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Recent Posts
- Annotated bibliography of cryoprotectant toxicity
- The 2011 Calorie Restriction Society Conference
- Fifth SENS Conference
- What you don’t eat can’t hurt you
- Steve Jobs’ morbid glorification of death
- Smartphone Apps for the Smart Cryonicist
- Personalized Cryonics
- Intermediate temperature storage in cryonics
- Alcor member profile of Aschwin de Wolf
- The 2011 Cryobiology Conference
Cryonics Magazine- New Evidence Keeping Brain Sharp and Active Wards off Alzheimer’s
- New Discoveries in Cell Aging
- Eye Trials Give Hope for Stem Cells
- How Stem Cell Implants Help Heal Traumatic Brain Injury
- Victory For Crowdsourced Biomolecule Design
- New Approach to Preventing Fatal Septic Shock
- Alzheimer’s Damage Occurs Early
- Oxidative DNA Damage Repair
- Messenger RNA Self-destruct Mechanism Revealed
- How the Brain Cell Works: A Dive Into Its Inner Network
Fight Aging!
Chronosphere- Cryonics “Castle”
- Doing the Time Warp
- Interventive Gerontology 1.0.02: First, Try to Make it to the Mean: Diet as a life extending tool, Part 3
- Interventive Gerontology 1.0.02: First, Try to Make it to the Mean: Diet as a life extending tool, Part 2
- Interventive Gerontology 1.0.02: First, Try to Make it to the Mean: Diet as a life extending tool, Part 1.
- Fortune and Men’s Eyes
- Interventive Gerontology 101.01: The Basics
- The Kurzwild Man in the Night
- Fucked.
- You Bet Your Life!
Resources
- 21st Century Medicine
- Alcor Life Extension Foundation
- Alcor News
- Ben Best’s Cryonics Page
- Brain Preservation Foundation
- Chronosphere
- Cryonics Institute
- Cryonics Magazine
- Cryonics Northwest
- FDAReview
- Fight Aging!
- Forever For All
- Future of Humanity Institute
- Institute for Molecular Manufacturing
- Nanomedicine
- Programmed Aging
- Safar Center for Resuscitation Research
- SENS Foundation
- Society for Cryobiology
- Soft Machines
- Suspended Animation
- Synthetic Biology
- Water in Biology
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Tag Archives: Cryonics
The 2011 Calorie Restriction Society Conference
On October 27-29 I attended CR VII, the 2011 Calorie Restriction Society Conference held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Members of the Calorie Restriction Society restrict their calories while maintaining adequate nutrition as a means of extending their lifespan (or improving … Continue reading
Posted in Cryonics, Health
Tagged Ben Best, Brenda Peters, Caloric Restriction, Calorie Restriction, Calorie Restriction Society, Cryonics, Luigi Fontana, Peter Voss, Shannon Vyff, Stephen Spindler
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What you don’t eat can’t hurt you
Many people in the life extension community follow some kind of diet. Historically, caloric restriction (CR) has been the most popular and most discussed option. Other popular diets include the Mediterranean diet and the Paleolithic diet. In one sense, comparing … Continue reading
Posted in Cryonics, Health, Personal Genomics
Tagged Alzheimer's Disease, ApoE4, Caloric Restriction, Cryonics, Evolution, Genotype, Mediterranean Diet, Neurodegenerative Diseases, Nutrigenetics, Paleolithic Diet, Saturated Fat, The 10000 Year Explosion
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Smartphone Apps for the Smart Cryonicist
As every modern consumer knows, smartphones are today’s go-to portable technology. Everything from GPS navigation to finding a good deal on your next meal or haircut right NOW to a wide variety of games and applications may be had at … Continue reading
Posted in Cryonics, Health
Tagged apps, Cryonics, Health, mobile technology, smartphone
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ApoE4 – The Ancestral Allele
Reportedly, when James Watson and Steven Pinker had their genome sequenced, they declined to know their risk for Alzheimer’s disease. Clearly this is not an option for life extensionists and cryonicists, who are better off knowing whether they have a copy … Continue reading
Posted in Health, Neuroscience, Personal Genomics
Tagged 23andMe, Alcor, Alzheimer's Disease, ApoE4, Brain Aging, Cryonics, Life Extension, Paleo Diet, Patri Friedman
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The double standard about cryonics
One of the most predictable features of public debates about cryonics is that those arguing in favor of cryonics are held to more rigorous standards than those seeking conventional medical treatment. Advocates of cryonics do not just have to prove … Continue reading
Posted in Cryonics
Tagged Cell Repair, Cryonics, Emergency Medicine, Neurogenomics, Technological Stasis, Vitrification
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Gerald Feinberg on physics and life extension
Gerald Feinberg, a Columbia university physicist who, among other things, hypothesized the existence of the muon neutrino, had a strong interest in the future of science and life extension. In 1966 he published the article “Physics and Life Prolongation” in … Continue reading
Posted in Cryonics
Tagged Brain Repair, Cryobiology, Cryonics, Foresight Institute, Gerald Feinberg, Molecular Nanotechnology
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Neural cryobiology and the legal recognition of cryonics
It has been said that if you want to persuade someone, you need to find common ground. But one of the defining characteristics of cryonics is that proponents and opponents cannot even seem to agree on the criteria that should … Continue reading
Posted in Cryonics, Death, Neuroscience
Tagged B2C, Brain Death, Brian Wowk, Cryobiology, Cryonics, EEG, Gregory Fahy, Information-theoretic Death, M22, Neural Cryobiology, Neuroscience, Robert J. White, Yuri Pichugin
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Comments on the book YOUNIVERSE by Robert Ettinger
Robert Ettinger‘s book Youniverse: Toward a Self-Centered Philosophy of Immortalism and Cryonics is a book containing many insights and deep thoughts, yet has such an informal writing style that many readers might not take it seriously. I know of no … Continue reading
Posted in Cryonics
Tagged Atheism, Cryonics, Determinism, Free Will, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophy, Physician-Assisted Suicide, Religion, Robert Ettinger
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The case against cryonics
What is striking about cryonics is that those who have taken serious efforts to understand the arguments in favor of its technical feasibility generally endorse the idea. Those who have not made cryonics arrangements usually give non-technical arguments (anxiety about … Continue reading
Posted in Cryonics, Neuroscience
Tagged Cryonics, Cryonics Criticism, Cryopreservation, Decision Making Under Uncertainty, Decision Theory, Memory, Mike Darwin, Personal Identity, Personal Survival, Vitrification
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The RhinoChill: A New Way to Cool the Brain Quickly
We scientists are difficult, cranky, and above all, maddeningly frustrating people. Want to turn lead into gold? No problem, we can tell you how to do that, and in fact have even done it already: the only catch is that … Continue reading
Posted in Neuroscience, Science
Tagged Cooling, Cryonics, Hypothermia, Ischemia, Mike Darwin, Neuroprotection, RhinoChill
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Imagine there’s no sleep
Imagine that human culture has never experienced sleep, but suddenly must experience it to survive. Would they be apprehensive about experiencing it for the first time? Of course! Just picture… this total suspension of consciousness, experienced for the very first … Continue reading
Alcor update from CEO Max More
The Kurzweil Accelerating Intelligence blog features a short interview with new Alcor CEO Max More: Q: Where do you see cryonics in the future? We’ll look back on this 50 to 100 years from now — we’ll shake our heads … Continue reading
Suspended Animation Conference 2011
The cryonics company Suspended Animation “will sponsor the conference, “Suspended Animation – The Company and The Goal,” which will be held in Fort Lauderdale in May, 2011. The conference will feature speakers on the latest strategies and advances toward perfecting … Continue reading
Posted in Cryonics, Science
Tagged Cryonics, Greg Fahy, Life Extension Foundation, Suspended Animation
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Support real progress in life extension
As we start the new year, it is helpful to draw attention to the sobering fact that no credible human rejuvenation therapies are available today, and it is doubtful that such therapies will see the light of day in the … Continue reading
Posted in Cryonics, Rejuvenation
Tagged Biogerontology, Brain Preservation, Cryonics, Nanomedicine, Rejuvenation, SENS
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Is a life worth starting? Some personal views
For life—the life of any sentient creature—to be worth living, there must, as Robert Ettinger has often said, be a preponderance of satisfaction over dissatisfaction. If this overall slant toward good rather than bad is maintained, it seems reasonable that … Continue reading
Posted in Arts & Living, Cryonics, Death, Science
Tagged Antinatalism, Cryonics, David Benatar, Forever for All, Immortalism, Mike Perry, Pessimism
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Review of ‘Better Never to Have Been’
Review of Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence by David Benatar. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006 “Would that I had never been born” is a lament sometimes voiced in the depth of misfortune, a … Continue reading
Posted in Arts & Living, Cryonics, Death
Tagged Antinatalism, Arthur Schopenhauer, Better Never to Have Been, Cryonics, David Benatar, Human Enhancement, Immortalism, Mike Perry
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Non-existence is hard to do
A review of contemporary antinatalist writings Originally published in Cryonics, 2nd Quarter, 2010 (PDF) “Coming into existence is bad in part because it invariably leads to the harm of ceasing to exist.” David Benatar “If they could get a corpse … Continue reading
Posted in Arts & Living, Cryonics, Death, Neuroscience, Science, Society
Tagged Antinatalism, Consciousness, Cryonics, David Benatar, Empiricism, Free Will, Friedrich Nietzsche, Hans Reichenbach, Hard Determinism, Jim Crawford, Marquis de Sade, Max Stirner, Thomas Ligotti, Transhumanism
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At last, a sure-cold way to sell cryonics with guaranteed success!
A humorous romp through a promising new technique in aesthetic medicine from one cryonicist’s (warped) point of view. Figure 1: Before cryopreservation (L) and after cryopreservation (R). As everyone involved in cryonics for more than a fortnight is sadly aware, … Continue reading
Posted in Cryonics, Health, Science
Tagged Adipocytes, Chilling Injury, Cosmetic Surgery, Cryobiology, Cryolipolysis, Cryonics, Hypothermia, Mike Darwin, Organ Preservation, Zeltiq
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Historical Death Meme
There’s a pretty simple explanation as to where motivated skepticism for cryonics originates. If you currently are skeptical of cryonics, you should carefully consider whether this applies. Historically, there has been a powerfully optimized meme regarding the topic known as … Continue reading
The diminishing returns of reactive medicine
In an article for Slate, Jay Olshansky argues in favor of a position that one would expect to be common sense at this point: While we can extend life in aging bodies through behavioral improvements and medical treatments, the time … Continue reading
Posted in Cryonics, Science
Tagged Aging, Anti-Aging, Cryonics, Reactive Medicine, Rejuvenation, Rejuvenation Research, S. Jay Olshansky
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Cryonics, trans-temporal communism and future squatters
Cryonics advocate Eugen Leitl puts forward some hard-hitting and thought-provoking observations about cryonics (reminiscent of Mike Darwin’s more recent thoughts on the subject): Cryonics, like Natural Selection, or the theories of General and Special Relativity, is core-smashing in character, and … Continue reading
Posted in Cryonics, Society
Tagged Cryonics, Eugen Leitl, Futurism, Medicine, Mike Darwin, Transhumanism
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Meta-research and medical skepticism
The Atlantic features an important article about “meta-researcher” Athina Tatsioni, who has published a number of influential papers about the quality of biomedical research: He and his team have shown, again and again, and in many different ways, that much … Continue reading
Posted in Health, Science
Tagged 21st Century Medicine, Athina Tatsioni, Cryonics, Michael Anissimov, Research
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Mark Plus on cryonics and double standards
One of the mysterious things about cryonics is that some of the arguments that are invoked against it would be considered ridiculous, or even insensitive, if they would be raised in the context of other live-saving technologies. As Alcor member … Continue reading
Thought experiments as knowledge
One of the most remarkable aspects about the ongoing debates concerning the technical feasibility of mind uploading is the excessive confidence that some people have that these issues can be resolved without further experimental validation. The (implicit) assumption seems to … Continue reading
Posted in Cryonics, Neuroscience, Science
Tagged Cryonics, Mind Uploading, Rationalism, Thought Experiments
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Mind uploading, falsifiability and cryonics
On the cryonics discussion list Cryonet cryobiologist Brian Wowk weighed in on the topic of mind uploading in a post that merits quoting in its entirety: I read with interest Bob Ettinger’s recent remarks about Mark Gubrud’s piece in The … Continue reading
Posted in Cryonics, Neuroscience
Tagged Brian Wowk, Cryonics, David Pizer, Falsifiability, Mind Uploading, Transhumanism
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Ken Hayworth on straight freezing in cryonics
Ken Hayworth’s idea of promoting a fixation-based alternative to brain cryopreservation is something I am highly sympathetic to overall, and I hope some progress in this direction results from the work he is doing and trying to induce others to … Continue reading
Posted in Cryonics
Tagged Brain Preservation, Chemical Fixation, Chemopreservation, Cryonics, Ken Hayworth, Nanotechnology, Plastination
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The low-hanging fruit of technological progress
The website Alternative Right has an interesting article on the declining pace of technological progress: The world of 1959 is pretty much the same world we live in today technologically speaking. This is a vaguely horrifying fact which is little … Continue reading
Posted in Science, Society
Tagged Cryonics, Eric Drexler, Molecular Nanotechnology, Singularity, Technological Progress, Technological Singularity
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Free will versus determinism as it relates to cryonics
Excerpt from “Ben Best – A Case for Free Will AND Determinism” Determinism implies materialism — implies that consciousness is material. Cryonics is based on the premise that the preservation of the fine structure of the brain at low temperature … Continue reading
Posted in Cryonics, Neuroscience, Science
Tagged Ben Best, Compatibilism, Cryonics, Determinism, Free Will, Roger Penrose
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How many neurons need to survive for cryonics to work?
On this page a calculation is attempted to determine how many neurons need to survive for cryonics to work. The flaw in this approach should be obvious when the author writes : According to The Stroke Association, a stroke is … Continue reading
Posted in Cryonics
Tagged Alcor, Cell Death, Cerebral Ischemia, Cryonics, Delayed Neuronal Death, Nanomedicine, Stroke
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Chemical preservation and cryonics research
In the 2009-4 issue of Alcor’s Cryonics magazine I review the technical and practical feasibility of chemical preservation. One of the most interesting aspects of chemopreservation is that it could play a useful role in the cryopreservation of ischemic patients. … Continue reading
Posted in Cryonics, Neuroscience, Science
Tagged Brain Preservation, Chemical Fixation, Chemopreservation, Cryonics, Ischemia, Vitrification
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The presumption of death
Bertrand Russell once said that “most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.” One does not need to look any further than the many responses to Kerry Howley’s recent article about cryonics and hostile partners in … Continue reading
Posted in Cryonics, Society
Tagged Bertrand Russell, Bryan Caplan, Cryonics, Hostile Relatives, Hostile Wife Phenomenon, Immortality, James Hughes, Kerry Howley, Life Extension, Peggy Jackson, Robin Hanson, Sati, Thomas Donaldson
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Cryonics and fear of the future
To people who have made cryonics arrangements the biggest mystery remains why more people have not made the same decision. The most obvious answer remains that cryonics has not been proven to “work” yet. People who give this answer usually … Continue reading