Archive for the 'Death' Category

H.P. Lovecraft’s “Cool Air” and cryonics

Wednesday, May 14th, 2008

In “Heritage of Horror,” Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi writes that Lovecraft’s short story “Cool Air” “anticipates cryogenic research.” We can forgive Joshi the common mistake of writing “cryogenics” when he means “cryonics,” but how much cryonics is there really in Lovecraft’s “Cool Air?”
“Cool Air” (1926) tells the story of a struggling writer who has secured [...]

Aging: The ultimate disease

Thursday, May 8th, 2008

Cryonics Reports was the publication of the Cryonics Society of New York (CSNY). In April 1968 a call to arms to conquer aging was published. This editorial stressed that the problems of aging will not be solved until we decide that we want to conquer aging and extend our lives.

Heart disease and cancer [...]

Consideration of the vanity and shortness of man’s life

Friday, May 2nd, 2008

Before the scientific conquest of death became a serious topic of conversation, philosophers, writers and poets had to resign themselves to the inevitable demise of the individual in this world. Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667), the “Shakespeare of Divines,” gave poetic expression to the brevity and fragility of life in his The Rule and Exercises of [...]