First anniversary of Depressed Metabolism
On September 6, 2007 we launched the blog Depressed Metabolism for a number of reasons. The most important one was to launch a blog with a strong emphasis on cryonics. Although there are a number of good blogs on aging and life extension, there was not such a blog for cryonics. Another reason was to revive the spirit of Alcor’s Cryonics Magazine of the 1980s and early 1990s, which had a strong emphasis on technical discussion of cryonics and related sciences. The Internet, and the blog format in particular, enabled to create such a forum again at reduced cost. The third reason was that the blog also enabled the authors to organize their thoughts and make contributions to a number of technical issues in cryonics. Although this objective has often produced long and technical entries, Depressed Metabolism has documented and, sometimes, contributed to the science of human cryopreservation on topics ranging from reperfusion injury to cryoprotectant toxicity.
One of the important themes of the blog has been that experimental science is hard. What appears to be a good idea in theory, can die an unexpected death in the lab. For this reason we have restrained ourselves from reporting hot-off-the-press discoveries in bioscience. There does not seem to be a single theory in science that is not supported by one research paper or another. To the extent that we have reported on new research, we generally have used a (new) paper to discuss the topic in a broader context. Another reason why we exercise moderation on this front is because without looking into detail at the research design and methodology of a study, it is hard to assess its credibility.
When we started in September 2007, our statistics showed a couple of unique visitors a day. Since then, visits to Depressed Metabolism have picked up a great deal and exceed 100 unique visitors on an average day. The bulk of them seem to be either people with a strong interest in life extension and cryonics or biomedical researchers who stumbled upon the website as a result of Googling technical terms. Some of this traffic would not have been possible without the attention we got from websites and blogs such as Longetivity Meme, Al Fin, and Alcor News. It is not surprising that some of the most popular entries are also the more accessible ones. The most popular entries to date include:
Hydrogen sulfide does not induce hypometabolism in sheep
Albert Einstein’s brain and information-theoretic death
Singularity economics and the future of money
Interview with Cryonics Institute President Ben Best
Since we started the blog we have not enabled comments but we do encourage thoughtful and informed responses and will consider publishing them as blog entries. A recent example was Mike Darwin’s reponse to a post on structure-function analysis of neuroprotectants. We also created a Facebook Depressed Metabolism Readers Group where readers of the blog can connect and discuss posts and related issues. Unless implied in discussion of technical matters, we have generally refrained from participating in cryonics politics on our blog. Although we are very concerned about the future of cryonics, and that of Alcor in particular, we believe that the best long term strategy to deal with the problems facing cryonics is to set an example. Answer incompetence with excellence, amateurism with professionalism, and secrecy with transparency and accountability. As evidenced by our entry on Alcor’s non-democratic self perpetuating board of Directors, we do believe there is a benefit to encouraging debate on the legal and organizational aspects of cryonics. The quality of operations in cryonics organizations suffers from not being subject to market mechanisms, not having a clear endpoint of care, and wishful thinking on the part of members and donors. One of the guiding considerations for Depressed Metabolism has been to disseminate the knowledge and tools to evaluate the technical operations of cryonics organizations, and that of patient care in particular.
Depressed Metabolism is not the official blog of the cryonics community and as such allows contributors to post on other topics of personal interest. During the last couple of months we have published on such diverse topics as Iceland’s Blue Lagoon, science in H.P. Lovecraft’s stories, the future of money, rationality and ethics, common political fallacies, human rights, the demonization of oil speculators, dietary supplements, the ideology of death, the chemistry of spontaneously fermented beers, education, children and caloric restriction, the art of Edvard Munch, social scientists, and the world’s best vegetarian restaurants. Obviously, the opinions in these pieces are those of the authors only and not of the organizations and companies with which they are associated. Neither do we believe that our opinions on such topics are necessarily part of a broader philosophy. Since we started this blog we have taken great care to emphasize that cryonics should be presented as a form of critical care medicine and not as one element in a broader “transhumanist” or “immortalist” philosophy. Having said this, it is clear to us that cryonics (and cryonics research) has a better chance of growing and surviving in a culture that values privacy, private property, and freedom of contract.
Looking forward, the cause of cryonics and life extension will remain the primary focus of the blog. We will continue to publish on the technical aspects of cryobiology, cryonics, critical care medicine, neuroscience, and life extension. We also intend to make additional historical documents available and uncover writings that have never been published before. Expect more publications on epistemology and skepticism, molecular cooking and drinking, practical health issues, local features (Portland, OR), and the arts. Please do not hesitate to write us in case you have something of interest to contribute.
Thanks to all those who have authored or reviewed entries for the blog: Gregory Jordan, Veronique Struis, Shannon Vyff, Mike Perry, Ben Best, Mike Darwin, and Brian Wowk. And thanks to all those who have linked to our posts and articles and/or promoted the blog on their websites or through private correspondence.
Running a blog is less expensive than publishing a paper magazine but not costless (e.g., website hosting, domain registration, reproduction of papers and book chapters, etc). The work we have done for the blog has been very rewarding but often very labor-intensive and time consuming. Please help us keep the blog running and click on the “donate” button on the right sidebar (below) to give a Paypal donation. Thanks for your support!
Categories: Cryonics, Science