools neuropatients approximately increase cellular viability at the
(and toxicity) of cryoprotectants ten times faster than previous same time.
required to achieve vitrification. methods. These developments now
Large systems with slow heat appear to make possible what was Optimum Storage Temperature
transfer, such as organs, require previously only dreamed of: com-
toxic concentrations of cryoprotec- plete ice-free preservation of Vitrified systems will fracture
tants to achieve vitrification. For cryopatients. (break into pieces) if cooled to
objects as large as cryopatients, 21CM has licensed a variant of liquid nitrogen temperature
heat transfer is so slow, and the their new low-toxicity vitrification (-196°C). Fracturing is also known
necessary cryoprotectant concentra- formulas to BioTransport, Inc., for to occur in conventionally frozen
tions so large, that a vitrifiable use with Alcor cryopatients. The patients during descent to liquid
concentration of glycerol cannot Hippocampal Slice Cryopreser- nitrogen temperature. With frozen
even be perfused into cryopatients vation Project, conducted by the patients this has not been a concern
due to viscosity limitations. Institute for Neural Cryobiology because the damage caused by ice
Three breakthroughs have (INC) in cooperation with 21CM, crystals is much more severe than
A schematic representation of tissue Transmission electron micrographs of Frozen (left) and vitrified (right) rabbit
that is (a) frozen with a low concentra- brain tissue cooled to -80°C and re- kidneys cooled to -130°C. Both
tion of cryoprotectant, (b) frozen with warmed. Micrograph (a) is a canine brain kidneys are embedded in a vitrifica-
a high concentration of cryoprotec- treated with 7.5 Molar glycerol cryopro- tion solution. Only the vitrified
tant, and (c) vitrified. The vitrified tectant, the highest concentration of gly- kidney, having itself turned into a
tissue is indistinguishable from the cerol that can be perfused into a cryonics glass, remains undamaged inside the
unfrozen state, except that all transla- patient. Large voids are present where surrounding glassy solution.
tional molecular motion is stopped. frozen/thawed ice crystals have disrupted
cell structure. Micrograph (b) is a rabbit
brain treated with a vitrification solution.
This brain has completely escaped
damage from ice crystals.
A Tribute to FM-2030
FM-2030 natives of cryostasis and conven- strongly to others that they would
Now Hurtling into the Future tional interment. join with him in his journey toward
by Fred Chamberlain FM was frustrated and incredu- the future.
lous. He looked about the room and But, as might happen with any
FM-2030’s Visions—Overpowering! threw up his hands. “You people!” of us, time ran out. Before the
he exclaimed. “In this very room, promotional programs FM envi-
The visions of the future held by
thirty years ago, you would come sioned could be carried out, before
FM-2030 were strong. So strong
each month and hear Saul Kent tell he could recruit his many friends
and so positive, perhaps, that they
you that you should be signed up! and family to join him in making
might have almost been paralyzing
And you are still not signed up!” prearrangements, an illness over-
to most of those who read what he
To FM, the course of action was took him. Although all of those
wrote and heard what he said. For
obvious. To those around him, it caring for him hoped for a recov-
decades, those who followed him
might as well have been invisible. ery, a sudden turn for the worse
saw the future unfolding just as he
brought FM-2030 down. Standby
told them it might. Yet almost none
FM-2030’s Loyalties to arrangements had been discussed,
of them elected to make the ar-
His Followers—Unswerving! but none had as yet been made. As
rangements for cryotransport that
too often happens, FM passed into
he so vigorously advocated. The events described above may
clinical death with no Alcor mem-
In the fall of 1997, Linda have frustrated FM, but they did not
bers present. And the logistics of
Chamberlain and I had the privilege deter him. Each time he called us at
retrieving him from New York City
of visiting with FM and a number Alcor, and he called many times,
were complicated.
of his friends who had gathered to there was one question on his mind:
hear about a company just then how could he better bring the vi-
FM-2030’s Launch
forming, BioTransport, Inc. They sion of prearrangements for cryo-
toward the Future
were curious about cryotransport stasis to those he knew?
but skeptical about the price. He talked of starting new A full technical report on FM-
Knowing full well that even a heart groups in the locations he lived, of 2030’s cryotransport will appear in
bypass operation would cost as building strong networks among a future issue of Cryonics. This is
much, they asked why the arrange- those who shared his ideas. In merely an overview. Yet, the
ments could not be offered more particular, a summer gathering in essence of what happened will be
cheaply. They were looking for New York devoted to the benefits the most important part for you
more in the way of guarantees that of prearrangements for all those he who are reading this. FM-2030
it would “work.” In short, their knew was an obsession with FM- appeared destined to receive only
perceptions were like those of most 2030. He was determined to bring straight cooling without cryopro-
people who contemplate the alter- this vision of what made sense so tection, due to unfavorable initial
*****
You can find FM on the Internet at:
http://www.transhuman.org
or
http://www.FM-2030.com
FM-2030 in 1995
l
Saturday evening’s talk by built-in talent currently sepa- more intertwined with technology
Natasha Vita-More, “A Talent for rates us from other life forms. and how we are growing “out of”
Living: Cracking the Myths of It is our native, intrinsic talent, what we are at present and into
Mortality” was followed by a panel calling for the creative chal- what we may become.
discussion moderated by Natasha lenge to do something— The rapidly changing animated
and featuring Max More, Ralph anything—as long as we are graphics Natasha used were inter-
Merkle, and Gregory Fahy “doing.” To be, we must do. If woven with poetic narrative. The
“To be or not to be!” Natasha not, we are busy dying.” message (to me) was “There’s so
quoted from Hamlet, Act III, Scene much more to life than we know, or
I. “That is the question. Whether can plan, or can even imagine, that
‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the to write it off as not worth pursuing
slings and arrows of outrageous endlessly makes no sense!”
fortune, or to take arms against a That’s not what Natasha said, of
sea of troubles and by opposing, course, but that’s where the flow of
end them.” phrases and images took me. You’ll
Then she continued (transform- have to be the judge, by buying a
ing Shakespeare’s original words), copy of the videotape when Alcor
“To die or to be suspended, and by releases it for sale, along with other
ending death to say, ‘We end the Natasha Vita-More tapes of the conference.
heartaches and the thousand natural For Natasha it is a matter of
shocks that flesh is heir to.’ ‘Tis “The modern question: ‘What changing technologies and chal-
nobler to defy the claims of death do you do’ has become the ancil- lenging cultural myths.
on our mortal minds, and to take lary, although most socially re-
arms against its eternal hold, and by peated question in the English “Most of my communications
opposing death, end it.” language. What do we do for a are alphabetical letters ar-
Natasha proceeded to explore living has become the sine qua non ranged into words written in
the common mentality of for our lives. So much so, that what strings of algorithmic codes....
Shakespeare’s widely repeated we do for a living characterizes our When I think of our culture, I
phrase, “To be or not to be,” life’s role. Yet, take the letter ‘a’ see it as a body of electroni-
pointing out that it has to do with out of the question,” Natasha said, cally connected data filtering
life or death: and the meaning broadens (from messages into its appendages.
“livelihood”) to every aspect of Out into the capillaries of
“To be—to live—is what we what we do and seek to become. culture, our technology has
do. It is our talent, our busi- Essentially, she asked, “What are become far more exacting and
ness, and our pursuit of well we doing about life?” And then she more robust than our biologi-
being which we must carry began to explore how our commu- cal bodies. Our biological
out. The refinement of this nication pathways steadily become bodies are far too inadequate
Robert Newport
The following is the text of a paper presented at the Fourth Alcor Conference on Life Extension Technologies, Asilomar, Calif., June 2000.
Immortality looms! We stand at ness of the body), while our So why doesn’t it look like it, why
the threshold of a new age for thoughts about ourselves are not. doesn’t it feel like it, and why,
mankind. Antiquity, the Middle That is, the Fear of Death provides especially in a matter so fundamen-
Ages, the Renaissance, the Indus- polluted data, which interferes with tal as preserving and extending life,
trial Age, the Information Age, and our ability to be fully alive and don’t we act like it?
now, at last, the Age of Immortal- prevents our making rational I think that, again stretching the
ity. Or almost—not quite yet. decisions about our own lives. definitions, all of us are in the
Nanomedicine is only a con- Irrational behavior is nothing ultimate sense, very rational. We
cept, and its parent; nanotechnolo- new. Irrational thinking is nothing survive; we live; we provide for our
gy, is still in its infancy. Many, new either. We all do both. Those food, clothing, and shelter; we
many more people will die before in the scientific disciplines work interact with other people; and we
the monthly tune-up dose of very hard at not thinking irratio- perpetuate our species. (Those of
biobots eliminates aging as well as nally and subject their work to peer you who do AI, have some idea of
incipient disease. Nanotechnolo- review in order to root out those what it takes to manage the machin-
gical treatments for advanced irrationalities that slip by. And yet, ery as complicated as the human
illness and injury have not yet been we are capable of logic and strive body and brain). So, how does this
described, even conceptually. The to be logical. Star Trek’s Mr. Spock work? As a living organism our
general public knows very little is known to most of us and held in first priority is to live. We are
about this field, although the high esteem; in fact he has become endowed with multiple redundan-
scientific and technological com- a cultural hero. This is so because, cies, and homeostasis is the healing
munities are awash in information. for most of us, most of the time we principle that applies to all life
Cryonics is another story. do not think logically at all; e.g., we forms. So, again how does an ac-
Everybody knows about freezing do not think according to clear-cut tion, like not signing up for cryon-
people, at least in Los Angeles. So rules that result in a valid conclu- ics, or maybe a simpler example,
why, at least, haven’t the scientists sion. being too tired to exercise, which I
and technologists lined up at our As for our behavior, well, we think is analogous, fit into this
doorstep to sign up? And, most don’t even pretend to behave rational schema of survival?
important, why do many that have rationally. We are driven by emo- So far I have been talking
signed up lose their interest and fall tions and those are irrational, as about people as if they were or had
out of the program? In other words, everyone knows, right? Wrong. a unitary or whole self. When you
why do people behave irrationally? Both are wrong. We do behave meet someone, you might say, “I
These are the questions that I rationally (most of the time), and am so and so, who are you?” and
am going to attempt to answer here. our emotions have their own logic. they will respond, “I am so and so,
My hypothesis is: The process of (I am stretching the definitions here nice to meet you.” Now, So and So
drawing valid conclusions depends a bit, using rational to mean pro- 1 is acquainted with So and So 2,
on a supply of accurate data. ceeding to accomplish established and what just exactly do they know
Emotion is an indispensable part of goals in a manner, which is suc- about each other? Other than their
the necessary data set (as is aware- cessful, and logic to mean order). names, So and So 1 and 2, not
This past spring, as part of my inducement for membership packet, I received a copy of Alcor’s “Cryonics: Reaching for
Tomorrow” (CRFT). And you will recall this writer lauded it in this very column (3rd Qtr., 2000 issue). After signing on for
suspension and, however precipitously, infusing myself into the movement, it became presbyoptically clarion that after seven
cacaphonus years CRFT required a revision.
Scintillating progress in two specific areas of circumscribed concern highlighted the requisition—nanotechnology and
vitrification. Linda and Fred Chamberlain have lent their (usual) invaluable expertise to the revision project, while Rob Freitas and
Rudi Hoffman are on deck for consultation on two of the four remaining unwritten chapters.
Work has been steadily progressing for five months, and I anticipate its completion in late January 2001. Originally slated to
be titled, “Immortality for Beginners,” I have been persuaded by a new Alcor member, my daughter Jessica Lemler, to consider,
“Dewar Unto Others: The Alcor Life Extension Foundation Biostasis Membership Manual.” I welcome your feedback on either of
these prospective titles—or any others you might suggest.
I am positively humbled by Fred Chamberlain’s recent comment that, “This revision of CRFT is supposed to be the great jump
forward needed to encompass both nanotechnology and improved ways of getting people into cryostasis.” Mr. President, I aim to
make you proud.
Much of the final product is new and original material, with a like portion of face-lifting previously published data. Below is
chapter one, “You Only Go Around Twice,” and as you biostat buffs will likely recognize, it is but a slight reworking of CRFT’s
chapter one, “A New Medical Imperative.”
My thanks go out to all who have and are helping with this important project, including my bride of 30 years, Paula. Enjoy!
You Only Go Around Twice stances would herald the end of life. The middle-aged heart attack
For tens of thousands who lie in similar victim, the elderly woman dying of
The time is now. conditions in hospitals and nursing pneumonia, and the immunocom-
A 52-year-old man has suffered a homes around the world, death is but promised AIDS patient each had the
heart attack. Deprived of its vital blood hours or minutes away. Today’s courage, the vision, and the initiative to
supply, a part of his heart is failing. medicine is powerless to repair the provide for cryonic suspension back
The exhausted muscle no longer pumps damage done to their bodies by disease when they were still healthy and able to
an adequate amount of blood, and a or trauma. All it can do is give up and do so. While their contemporaries will
catastrophic downward spiral begins.... wait to pronounce such patients dead. be abandoned in the face of obstacles
In another city an 83-year-old But these three people are not the that today’s medicine cannot overcome,
woman lies nearly motionless in her stuff of statistics in the next day’s these three people will continue to be
nursing-home bed. Advanced age, newspapers. Long before illnesses or cared for. As a consequence, they will
complicated by pneumonia, is about to injuries put them on death’s doorstep, have a priceless opportunity—the
stop her heart.... they had the foresight to understand chance to reach tomorrow’s medicine.
Across town a 29-year-old man has that physicians in the decades to come As each of these three patients
just entered an emergency room with a would not consider their condition slides into a deepening coma, their
massive system-wide infection. AIDS terminal at all. The medical technology physicians decide they can no longer
has left his body ravaged by multiple of the future undoubtedly will, in fact,
disease organisms.... be able to reverse the damage to their
For most people these circum- bodies. (continued on page 32)
by Michael R. Seidl
One of the most remarkable things more and some less, psychologically like to not die. The people of flatland
I have found about most cryonicists traumatized by the imminence of death, cannot conceive of a world of three
(myself included) is the almost blasé and even the promise of cryopreser- dimensions;2 people in a world where
way we discuss the possibilities of vation has not helped us past that time’s arrow falls to earth for each of
cryopreservation, as if it were nothing trauma, has not yet allowed us to us individually cannot imagine that
more than an alternative funerary formulate a life-affirming language of arrow’s perpetual flight. As cryonicists,
practice or another item in any soundly real enthusiasm for immortality. The we are people presently condemned to
thinking person’s insurance program. proposition that I am making is really death who have heard that it may be
This matter-of-factness is useful when very simple—we do not properly possible to elude death, but we have
dealing with new potential converts understand the impact of the knowl- not seen a world without death, do not
because it counterbalances a proposal edge of death upon people, but, among experience it yet ourselves, have
(cryopreservation) that seems almost other things, it seems to constrain our evolved no language to explore it or
intuitively wacky simply because it ability to conceptualize immortality. tools to measure it. Of course we are
differs so radically from what most of For most of us, the occasion when somewhat blasé in discussing cryon-
the world thinks and practices. Making we first understood that people die, that ics—what’s to get excited about? We
cryonics mundane helps to ground all things die, is lost to childhood do not and cannot really know; more-
potential converts quickly in the (Freud might say it has been re- over, we seem to sense that the
concrete world of fact and to counter- pressed). The certainty of our deaths, conceptualizations that we have about
act the response that we expect so the very fragility of our being, is so immortality are flawed.
seemingly radical a program to draw patent and omnipresent that, as a Humanity has put forth many ideas
from the uninformed.1 But the useful- psychological defense, we live our days of what immortality would be like, all
ness of the matter-of-fact approach in mostly as if we will live forever. But of which, upon reflection, are varia-
those circumstances does not explain this pseudo-sense of immortality is no tions on the same theme. In the worst-
why we remain so matter of fact even more a real conception of immortality case scenario, immortality is the curse
when speaking to others involved with than a neurotic’s sense of control over of the Cumaen Sibyl, condemned to
or already interested in cryopreser- his or her environment that arises from live on and on, shriveling, collapsing
vation. I think the reason many obsessive-compulsive practices is actual under age until her only desire is to
cryonicists are so blasé about cryo- control over that environment. Instead, die. The Cumaen Sibyl story is (ironi-
preservation in all circumstances is our knowledge of the certainty of our cally) the story of immortality without
more than marketing, more than a own deaths, gleaned at an age that wisdom, life for life’s sake without an
learned approach to communicating a makes that certainty seem natural and eye to the quality of life; it arises
seemingly strange idea to an unrecep- inescapable and then repeatedly naturally in the mind of anyone who
tive world. I think the moderation we sugared-over with defense mechanisms has begun to feel the effects of age.
bring to discussions of cryopreser- and repression to make the real horror Live forever? That’s a horrible propo-
vation is a result of not being able to of that certainty somehow palatable— sition, for my bones to ache more each
really grasp what the possibility of makes it almost impossible for us to year, my hearing and eyesight to get
immortality means. We are all, some accurately conceive of what it would be worse, more friends to die, my mind to
(Lemler; continued from page 31) end of the 21st century, medicine each person are complete and un-
becomes a science fully capable of changed. They are essentially the same
healing and resuscitation at the level of people they were. The only difference
keep him or her alive. Breathing and the cell. Health care finally matures is that they are again alive, healthy, and
heartbeat cease. The heart attack patient into a technology capable of the ready to face the challenges of an
is vigorously resuscitated, but today’s prevention and treatment of all major exciting new world.
medicine cannot restore him to life. diseases and injuries, including the Who are these three people? Is
The elderly woman and the AIDS changes that occur with aging. Indefi- their story merely science fiction or
patient are allowed to slip into cardiac nite youth and health become the wishful fantasy?
arrest quietly—their physicians decided birthright of every person. Human life No, it isn’t. They are members of
long ago that resuscitation would be spans are open-ended and are measured the Alcor Life Extension Foundation.
pointless, since they are powerless to in terms of centuries instead of de- They share in Alcor’s vision of a
reverse the underlying diseases, cades. technology with the potential to treat
advanced age and AIDS. Each of the three people in suspen- almost any terminal condition: a future
As soon as heartbeat and breathing sion is removed from the protective medical technology of such power that
cease, a Transport Team from the biostatic environment. First, the it can profoundly affect our lives
Alcor Life Extension Foundation takes freezing-induced damage and age- today. This book is about that technol-
over the care of each patient. Circula- associated deterioration are repaired. ogy and about the revolution and
tion and breathing are artificially The damaged organs and tissues of the prognosis it implies for almost all of
restored, and the patients are cooled heart attack victim, the elderly nursing today’s “hopeless” patients. In the
and transported to Alcor’s facilities. home resident, and the AIDS patient pages ahead, a seemingly fantastic
The patients are treated with drugs to are repaired and replaced, and they are proposal will be made: that by virtue of
minimize freezing injury, and then are restored to a youthful, healthy condi- future medical capabilities, present
further cooled to the boiling point of tion. medicine may have to lose almost no
liquid nitrogen (-320° F, -196° C). When the patients awaken, nothing one.
Unconscious, unchanging, and in no about them is time-ravaged. They have
pain or discomfort, these three insight- the faces and bodies of teenagers. Their l
ful individuals wait with others who skin is smooth and unwrinkled, and
have chosen this daring option. Medical their minds are clearer and more active
progress continues, and there is grow- than they ever were during their first
ing understanding of control of and youth.
control over the living world. By the The memories and personalities of
Alcor’s Mission:
The Preservation
Alcor Update
of Individual Lives
Medical Director:
Thomas Munson, MD
Medical
Advisory Board: Linda Chamberlain
Terry Grossman, MD
G. Mario Isidron,
Ravin Jain,
MD
MD
Executive Director
Jerry Lemler, MD
Robert R. Newport, MD
Anthony Pizzaro, MD
Medical Director:
Thomas Munson, M.D.
Medical
Advisory Board:
Terry Grossman, MD
G. Mario Isidron, MD
Ravin Jain, MD
Jerry Lemler, MD
Robert R. Newport, MD
Anthony Pizarro, MD
To have a free information Call Toll-Free
package mailed to you: 1-877-462-5267
Scientific
email: info@alcor.org Advisory Board:
website: http://www.alcor.org K. Eric Drexler, PhD
Bart Kosko, PhD
Alcor Life Extension Foundation James B. Lewis,
Ralph Merkle,
PhD
PhD
Recognized as the Industry Leader with Marvin Minsky, PhD
30 years of experience
A combination ACT-B/ACT-A
recertification course was also held
in late August. The following team
members recertified at the ad-
vanced level (ACT-A):
* * * * *
Response Capability
Expansion
Important Research and the Alcor Board of Directors We naturally want the advances
Breakthroughs has given them due consideration. in technology. We would all like to
Alcor does not want to see any of see true suspended animation (the
our members in a situation where ability to be placed into biostasis
As Alcor Members are becoming
they may have been paying Alcor and resuscitated at will) developed
aware, vitrification is now possible
dues and insurance premiums (for in our own lifetimes. But how can
for neuro patients. The new ice-
biostasis funding) for decades, only Alcor handle the price increases
blocking chemicals and improved
to be told that the prices have with fairness, humanity, and eq-
cryoprotective agents, together with
increased dramatically, requiring uity?
the ability to control and produce
that they provide additional funding
extremely high cooling rates make
in order to keep their biostasis Previous Policy to Remain
this possible for biological systems
arrangements in force. What if such
of a limited size. The ability to
a member were no longer insurable This will continue to be handled the
successfully scale-up the procedure
due to age or pre-existing disease? way Alcor has handled improve-
may take years to develop. It will
What if such a member were just ments in quality and technology
also be a very expensive project
not able to afford the additional levels in the past. If the costs can be
(for more details, see page 4). The
insurance? The Alcor Board unani- absorbed, existing members will be
amount of funding that can be
mously agreed that such a situation “grandfathered” at their funding
raised for this project will have a
would be unacceptable. levels (barring run-away inflation,
direct relationship to how long it
Biotechnology is progressing at etc.). Future members may have
takes to make whole-body vitrifica-
an ever-increasing pace. With higher funding requirements, but
tion possible.
advances such as stem-cell technol- existing members would enjoy the
ogy, therapeutic cloning, genetic benefit of the earlier rates. This is
engineering—to name just a few— also an incentive for folks not to
Cost Considerations becoming available even today, we wait in making their biostasis
have to assume that advances in the arrangements.
One concern that many members ability to place Alcor members into If the costs are sufficiently
have at this time is “how much will viable biostasis will also continue to higher than Alcor can absorb, the
this advanced technology cost?” advance rapidly. We can also safely new technology or approach would
Members wonder if they will be assume that many of these antici- be offered to existing members as
able to afford the new technology, pated advances will be costly—far an option. If the existing member
and, if they can’t, what will happen more costly than would make it could not afford the new option, it
to them? Will costs have to go up possible for Alcor to incorporate could be waived, and the existing
for future members? such advances without raising member would still be given the
These are important concerns, prices. level of technology for which that
Ap bers
Ap bers
M
M
bsc ts
bsc ts
rib
rib
ers
ers
For the last six months, tectants, with two-component this positive outcome was
BioTransport, Inc., has engaged in freeze blockers, are now on attained even after 30 hours of
two parallel efforts: (I) upgrading hand and ready for application. delay between cardiac arrest
cryotransport capabilities, and (II) These compounds are ex- and the start of surgery, with
launching a business in the preser- tremely protective against the poor initial cooling and lack of
vation of viable cells. In the near formation of ice crystals during initial medications. Some
future, BioTransport will (III) offer initial cooling, so long as it is anticoagulation may have
an entirely new dimension in fast enough. They also provide resulted as a side effect of the
training to Alcor members. a high degree of protection terminal illness, but otherwise
against the process of “devitrifi- FM’s case demonstrates that far
CRYOTRANSPORT cation” during rewarming, more can be accomplished in
CAPABILITIES which has been one of the the way of cryoprotection under
major obstacles in the develop- difficult circumstances than was
Funds allocated to upgrading ment of reversible cryopro- earlier thought possible.
cryotransport capabilities have been tection of large organs and
largely expended, on an urgent whole organisms. Not enough c. Operating room automation has
basis. As a result, Alcor can now is known yet to fully assess the been implemented with
use new vitrifying compounds and extent to which ice crystals are LabView boards and software.
rapid cooling techniques for all totally eliminated in both Mike Perry is now engaged full-
neuro patients. It has been pro- cooling and rewarming, and in time in these upgrades. Hugh
posed that we immediately begin any case this procedure cannot Hixon has rapidly and cre-
applying these procedures for all yet be represented as “sus- atively implemented the perfu-
neuro cases, and then evaluate our pended animation.” However, it sion circuitry and surgical
actual costs to see if increases to is a dramatic advance over container arrangements pio-
funding for neuro arrangements are earlier practices. neered in FM-2030’s case as
actually necessary. Until efficient the first steps toward develop-
and reliable means for storage at b. Surgery for direct access to ment of an optimum system,
temperatures just below the glass brain vasculature has been and as a result of this the
transition point are developed, developed, as part of FM- practices developed in FM’s
long-term storage will continue to 2030’s cryotransport (see pages case can be immediately put to
be in liquid nitrogen. 10–11). The brain perfusion for work in future neuro cases.
cryoprotection in FM’s cryo- Automated logging and display
a. Technologies for vitrifying transport was extremely suc- of temperatures with LabView
tissues have been licensed to cessful, even though the new are now part of the system.
BioTransport by 21st Century vitrification compounds were Measurement of perfusion
Medicine, Inc. All of the neces- not yet ready to use. Particu- pressures by LabView and
sary perfusates and cryopro- larly startling was the fact that auto-shutdown of perfusion in
q I’d like to know more about the “On the Spot” training program.
In the Third Quarter 2000 issue, their membership, or for any other page for your use. This form is auto-
Linda Chamberlain wrote an article reason to have their funding returned to matically given to new members who
titled “Guarding Alcor’s Long-Term them, it is Alcor’s policy to honor that use insurance to fund their cryopreser-
Financial Security.” In that article she request as rapidly as possible, with the vation arrangements. If you have been
pointed out why Alcor needs to be both understanding, of course, that the a member since before this became a
the owner and the beneficiary of insur- affected membership would terminate standard part of your membership
ance policies that members are using to unless another form of funding were in paperwork, please make three (3)
fund their biostasis arrangements. place instead. photocopies, sign, and mail them to
Several members have called or Members who make Alcor the me, Jennifer Chapman, Membership
emailed their concerns about “giving owner of their life insurance policy Administrator, Alcor Life Extension
up control of their insurance policies” need not worry that they are giving up Foundation, 7895 E. Acoma Drive,
once Alcor is made the owner. That is control of that policy. Alcor gives its Suite 110, Scottsdale, AZ 85260.
a legitimate concern. members a written agreement to return We will execute these forms, put
It has always been Alcor’s policy the ownership of the policy any time, two copies in your personal file here at
to handle the funding of our members for any reason, for just the small Alcor, and return one for your personal
with the greatest of fiduciary care and administrative fee of $25.00. file. If you have any questions, please
responsibility. If a member desires to This is called a Buy-Back Agree- give me a call at 480-905-1906, ext.
change their form of funding, to cancel ment and it is reproduced on the next 100, or email at jennifer@alcor.org.
‘Twas the Night of My “On Bruce and on Linda Though it wasn’t too roomy
Suspension Let’s shake a leg Fred And the commotion—there was plenty
On Ron and on Michael I settled in okay for
by Jerry Lemler We’ve got to stay ahead!” The trip to minus 320.
‘Twas the night of my suspension So, they loaded me up Then Rudi and his troup
And all of my kin And the blanket was chilly I can’t recall all their names
Were helping in the transport “You haven’t felt nothin’ yet!” Wished me well, then departed
to the “House of Chamberlain.” Said the plump man, dressed silly. To play EBS reindeer games.
The ice had been gathered Then over the plains Though it was a fine sojourn
By a skinny pack of elves And the mountains we flew This much I must say
Who had lugged in the chests Above mesas and canyons Stay alive while you can
In spite of themselves. Till Sky Harbor came in view. And travel by
nanosleigh!
Next, I saw a red-nosed reindeer At Alcor they unpacked
With a long bushy tail The great sleigh and its rigs
Who said, “My name is Rudi When I heard someone ask
Let’s go to Scottsdale!” “Do you like your new digs?”
Alcor hereby agrees to transfer ownership, control, and/or to surrender any collateral agreements and/or to
release any irrevocable beneficiary designations it may hold on the following insurance policies on the
life of the Member provided that at such time as ownership or control of the policies are surrendered by
Alcor:
1) The Member agrees to release Alcor, its successors, or assigns from any and all
contractual obligations that Alcor may have relating to such life-insurance policies.
2) The Member agrees to pay to Alcor the sum of twenty-five dollars ($25.00) to defray the
administrative costs associated with the transfer.
Alcor further agrees that, as owner of the policies, it will not borrow against the policies, collect the
accumulated cash value of the policies, or change the beneficiary or owner of the policies without the
written permission of the Member.
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________ ___________________________________
MEMBER SIGNATURE DATE
_____________________________________ ___________________________________
Frederick Chamberlain, III, President DATE
Alcor Life Extension Foundation
SEAL
Join us for the party, and enjoy great company, good food, and
fun and interesting conversation. See old friends and make new ones!
Cornwell may already know some of the He points out that these 2 words
basically names I’ve listed, and not know of have two senses, depending on
edited this work by some of the others, but whether or not they are meant
book, al- Cornwell tried to make a good epistemically or subjectively. A
though he selection from among all those who statement is epistemically objective
did write have thought about our conscious- if it can be verified independently
one chap- ness, our identity, and how they by anyone: “Rembrandt was born
ter. It con- may work. in 1606.” It’s epistemically subjec-
tains good The philosopher John Searle tive if it has no such verification:
material discusses just how we might con- “Rembrandt is a better painter than
for virtu- sider consciousness scientifically. Rubens.” He points out that both
ally any His article describes 9 different words have another definition, too,
taste: from mistaken beliefs held by various as ONTOLOGICAL statements: a
Steven Rose (biology, neurosci- people (scientists and philosophers) pain in my back has subjective
ence) and Olaf Spoerns (Neuro- against the possibility of scientific existence because only I can feel it,
sciences Institute, San Diego) to study of consciousness. Basically a waterfall has objective existence.
philosophers John Searle (Professor he argues that each of these 9 We can easily study epistemically
of Philosophy, University of Cali- beliefs contain a variety of confu- subjective events. Searle goes
fornia at Berkeley) and Margaret sions about consciousness. For through 10 more similar mistakes,
Bodes (Professor of Philosophy and instance, “Mistake One” involves all of which confuse the scientific
Psychology) to (yes!) theologians confusion between analytic defini- study of consciousness.
Nicholas Lush (University of Cam- tions and commonsense definitions. The neuroscientist Olaf Spoerns
bridge) and Fraser Watts (Lecturer The analytic definition defines a discusses another feature of our
in Theology and Natural Science, concept explicitly in terms of a brains, one that rarely gets the
Cambridge). Psychology and com- completed theory; a commonsense attention it deserves. Even without
puter science are included as well. definition simply limits the possible any history of damage, our brains
In one sense this means that no phenomena discussed. (He com- differ from one another in an
matter what you believe you may pares H2O as an analytic definition individual way. Yes, we can distin-
find some similar views among one with the commonsense definition of guish in any individual brain those
of the authors. However it helps not water as contained in rivers, lakes, areas that deal with (say) our ability
just to look for similar views but for etc.) The analytic definition comes to perceive human faces. However,
analyses of the different views, AFTER scientific understanding of that area differs both in location
something good philosophers do, the concept. “Mistake Two” in- and size in different people: not by
no matter what their official posi- volves a confusion about the centimeters, but certainly by milli-
tion. (It also sometimes becomes meaning of objective and subjec- meters. We can discuss these
unclear whether you are reading a tive: science is objective, con- regions in a population, but under-
philosopher or a scientist ... though sciousness is inevitably subjective standing how YOUR brain works
personally I felt that the theologians ... from which some conclude that requires us to know where YOUR
could be easily distinguished.) You consciousness cannot be studied. regions are. (After pathology the
(Perry; continued from page 52) that was interestingly foreshad- own self-chosen freezing. It perme-
owed, somewhat, in Plato’s Repub- ates his writing, though the style is
lic some twenty-three centuries upbeat, informal, almost stream-of-
raising children in communal earlier. Attempts to implement such consciousness. Some additional
“Child Center Homes.” No longer ideas have so far proved unsuccess- lines near the end of Up-Wingers
would people have offspring ful, though we do have such are worth quoting:
through sex, but donated sperm and advances as the Internet, which FM “We Up-Wingers are building a
egg cells would be artificially intelligently foresaw. Still it seems New World which is resigned to
combined by experts who would we are much too much the product nothing—no pain suffering or
judge the suitability of producing a of conditioning by natural selec- death.
child with expected characteristics. tion, which favors our selfish genes “We want to overcome death.
Children, born to surrogate moth- and the sort of exclusive bonding Do not ask us to accept death. We
ers, would be raised unaware of that occurs in families with natural are prepared only to accept life.
their biological parents and vice parents. Perhaps, with the conquest “The day will come when the
versa. A child instead, through of death, we can do much better death of one single human—any
visitations of interested parties, than this—when making offspring human—will be so rare and tragic
would “be conditioned from its will no longer be very important that the news flashed across the
very first day out of the womb to anyway. (As if to confirm and planet will stun humanity.
develop a sense of security from practice his universalist stance, FM “Let us hasten that day when
non-exclusive relationships with never married, not wishing to death will be something of our
many mothers and fathers.” develop an exclusive attachment to past—ahead of us only Life.”
Schools would be abolished and one person.) Children will then This, of course, is what we
children would learn through their become a rarity, though in a sense immortalists have been trying to
own interested efforts, aided by we’ll all be eternal children. say to the world for decades now,
such advances as electronic hook- On the more conventional, though so far few are listening. FM
ups with the world at large. More immortalist level, FM clearly had did listen and tried to get others to
generally, people would come to his priorities straight. “The most do so. His vision of the future can
view themselves as citizens of the urgent human problem facing us is inspire us, even if not every detail
world and the universe, not bound death. We must start from here. All is implemented as he set forth.
by cultural, ethnic, or other regional other social problems are second- None of us can fully imagine what
ties that so often have fostered ary.” The defeat of death was not the future will or ought to be like,
hostilities. Everybody would be imminent, FM realized, so among though certain features shine
everybody’s friend, countryman, the stop-gap measures he advo- through. Like FM, we can work
and family member, and the world cated “[f]reezing the body immedi- toward a world without death in
would unite in love, harmony, and ately after death to be revived in the which every person has lasting
mutual respect. future.” His sincerity and serious- value.
A noble ideal, certainly—one ness would lead, eventually, to his l
Continuing Advances method has so far only been tested suspect in the progressive enfeeble-
with a species of roundworm. This, ment of aging.
A possible antiaging drug, an the tiny, ubiquitous Caenorhabditis Free-radical damage is counter-
improved quantum computer, a elegans, has a simple structure and acted, to a certain extent, through
robot that designs and builds other easy availability that make it a antioxidants such as superoxide
robots, turning bone marrow cells frequent subject of scientific study. dismutase and catalase. (Vitamin E
into nerve cells—these and other Normally C. Elegans lives up to is another antioxidant in this class,
advances make for a most interest- about one month; this was extended and there are others.) The problem
ing report this time. almost 50 percent or an extra two with these substances is that they
weeks through the use of catalytic are consumed in the process of
agents that reverse a type of pro- conferring their beneficial effects,
Antiaging progress gressive injury known as free- which are consequenly limited. The
Is the end of the aging process radical damage (see below). A new findings involve certain
finally in sight? Are we about to mutant strain that is much more synthetic agents, EUK-8 and EUK-
enter a real era of transhumanity prone to free-radical damage and 134, which mimic the activities of
and biological immortality? For lives a much shorter time was superoxide dismutase and catalase,
many years the only substantial restored to a normal life span. but instead are catalysts. A catalyst
way of increasing the maximum life A roundworm is not a person or is not consumed in a chemical
span of mammals was calorie mammal, and two weeks is not the reaction but is reconstituted, mol-
restriction, which has been shown decades we hope to add (for starts) ecule for molecule, and thus can
to be effective in short-lived species to the human life span. But there participate over again. The upshot
such as mice, though whether and are basic similarities at the cellular in this case is that the beneficial
to what extent it would have similar level between the different crea- effects that previously were limited
effects in humans is still unknown. tures that raise hopes that what are enhanced, to the point of
(Average life span, on the other works for one will work for an- extending a creature’s maximum
hand, is relatively easy to increase, other, albeit on a far grander scale. life span. Work is now under way
for example, by reducing infant As a body ages—whether worm or with mice, and its outcome will be
mortality and getting better nutri- human—accumulating damage important in deciding if there is
tion—but that will not make us occurs from highly reactive, electri- promise in this for humans.
more than human.) Why calorie cally charged molecules known as The work was conducted by a
restriction works is also not well free radicals; oxygen plays an 10-member research team, starting
understood; moreover, it does not important part. Though necessary in the laboratory of Douglas
cure senescence, but only delays for life, it is also a corrosive sub- Wallace of Emory University,
age-associated mortality, and stance that can tear apart molecules Atlanta, Georgia.
obviously has limited applicability. in cells. Oxygen-bearing free
(You can only starve yourself so radicals, among other things, impair
the function of mitochondria, the Bone marrow cells turned to
much, which besides is downright
tiny structures within cells that are nerve cells
unpleasant to most people.)
Recent research now offers a responsible for energy production. Bone marrow cells that would
possible second method of substan- Damage to the mitochondria can normally form into tendon, carti-
tially extending maximum life span, lead to increased production of lage, bone, muscle, and fat have
and its workings are not so mysteri- oxygen-bearing free radicals, a instead been induced to develop
ous but offer insight that could vicious cycle. Mitochondrial into nerve cells. The method
soon lead to better treatments along damage from free radicals accumu- involved exposing the cells to beta
the same line. One caveat is that the lates throughout life and is a prime mercaptoethanol, an antioxidant
Antiaging:
How to Submit
Robert Cooke, “A Worm’s Way To Long Life,” Stories to LifeQuest
<http://www.newsday.com/coverage/current/health/friday/nd5845.htm> (Septem-
ber 1, 2000).
The stories that follow appeared in LifeQuest, a semi-annual collection of life-extension fiction, from May
1987 to November 1990. They ranged from practical cryotransport dilemmas to far-reaching possibilities of
uploading, nanotechnology, and the deep-time aspects of living in space colonies. The contributors comprised
a rapidly broadening group of authors at the time publication ceased in 1990.
Now, in a special section of each issue of Cryonics, we bring you reprints from past issues of LifeQuest, along
with new stories contributed by authors from our wide readership and other sources. If you are a professional
science-fiction writer, or even if you are not, we invite you to submit your stories for possible inclusion.
http://www.alcor.org/lifeqst1.htm
and
http://www.alcor.org/lifeqst2.htm
BioTransport, Inc.
Is seeking emergency medical community professionals (EMT’s, Paramedics, ER Techni-
cians, Nurses and Physicians) for on-call contract response, to deliver cryotransport rescue
services to member organizations and to the general public. For application forms and
other information, contact Fred Chamberlain at 480-905-1906, or email to
fred@biotransport.com, or linda@biotransport.com
Cryonics magazine reserves the right to accept or reject ads at our own discretion and assumes
Advertisements no responsibility for their content or the consequences of answering these advertisements. The
rate is $8.00 per line per issue (our lines are considered to be 66 picas wide). Tip-in rates per
sheet are $140 (printed one side) or $180 (printed both sides), from camera-ready copy.
NanoTechnology
Magazine Fund
CryoTransport
NanoTechnology Magazine is your window into the Affordably with Life Insurance
emerging technology whose awesome power mankind
will acquire, for good or evil, very early in this new
century. Everything will change radically...the indus- Rudi Hoffman
trial revolution was just a preview. Find out about the Certified Financial
millions already spent by government and private labs
Planner
on the atomic manipulation of matter. Follow monthly
discoveries toward the evolution of the technology
sure to dominate the 21st. century. Prepare yourself Alcor member since
mentally with NanoTechnology Magazine. 1994
R General
Elements of a Cryonics Patient Transport, by Tanya Jones ............................................................................................ $ 2.00
I Frozen Souls: Can a Religious Person Choose Cryonics? by Steve Bridge ................................................................ $
Lovecraft, Scientific Horror, Alienation, and Cryonics, by Steve Harris, M.D. ............................................................. $
1.50
1.50
N “Why We Are Cryonicists” and “Alcor: The Origin of Our Name” ..................................................................................... Free
Why Cryonics Can Work (brochure) ...................................................................................................................................... $ 0.75
T Cryonics and Christianity (brochure) .................................................................................................................................... $ 0.75
S Discount Package (All of the above Articles and Reprints) ............................................ $ 35.00
The literature above can be ordered by mailing in this form with a check or money order SUBTOTAL:____________
or credit card authorization (Visa/MC), or by telephone (Visa/MC only) by calling Alcor: +20% if overseas
1-480-905-1906 or by FAX: 1-480-922-9027.
NAME__________________________________________PHONE_____________________________________ TOTAL:____________
ADDRESS__________________________________CITY____________________STATE______ZIP_________ Send your order to: