Monthly Archives: October 2008

Lindbergh and Carrel’s quest to live forever

Posted on October 30, 2008 by Chana de Wolf

It’s difficult to follow up a best-selling book about the cultural history of the penis, but David M. Friedman has a knack for engaging readers in topics that others find difficult to broach. This time he tackles the touchy subject … Continue reading →

Posted in Death, Science | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off

Famous preserved body parts

Posted on October 28, 2008 by Aschwin de Wolf

The website TopTenz recently published a list of the Top 10 Most Famous Preserved Body Parts. The list includes Galileo’s finger and Albert Einstein’s brain. As has been discussed on this blog before, the preservation of human brains (no matter … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts & Living, Death | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off

My road to a possible future

Posted on October 26, 2008 by William Teeter

My experiences with death began in 1974, when I was age 10. On Labor Day Sunday, while watching the Jerry Lewis MDA telethon, my father told me to turn the TV off. When I asked why, he said my grandfather, … Continue reading →

Posted in Cryonics | Tagged , , | Comments Off

The secular case against immortality

Posted on October 22, 2008 by Aschwin de Wolf

In 2003 George Hart published an article called “The Immortal’s Dilemma: Decontructing Eternal Life” , making a secular case against immortality.  Hart mainly uses logical arguments and provides a fair amount of room to address a number of possible objections … Continue reading →

Posted in Death | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off

Death is nothing to us

Posted on October 19, 2008 by Aschwin de Wolf

The idea that death gives meaning to life is widespread but does not reflect careful reasoning, and is often a  desperate rationalization of human mortality. As a consequence, life extensionists have not been at great pains to defeat “pro-death” arguments. … Continue reading →

Posted in Death | Tagged , , | Comments Off

Promoting cerebral blood flow in cryonics patients

Posted on October 17, 2008 by Chana de Wolf

It has been shown that perfusability of the brain is significantly compromised after long-term (>5 min) ischemic events (the “no reflow” phenomenon). Improving cerebral blood flow after circulatory arrest is one of the fundamental objectives of human cryopreservation stabilization protocol.  … Continue reading →

Posted in Cryonics, Neuroscience | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off

BioTime’s quest to defeat aging

Posted on October 12, 2008 by Chana de Wolf

Unless you are a long-time cryonicist or a surgeon, you may not have heard of BioTime before. This company, recently profiled for its innovative stem cell research in Life Extension Magazine, is best known for producing the blood-volume expander Hextend, … Continue reading →

Posted in Cryonics, Health, Science | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off

PLAC blood test for sudden cardiac arrest and stroke risk

Posted on October 9, 2008 by Chana de Wolf

Life Extension Foundation (LEF) unveiled a new blood test in an article in this month’s Life Extension Magazine (November 2008). Unlike cholesterol testing, which simply gives a measurement of high-density (HDL) and low-density (LDL) lipoprotein levels and provides little information … Continue reading →

Posted in Health, Science | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off

Convergence08

Posted on October 7, 2008 by Aschwin de Wolf

“On November 15-16, 2008, the world’s most dangerous ideas will collide in Mountain View, California. Convergence08 examines the world-changing possibilities of nanotech and the life-changing promises of biotech. It is the premier forum for debate and exploration of cogtech ethics, … Continue reading →

Posted in Science | Tagged , , , | Comments Off

Liberty and oblivion

Posted on October 6, 2008 by Aschwin de Wolf

In 1991 the Libertarian Alliance published an article called “Immortality: Liberty’s Final frontier” (PDF) by David Nicholas. In this article the author argues that “the continuing fact of death renders all talk of liberty ultimately futile.” The author further argues … Continue reading →

Posted in Cryonics, Death | Tagged , , , | Comments Off

Antioxidant skepticism

Posted on October 2, 2008 by Aschwin de Wolf

At the blog Fight Aging!, Reason draws attention to the possibility that taking large amounts of antioxidant supplements may not necessarily be an improvement: Our biology is complex – why would we expect that successfully modifying it with chemicals would … Continue reading →

Posted in Health, Science | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off

Cryonics insurance provider Rudi Hoffman on “The Future and You”

Posted on October 1, 2008 by Aschwin de Wolf

Rudi Hoffman, cryonics activist and the world’s leading cryonics insurance provider, is today’s featured guest on “The Future and You:” “You can too take it with you!  How combining cryonics and insurance can let you leave your million dollar insurance … Continue reading →

Posted in Cryonics | Tagged , , | Comments Off