21st century - alcor life extension foundationpascal, a marketing consultant who has given...

1www.alcor.org Cryonics/Fourth Quarter 2007

2 From the Editor

3 Letter to the EditorAlcor member Norm Haberly responds to BenGoertzel’s article “What is aSelf that it Might beRevived?” (28:2).

4 Executive Director’sReport: Learn about Alcor’spresence at recent confer-ences, opportunities to net-work with Alcor membersaround the world, cryo-preservation challenges theorganization faces, and more.

6 Book Review: 21st CenturyKids offers adventure, excite-ment, and a little bit of mys-tery for the young at heart ofall ages.

7 Promoting Cryonics: Shannon Vyff recently hadthe experience of runningAlcor’s information table atthe WTA conference. Isword of mouth really effective outreach?

8 Chatting with Alcor’s TanyaJones at TV07 Hear howTanya Jones’ private conver-sation with George Dvorsky,a board member for theInstitute for Ethics andEmerging Technologies, left a lasting impression.

24 Cryonics Poetry: Alcormember Beth Bailey expresses why she chosecryopreservation.

INSIDECRYONICS

10 Member Profile: Maria Entraigues &Ruy Folguera: Brought together bytheir love for music, Maria Entraiguesand Ruy Folguera are living their dreamlife, composing movie soundtracks andperforming in productions around theworld. It’s not surprising their adven-turous spirits led them to cryonics.

16 Cryonics: Using Low Temperatures to Care for the Critically Ill: The brain isoften put “on pause” in common medical procedures. Are cryonics patientsas “alive” as someone under general anesthesia and could cryonics come tobe seen as a form of long-term critical care?

19 Uniform Anatomical Gift Act: Protecting Alcor’s Interests:Has recent legislation changing the Uniform Anatomical GiftAct in Arizona affected Alcor’s ability to accept its patients?

21 Tech News: Could living longer by eating less be geneticallybiased? Does lowering insulin signaling in the brain promotelongevity? How powerful are the effects of red wine againstpreventing neurodegeneration? Implanted brain electrodes,memory seen in the making, and more in this installment ofTech News.

Marketing Cryonics: David Pascal, amarketing consultant who worked withthe Cryonics Institute and started theCryonics Society, seeks a betterresponse to cryonics from the public bydelving into the marketing process.

CCOOVVEERR SSTTOORRYY:: PPAAGGEE 1122

4TH QUARTER 2007 • VOLUME 28:4

Cover by Lily Henson

2 Cryonics/Fourth Quarter 2007 www.alcor.org

FROM THE EDITOR

It has been a lively couple of months at Alcor with the entire staff in highgear preparing for the 7th Alcor conference – checking and rechecking

all of the logistical details, working as a team to tear out cabinets and coun-tertops for facility renovations, industriously putting the finishing toucheson equipment so that it was ready for demonstration. Although the paceof everyday life has returned to normal, the positive energy remains. Lookfor details about the recent Alcor conference in the 1st quarter 2008 issue.

One of the great pleasures of hosting an annual conference is theopportunity to meet the people in attendance, especially because the Alcorstaff is often restricted to somewhat impersonal interactions with itsworldwide membership base, via email or the telephone. At the confer-ence, I was busily checking to ensure our next speaker was on hand andready to take the stage when a lovely lady named Maria Entraigues intro-duced herself. In this issue, she shares her story about the value of herAlcor membership and how it interplays with her career in the arts andentertainment industry (pg. 10).

Meeting your valued customers in person during a conference isone form of outreach, but what about formal marketing? An Alcor mem-ber recently wrote me an email, saying, “All of the proponents of cryonicscombined have not been able to convince more than 1,000 to 2,000 peo-ple that this program makes sense. To me, that makes no sense!” DavidPascal, a marketing consultant who has given considerable thought to mar-keting the cryonics industry, proclaims that the solution is hiding in plainsight (pg. 12). And Aschwin de Wolf shares his insights into how theindustry could benefit from a fresh perspective on the philosophical basisbehind cryonics (pg. 16).

Finally, you will find a letter to the editor published in this issue.Others are encouraged to follow this example by sending comments to:[email protected]

EditorJennifer Chapman

Art DirectorJill Grasse

Contributing WritersBarry M. Aarons

Beth BaileyJennifer ChapmanAschwin de WolfChana de Wolf

George DvorskyDavid Pascal

R. Michael Perry, Ph.D.Stephen Van Sickle

Shannon Vyff

Contributing PhotographersHeline De Lillo Photography

John Retallack________________________________

Copyright 2007 by Alcor Life Extension Foundation

All rights reserved.Reproduction, in whole or part, without

permission is prohibited.

Cryonics Magazine is published quarterly.

To subscribe: call 480.905.1906 x101________________________________

Address correspondence to:Cryonics Magazine

7895 East Acoma Drive, Suite 110Scottsdale, Arizona 85260

Phone: 480.905.1906 Toll free: 877.462.5267

Fax: 480.922.9027

Letters to the Editor welcome:[email protected]

Advertising inquiries:480.905.1906 [email protected]

ISSN: 1054-4305

Visit us on the web at www.alcor.orgAlcor News Blog

www.alcornews.org/weblog

Call today to request a FREE one-year trial subscription

to Cryonics Magazine for yourself or someone you know.

877-462-5267 x101


LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Ben Goertzel’s article “What is a Self thatit Might be Revived?” (28:2) addresses,

but does not fully answer, similar questionsabout identity that I’ve been struggling with.Below are three illustrative scenarios.

Scenario 1:An entire individual is replaced, mol-

ecule-by-molecule, with identical mole-cules (except where needed to repair thecause of death) while the individual is incryopreservation.

Comments: This is basically the sce-nario that Dr. Goertzel addresses. It isn’tmuch different from what is happening to usnow, with cells constantly being replaced. Isuspect that most of Alcor’s members wouldagree that the self is preserved in this sce-nario.

Scenario 2: An entire individual is both replaced

and replicated, molecule-by-molecule,while the individual is in cryopreservation,resulting in two identical individuals.

Comments: If we were to awaken thesetwo identical individuals, each would thinkthat he or she was the original, though neitherwould be. Neither one would be any more (orany less) like the original than the other, andneither would have any more or any less con-tinuity with the original. Would the originalself have now become two selves?

Suppose you were the person whosebody was both replaced and replicated, andsuppose further that we were to awaken onlyone of you. If you could decide in advancewhich one of these bodies to awaken, wouldit matter to you? If we told you now that we

were going to awaken only the replica, do youthink that it would be you to awaken? If therewas damage repairing and replacing the orig-inal, would you feel that you had been pre-served if we awoke only the replica?

My own opinion (subject to change!) isthat, yes, there would now be two of my“selves.” And while I have a preference thatmy replaced self (rather than the replicatedself) be the one that is revived if only one ofmy selves is revived, I think this is an irra-tional preference that I should abandon.

Scenario 3: We make several replicas of you and

awaken them all.Comments: Are they all you? If your

lover is alive, would he or she think all ofthem were you? Would “you” be OK if theother replicas treated “your” lover as theirlover too, or would you be beside yourselfwith anguish? In general, what rights accrueto each of “you”?

My own opinion is that each of usshould decide, prior to our demise, how wewould want most of our rights and assets dis-tributed – sort of like writing a will where ourmultiple selves are analogous to our children.Not knowing in advance how we’ll berevived, or how many of “me” will berevived, does make it more difficult, thoughperhaps a phrase such as “equal shares foreach of me” might suffice for many thingsthat we want to leave ourselves.

As for our lovers, well, I think that pick-ing which one of us they like the best is up tothem, and the rest of us/me will just have toget over it.

Norm Haberly, MBA, MSCSAlcor member since 2004

The Author Replies:

The scenarios Norm Haberlydescribes are important ones, which areplausibly likely to occur in our future.However, I don’t consider them particu-larly problematic from the perspective ofself-theory.

My view is that, in Norm’s Scenario 2,both the replica and the replacementcontain genuine and valid continuationsof the self of the individual who wascryopreserved. The specific mechanismof physical continuation doesn’t makeany difference. What matters is the expe-riencing self, which is the same in boththe replica and the replacement.

In Norm’s Scenario 3, again, it seemsclear to me that, yes, if multiple replicasof a person are made and they all initial-ly contain the self of the pre-replica per-son at the moment of replication, thenall these replicas are validly that person.

These questions Norm raises, whileimportant, don’t strike me as being near-ly as troublesome as the question ofwhether a superhuman being that evolvesincrementally out of a person, but hasvery little in common with the personwho seeded it, is still in any real sense“that person.” This question raises theissue of the extent to which a person is aset of patterns immanent in a systemover a brief interval of time, versus anongoing process of evolution over time.

This is a somewhat subtle matter,whereas, to me, the question of whethermind lives on the level of pattern/process or on the level of the underlyingphysical substrate is basically a mootpoint. What makes you “you” is the pat-tern/process of your self, not the mole-cules or bits from which the selfemerges.

Benjamin Goertzel, Ph.D.


Executive Director’s Report

The Company You KeepI’ve had the pleasure of keeping some

good company lately, having conversed withcountless members and supporters whileattending recent conferences. It started upnorth in Chicago at the World TranshumanistAssociation (WTA) conference in late July.Attendees were exposed to cryonics at theAlcor information table run by Alcor memberShannon Vyff and during presentations to theaudience, including one by our own TanyaJones. In early September, I headed out to SanFrancisco for the Singularity Summit, anotherforward-thinking gathering.

While Alcor has no official policy on tran-shumanism and the related futurist topicswhich are often the centerpiece of theseand similar conferences, thereclearly is a strong cross-over ininterest among Alcor membersand these organizations. Indeed,it truly makes my day when peo-ple come up to me and ask thatburning question they’ve alwayshad about cryonics. So, I see theseconferences as a rare and valuedopportunity for personal interactionwith those from outside the Scotts-dale area, a kind of outreach thatholds strong potential for dispellingcommon myths and growing Alcor’smembership base in the future.

Coinciding with the Singularity Summit,the annual Alcor board meeting was held inSan Francisco. The significance of the annualmeeting is the election of board members andofficers as required by the organization’sbylaws. Alcor has a self-perpetuating board ofdirectors. This means that the outgoing boardelects the incoming board, which is very com-mon among non-profits, particularly thosewith significant financial assets, such as muse-ums and hospitals. Meet the current board ofdirectors in the “About Alcor” section of our

website: http://www.alcor.org/AboutAlcor/meetdirectors.html

But by far the best company I’ve kept hasbeen at the 7th Alcor Conference in October.Seeing old friends and making new ones wasdefinitely the highlight, followed closely bysome fireworks sparked by audience questions.If you missed it, all is not lost. We will shortlyhave a conference DVD set for sale. Look foran announcement soon on Alcor News andhere in Cryonics Magazine. And if you’re inter-ested in reading a live blog about the confer-ence done by some volunteers, check it out inthe October issue of Alcor News(www.alcornews.org/weblog).

Membership and Outreach

It’s no secret that Alcor mem-bers want to get to know oneanother and the newly released2007 Membership Directory pro-vides a resource for doing justthat. Often conferences likethose mentioned above publishan “attendee list,” which liststhose in attendance who arewilling to give out their con-tact information to otherattendees – another good

way for our community to network.We strongly encourage our members to

get active in a local group, which tends to sup-port Alcor’s membership growth objectives.

New groups recently started:

Where: Chicago, ILContact: Paul BattistaEmail: [email protected]

Where: St. Petersburg, FLContact: Greg JordanEmail: [email protected]: http://cryonics.meetup.com/46

Membership Billing DifficultiesIn late 2006, Alcor began mainly sending

membership dues invoices by email, in anattempt to streamline operations and mini-mize postage expenses. This was less reliablethan desired, so printed invoices are againbeing sent through the postal mail. Those cur-rently receiving invoices by email for onlinepayment will continue to do so, in addition toreceiving printed invoices.

We regret that some members have notreceived one or more invoices as a result. Weare attempting to contact those who show abalance over 90 days past due and appreciatetimely response to our letters and phone calls.If you’d like to check on your account withAlcor, please contact:

Sheila Kimbrell, Bookkeeper877-462-5267 x 114 (toll-free)

480-905-1906 x 114 (local)480-922-9027 (fax)[email protected]

Cryopreservations In July, a last-minute case was accepted.

The patient was a Canadian resident with awill stating his wish to be cryopreserved byAlcor and directing his estate to pay the bill.The Alcor board chose to accept this casebecause of the clear statement of the individ-ual’s wishes for both cryopreservation and forAlcor specifically to perform the cryopreser-vation, and because the funding appeared tobe readily available. However, when theestate’s executor ran into challenges with thetrust company holding the estate funds, he


abruptly resigned. The lack of an executorfor the estate means there is no one to carryout the decedent’s wishes, leading to a delayedpayment. Several strategies are being dis-cussed with our attorneys.

The patient, A-2309, was straight-frozen,because of his unexpected death and the timedelays in getting his body to Arizona fromCanada, which placed him beyond the pointwhere vitrification was possible. We instru-mented the patient for acoustic monitoringand collected fracturing data. The first frac-tures appeared, naturally, at higher than nor-mal temperatures and this data will becomeinteresting as we collect more on similar casesin the future.

During the last few months, we also cry-opreserved two members’ cats and a mem-ber’s dog. These individuals had been makingpre-payments toward the pet’s cryopreserva-tion, but the animals all died suddenly. If youare interested in cryonics for your companionanimal, it is best to make arrangements well inadvance. Alcor now has 33 pets in its care.

Advanced Cryoprotective Perfusion System

Alcor’s Advanced Cryoprotective Perfu-sion System (ACPS) for whole-body vitrifica-tion is nearing completion. All of the neces-sary elements for perfusing the cryoprotec-tants through the body have control systems

now, i.e. the computer can control the cry-oprotectant’s temperature, pressure, flow,refractive index and more. We are adding thealarm conditions and constructing the userinterface. Of course, we must yet rigorouslytest the new system to make sure it works asintended. The ACPS will be the mostadvanced human cryopreservation system inthe world, with complete integration and con-trol of the relevant cryopreservation parame-ters, cooling, operator feedback, safety sys-tems, and graceful failure modes. More detailswill be provided in 2008.

Nanomedicine Support Continues in 2007

In June, Alcor announced on its blog thecontinuing support for development of theo-retical nanomedical protocols and devices.For the third year, Robert A. Freitas Jr. willreceive a grant from Alcor to continue hispioneering work in nanotechnology. Freitashas acknowledged Alcor’s support in severalpeer-reviewed, published papers. �

Sincerely,

Stephen J. Van Sickle

Membership data as of October 1, 2007


What will the future bring? This question is especially importantand haunting to those of us who have chosen cryonics: we want

to reach the future! However it turns out, we are betting it will beworth seeing and sharing. One such hopeful futurist, Alcor memberShannon Vyff, has written a science-fiction novel called 21st CenturyKids. It offers adventure and excitement for the young at heart of allages who like to stretch their imagination and ponder what life mightbe like in the world to come.

The story starts in2008. Twelve-year-old Avian-na and her younger brotherAvryn are in a fatal car crashand are cryopreserved.Avianna is hurt less so isrestored from cryopreser-vation first, 180 yearslater. A lot has changed,though basic similaritiesremain. People stillmainly inhabit bodiesof flesh, though withsome enhancementsto make themstronger and smarter.There is an option toupload into a robotbody and then, if

you wish, download backlater. Aging has been halted but not yet

reversed, so people already old might elect to upload intoartificial bodies and stay there, letting the original flesh die naturally inan unconscious state. There are many new faces and almost no famil-iar ones. Relatives and others who were born after Avianna was cryop-reserved have now developed into adults she must depend on as shecontinues with her education and upbringing. Her naturally high intel-ligence and the newly available brain enhancements rapidly close thegap between her and others her age.

A mystery has developed, however, with her little sister Avalyse,who was in the accident with Avianna and Avryn but survived. Aval-yse has long since grown to adulthood and had a long, distinguishedcareer, finally in her nineties uploading to a robot body to continue herlife unhindered. But more recently she joined an expedition to a dis-tant extrasolar planet. At some point all communications ceased, andno one knows the fate of the missing explorers. Avianna is determinedto find out what happened, but she too disappears on her journey tothe planet.

Not long after-ward Avryn isrestored to health.When he learns whatis going on he burnswith determination tosolve the mystery andfind his missing sis-ters. Starting as aphysical ten-year-oldbut very bright andpurposeful, he pro-gresses quickly, fur-ther enhances hispowers to become abit larger than life, and presses for a third expedition to the planet. Heis allowed to join by the expedient of uploading his personality to arobot body while, as a precaution, his natural body is safely dormanton Earth. If he — the robot — doesn’t return, his body on Earth canbe awakened and take up where he left off.

Anti-uploaders and robots’ rightists may be disturbed by theseantics which, along with the ending, I found jolly good reading. If youare among the bothered, you may have to suspend a little disapprovalalong with the usual science-fictional disbelief. Overall, though, I thinkmost with a reasonable futuristic itch will enjoy this anticipation ofsome of the possible future wonders. Don’t take it too seriously asprophecy — the real future will probably be different for a number ofreasons, including social, scientific, and so on. But it’s a fun read andI could imagine it might convince some readers, especially the youngpeople it’s mainly directed at, to look further into cryonics. (It couldalso make a fine holiday gift for children of cryonicists or friends.) �

For more information about 21st Century Kids, visit:http://www.21stcenturykidsbook.com/

21ST CENTURY KIDSAuthor: Shannon Vyff

book review by r. michael perry, ph.d.

Shannon, her husband Michael, and herchildren (clockwise from top),Avianna, Avryn, and Avalyse


Promoting CryonicsBy Shannon Vyff

There are many intriguing ideas about howcryonics can be promoted, but what’s a

simple thing we can all do? I’ve recently hadthe opportunity to give interviews about cry-onics while promoting my newly publishedbook, 21st Century Kids. Interviews are alwaysa fun way to hear the basic assumptions soci-ety has about cryonics, positive and negative.

But not everyone is comfortable givinginterviews, so what else can active Alcormembers do to promote cryonics? I suggesthanding out Alcor materials at a cryonics-friendly conference – a place where you arepopular just because you are a cryonicist!

When asked to run the Alcor informa-tion table at the World Transhumanist Associ-ation’s TransVision 07 conference in late July,I happily accepted. The conference, I knew,would be filled with people who had heardabout cryonics. I spent three days talking withpeople from all religions and different eco-nomic and educational backgrounds.

During my stay, I talked with at least 50people, none of whom were hostile to cryon-ics. I talked with young and old, couples andsingles, parents and children – and it felt greatto have people wanting to talk to me to findout more about cryonics. About all of themtook Cryonics Magazine and other literatureand around 60% of people took an applica-tion for membership. However, only onesigned to become an Alcor member. He hadlife insurance already in place and had beenresearching cryonics for years. For most oth-ers, the process of acquiring insuranceseemed daunting.

Now I had sort of assumed peoplewould be applying for membership with Alcorleft and right. I quickly realized that – yes, theattendees did know about cryonics, had

researched it extensively in many cases – yetthey were still not ready to sign the requiredmembership contracts.

Many people said they were planning onbeing cryopreserved at Alcor – their familyknows and is supportive, they have the fundsset aside, or they’ll sign someday. I explainedthat in the event of an accidental death, it canbe very difficult, almost impossible, to be cry-opreserved at Alcor without first becoming asigned Alcor member. I tried to convey thepeace of mind I get from knowing that ifsomething unexpected happened, I’d have thesupport of Alcor to assist in acquiring anoptimal cryopreservation with the best tech-nology in the field.

So I encourage you to help with promot-ing cryonics in a fun and non-confrontation-al manner by simply manning an informationtable at a futurist conference: AcceleratedChange, Singularity Summit, World FutureSociety, TransVision, and more... just contactAlcor about acquiring materials and key talk-ing points. In some cases, you can alsoinform Alcor about cryonics-friendly eventsthat they may want to speak or network at inthe future.

After you’ve gained some experience youmay want to try a technology conference oreven an end-of-life workshop in your areawhere you may encounter people who havemisconceptions about cryonics or simplyhaven’t heard of it. I find such experiencesrewarding. Many say they never thought of itbefore and are thankful to have heard more.I’ve taken materials to end-of-life workshopsat my church and talked with many friends. Insimply being open about my cryonicsarrangements in my everyday life, I am pro-moting the idea.

Finally, when people askhard questions about the soulor the pathophysiology ofischemic injury – questionsthat you may not be able toanswer to their liking – referthem to Alcor’s extensivelyinformative website where justabout all questions can beanswered. It is important toencourage them to considersigning up for cryonics as theylearn more. At any point theycan always choose not to com-

plete the process, but I’ve found that the morethat people learn, the more they appreciatethe comfort of taking a chance on cryonics.

Overall, I had a splendid time at TransVi-sion 07 talking with so many who knew aboutcryonics and were enthusiastic about itschance of working. It was exhilarating to bearound so many humans that care about andwork towards a better future for humanity.Even though I enjoy promoting cryonics topeople who’ve heard nothing about it, there issomething special about being in a room fullof people who fully support it. �

Shannon Vyff met some interesting people while handing outliterature about Alcor at TransVision 07 in Chicago.

Phot

o by

Hel

ene

De

Lillo

Pho

togr

aphy

,w

ww

.hel

ened

elill

o.co

m

Shannon Vyff

Shannon Vyff is one of the authorsof The Scientific Conquest of Death andthe author of 21st Century Kids. She isa K-2nd grade religious educationteacher and a La Leche League Leaderwho lives in Austin, Texas, with her hus-band and three children. She has beenan Alcor member since 2005.

Contact the author: [email protected]

Conferences of Interest:

Accelerating Changehttp://www.accelerating.org/

accelerating_change.html

Singularity Summithttp://www.singinst.org/summit2007/

World Future Societyhttp://www.wfs.org/2007main.htm

TransVisionhttp://www.transvision2007.com/

The Forsight Institutehttp://foresight.org/news/index.html

Know of more? Let us [email protected]


Alcor’s Tanya Jones at TV07By George Dvorsky

It’s funny how thesethings go. There I was

at the TransVision 2007celebrity reception inlate July, drinking whitewine, munching on horsd’oeuvres and eagerlyawaiting the arrival ofWilliam Shatner. I waslooking forward to aonce in a lifetime oppor-tunity.

And then I real-ized that I was in thecompany of TanyaJones, chief operatingofficer for Alcor. I had

never met Tanya before and I have yet to visitthe Alcor facility in Arizona. I was veryimpressed with her TV07 presentationfrom earlier in the week, and I wasbursting with questions.

So, as we were waiting for Shatnerto arrive, we began to chat.

To Freeze and ProtectDuring her talk two days prior,

Tanya gave conference attendees therundown on some of Alcor’s morerecent work and initiatives. It was afascinating glimpse into the world ofcryonics and what it takes to run acompany on the technological andsocial outskirts.

She noted how Alcor teams canbe rushed to the bedside of dyingpatients as they ready for the suffusionof cryoprotectants in preparation for cryop-reservation. Without this highly-engineeredliquid, preservation would be completely dis-astrous with each cell suffering a host ofproblems, including extensive ice crystalliza-tion and the eventual threat of it losing all itsphysical integrity. The cryoprotectant gel,which replaces the blood after death, essen-tially converts the body into a glass-like state.The body’s informational state is thus retainedat the highest level currently possible.

Consequently, getting the patient intocold storage quickly is paramount. As Tanya

noted during her presentation, “Time is trau-ma.” During the cocktail reception, I askedher how long would be too long. She repliedthat any kind of delay is detrimental, but thatafter 24 hours the real serious and irrevocabledamage starts to occur, namely cellular degra-dation and a host of other neural problems asthe brain begins to lose its cohesion andorganization.

I asked her if Alcor has a policy forrefusing to treat severely damaged patients,say a person that had been terribly damagedby autopsy or by a motor vehicle accident. Sheanswered that in such cases, where informa-tion theoretic death is all but assured, it is notup to Alcor but rather the predeterminedwishes of the Alcor member. When an indi-vidual signs up with Alcor they specify the

various extremes to which they will still agreeto be cryopreserved. Alcor unquestioninglyadheres to those wishes.

Tanya also described the freezing processwhich is done under strictly controlled condi-tions. The body is slowly brought down to theoptimally low temperature and is carefullymonitored for tissue fracturing. Quite frus-tratingly, every preservation that has ever beenconducted at Alcor has suffered from fractur-ing of some sort. Tanya described the soundas similar to ice-cubes popping when added toa drink.

Several presenters at TransVision 07 represented cryonics, including (left to right)

Ralph Merkle, Ph.D., Tanya Jones, Shannon Vyff, and her husband Michael.

William Shatner was a much-anticipatedspeaker at TV07, but one attendee found

his conversation with Tanya Jones equally captivating.

Chatting with...


I squirmed in my seat listening to thisdescription, wondering how our high techdescendants will repair this sort of “informa-tion theoretic” brain damage.

Honesty, Integrity, CredibilityI was impressed with Tanya’s honesty,

and I told her so. By being open about currentlimitations, Alcor come across as being lessinterested in the “sell” aspect and more con-cerned with creating a credible and legitimateindustry. Along these lines, I asked Tanyaabout regulation and whether or not shebelieves there will ever be such a thing as amonitored cryonics industry.

Not only did Tanya wholeheartedlyagree, she is convinced that it is inevitable andthat a big battle is looming. “But Alcor,”claimed Tanya, “is ready.” She quickly out-lined her plans and strategy for what shethinks will be a long and drawn out struggle toget the kind of regulation in place that wouldbe to the benefit of Alcor and the burgeoningindustry of cryonics – a battle that shebelieves will come sooner rather than later. Asit currently stands, Alcor is regulated underthe Anatomical Gift Act, which makes Alcora kind of glorified research lab and organstorage facility, which I suppose is better thanbeing acknowledged as a funeral parlor.

It’s this lack of recognition and back-

wards thinking that has arguably landed Alcorin trouble in the past. The scandalous TedWilliams affair, which Tanya claims is finallyall over and done with, is an example of howa new and unrecognized industry can faceundue challenges and public scrutiny. Moreformal and cogent regulation will not onlygive Alcor needed credibility as they work tocreate a viable business, it will also result in asafer and more effective industry.

From Grave to CradleInterestingly, while Alcor is primarily

concerned with cryopreservation, they arealso looking ahead to a time when cellularrepair will finally become possible. They proj-ect themselves as being an all-in-one facility.Today they cryopreserve people; tomorrowthey hope to be the company that restoreshealth to those that are cryopreserved.

To this end they are creating a researchlab in which rats will be cryopreserved andexperimented upon. This approach makesperfect sense. It will allow them to not justlook ahead, but to gauge the effectiveness ofcurrent preservation procedures and tech-nologies.

Jokingly, I complained to Tanya abouttheir use of rats. “The thought of a little cry-onics lab filled with frozen rats in tiny dewarsis unsettling,” I said. “Who wants to see a

revived rat running around? Why couldn’t youguys have used cute little bunny rabbitsinstead – it would be much better PR to see abunch of revived bunny rabbits hoppingaround.” Tanya laughed and noted how ani-mal experimentation will likely escalate toinclude larger animal models.

Cool CompanyI have yet to sign up for cryonics. My rea-

sons are, admittedly, personal, complicatedand even non-nonsensical. There may come aday, however, when I’ve reconciled my broad-er existential outlook with the prospect ofcryonics.

Until then, however, I will laud theefforts of Alcor and continue to advocate forthe right to a long life. They are certainly blaz-ing a fascinating trail into the future.

Oh, and I totally missed the opportunity tomeet William Shatner. I barely even noticedthat he was in the room when I was chattingwith Tanya. Now why do you suppose I haveabsolutely no regrets about that? �

George Dvorsky

George Dvorsky serves on theBoard of Directors for the Institute forEthics and Emerging Technologies.George is the Editor-in-Chief of Better-humans, co-founder and president ofthe Toronto Transhumanist Association,and the producer of Sentient Develop-ments blog and podcast. Mr. Dvorskyserved as conference chair for TransVi-sion 2004, the WTA’s annual confer-ence.

Taken from George P. Dvorsky’sblog, Sentient Developments, whichoffers transhumanist and technopro-gressive perspectives on science, philos-ophy, ethics, and the future of intelli-gent life: http://sentientdevelopments.blogspot.com

Tanya Jones presented at the World Transhumanist Association’s conference about the engineering developments underway at Alcor.


As a child, Maria Entraigues would flywith her parents to Spain each year to

visit her family. While there, she especiallyliked watching performances by her uncle, awell-known Spanish singer. Maria fondlyrecalls attending his concerts, which nour-ished her budding desire to become a per-former herself. “My uncle encouraged meearly on,” she says. Later in life, as lead singerfor the house band at the Sheraton Hotel inBuenos Aires, Argentina, Maria was alreadybeginning to live her dream. But that dreamgot a little bigger in 1991 when band audi-tions were held and she met Ruy Folguera, atalented pianist who easily passed the trial.

Maria and Ruy began dating shortlythereafter, brought together by their love formusic. Ruy is the progeny of a long line ofmathematicians and engineers, but he wasalways most interested in music and film andsought to be a composer. He was especiallyenamored with the combination of music andfilm, and remembers recording movie musicon tape as a young boy. Encouraged andinspired by one another, Maria and Ruy bothapplied for and received scholarships toattend Berklee College of Music in Boston,where they lived from 1992 until 1995. Mariais now a degreed voice performer, while Ruyearned degrees in commercial arranging andfilm scoring, which refers to writing the back-ground music for a movie or other produc-tion.

Since moving to their current residencein Los Angeles, California, in 1995, Maria andRuy have continued to combine their talentsin such a way that allows them to worktogether on many creative projects. Some-times Maria is even able to keep up her actingchops with roles in movies such as the WoodyAllen film Picking Up the Pieces, which Ruyscored. Most recently, Ruy did the electronicmusic and orchestrations for Rush Hour 3,while Maria worked as music direction assis-tant.

As part of their careers as performers,they often get to travel when a director asksthem to compose the music while a film isbeing shot. Their next project, in which Mariahas acting and singing roles, takes them toRomania to work on the movie Dare To LoveMe, a musical directed by famous directorAlfonso Arau about the life of Carlos Gardel.“We work on movies together a lot,” saysMaria. “We’re lucky that way.” With a studioin their L.A. home and an endless supply ofHollywood productions seeking soundtracks,it may seem like their luck will never run out.

But Maria knows better. “Since I was achild I have been obsessed with the fact thatwe have to age, deteriorate, and die and thatthere’s still no way out of it.” This obsessiondrove her to zealously research anti-aging sub-jects in her spare time. “I always have my lit-tle laptop with me,” she says. “I keep readingas much as I can on subjects related to lifeextension, medicine, biology, genetics, tran-shumanism, and bio-nanotechnology. I thinkI first read about Alcor ten years ago, butsomehow I thought it was only for verywealthy people and kind of a long shot any-way.”

Then, around three years ago, Mariabegan reading about Dr. Aubrey de Grey and

Member Profile:Maria Entraigues and Ruy FolgueraBy Chana de Wolf

Maria at a music video shoot for the end titles song she co-wrote with Ruy called

“Free Our Love” for the film “The MagnificentAmbersons,” which Ruy scored.


his plan for defeating aging called Strategiesfor Engineered Negligible Senescence(SENS). Realizing that she might be of helpin communicating his ideas, she offered herservices as a Spanish translator for his web-site. While attending Dr. de Grey’s secondSENS conference in Cambridge in 2005,Maria and Ruy met Dr. de Grey in person. “Itwas there, while at dinner, he passionatelyexplained to me why I should become an

Alcor member,” Mariarecalls. “I had no doubtthen.”

As a next step,Maria and Ruy attendedthe 2006 Alcor confer-ence in Scottsdale, Ari-zona. Having had such apositive experience atSENS, Maria was alreadyconvinced that sheshould sign up withAlcor. Ruy was “hooked”on the idea, but stillneeded to hear moreabout it. “Going to theconference was perfect,”Maria recalls. “We metmany members thereand had the chance toask them questions. The presentations werevery educational, and the tour of the [Alcor]facility was impressive. In a way we were ableto see that this is real, and we left the confer-ence really believing in it.”

But that doesn’t mean they are totallyconvinced that one day cryopreserved peo-ple will be repaired to a healthy state.“Nobody can guarantee that yet, but wereally believe in the project, and we under-stand that this is an option we have now. Inreality, it is the only option we have now,and even though the whole concept soundsfarfetched to most people, it is plausible.”The more Maria and Ruy informed them-selves about the cryonics experiment, themore reasonable it became to them. It wasa mere two months after the Alcor confer-ence that Maria and Ruy formalized theirmemberships with Alcor.

And their adventurous spirits don’tstop there. Maria, who has fostered a life-long fascination with astronomy and spaceexploration, woke up one morning in thenot too distant past with a strong urge toleave earth. “I have always wanted to go tospace,” she proclaims. Instead of becomingan astronaut, she did the next best thing –she learned to fly. Although many cryoni-cists would tremble at the thought of tak-ing up such a risky hobby, Maria feels thatpursuing her true happiness is one of themost important aspects of being a lifeextensionist. “What is the point of living along life if you don’t use that time to dowhat you enjoy most?” she asks earnestly.

Because of her interests, Maria some-times wishes she had dedicated her life to sci-

ence, enabling her to work on humanity’sbiggest problems with her own hands.“Becoming an Alcor member has, in a way,put me at ease in the sense that I am doing mypart towards helping something I reallybelieve in,” she reflects. “I feel special to bepart of an exclusive group of pioneers tryingto achieve probably the biggest milestone inthe history of humanity.” �

Contact these members:Maria Entraigues: [email protected]

Ruy Folguera: [email protected]

Maria and Ruy at the premiere of the movie “Zapata.” Ruy scored the music for the

movie and Maria sang and co-wrote songs for the soundtrack.

Maria in the Alcor patient care bay during her tour of the facility at the 6th Alcor conference

Maria and Ruy are licensed pilots and areshown here flying their personal airplanes.


MARKETING CRYONICSBy David Pascal

How can we get a better response to cryonics from the public?Clearly our existing efforts have not been a success. The num-

bers speak for themselves. There’s been over forty years of mediacoverage and press attention. And the result? Barely more than athousand people signed up and funded for cryopreservation. Eachyear cigarettes, illegal drugs, and pop tunes sell in the billions. Cryon-ics memberships sell in the dozens. More media attention has beenlavished on cryonics than on Madonna. Yet almost no one seems towant it.

Why? Advocates of cryonics speculate that we seem hard-wiredby evolution to crave self-termination or that we live in a culture ofdeath. Of course these are myths; no ‘death gene’ has ever beenfound, and our ‘culture of death’ spends billions each month on med-ical care and longevity enhancement.

But perhaps the most crippling myth is that we have done all wecan to sell cryonics. Our marketing efforts have failed, and so anymarketing efforts will always fail. This is a bit like saying that since ifyou try to hop to the moon in one mighty bound, but only rise a fewfeet, then rockets can never reach the moon either.

But rockets have reached the moon. And well-funded, carefully-researched, thoughtfully-designed marketing efforts have gainedworldwide popularity for innumerable products. Professional market-ing expertise can help. That’s why every major firm in existenceengages in marketing. Because, done right, it works.

But how do professionals do it properly? What is marketing?How does it really function? And how might we successfully apply itto cryonics?

When it comes to successfully

marketing cryonics,

David Pascal has a bright idea:

Think inside the box


The Marketing ProcessThe first step in understanding marketing

is to put aside misunderstandings.First of all: marketing is not advertising.

It is not about getting press attention ormedia coverage or even about better publicrelations. Yes, those things are sometimes –not always – elements in a marketing cam-paign. But the core of marketing lies in spe-cialized processes of information-gathering,and in using that information to shape whatone offers to the market, and how one pres-ents that offer.

It isn’t about presenting something youwant and promoting the reasons that youwant it. It’s about asking the public what theywant, and providing and presenting it in waysthat they respond to.

Marketing is a kind of creative empathy.And it is through such creative empathy –professionally structured and applied – thatthe challenge of building memberships andgaining public approval can be found. Pro-vided we have the will and discipline to seekit.

How is professional marketing structuredand applied? Essentially it involves six steps.The first step is defining your goals. And inbusiness, goals are best achieved the moretightly they are focused. It isn’t always a mat-ter of pursuing growth in every sense andevery way. Rolls-Royce, aimed at a tiny nichemarket, is a thriving success. The Edsel andthe Yugo, aimed at mass sales, are out of busi-ness. Does an organization want more cus-tomers or more income? Does it want pres-tige or notoriety? Either can be achieved, butthe first step involves vision: what and wherespecifically do you want your organization tobe?

Answering that question shapes what theresearch goals should be. And once theresearch goals are set, marketers gather asmuch relevant information as they can aboutthe consumers they’re targeting. Commontools are surveys, questionnaires, focusgroups, interviews, and covert or directobservation.

Sample markets need not be huge –Gallup Polls of nationwide accuracy requireno more than 1500 people. But that popula-tion must be carefully balanced and selected.Fifteen hundred individuals at randomattending a Billy Graham rally, or kinder-

garten, will not be representative. Once a rep-resentative sample is determined andexplored, however, something pricelessresults: hard data about that target market’slikes, dislikes, concerns, preferences – all therelevant factors that go into their behavior asa consumer.

The next step? Marketers apply thatinformation to shaping or packaging theproduct in a way that satisfies consumer crite-ria for making a purchase. This step is critical.Again, and contrary to rumor, marketers donot ram unwanted products onto the publicthrough relentless repetition. It is far safer,easier, and more effective simply to find outthe consumers’ preferences, and then createor present products that satisfy those prefer-ences.

When an appealing product or approachis crafted in this way, and when tests showsamples of the public responding positively,then mass promotional approaches are added.This is where advertising often comes in.Although alternative means of promotion arecommon too, such as word-of-mouth market-ing, telemarketing, direct sales, ‘stealth’ orviral marketing, and other approaches.

Once this carefully-designed product ispresented to the public, the fifth step begins:monitoring the reaction of the market andgetting feedback.

And the last step? The last step involvesincorporating that feedback, looping it backinto the beginning of the process, and goingthrough the whole process again, so that theproduct is continually being upgraded and re-

configured to mesh as tightly as possible withconsumer preferences.

That’s why the process is so powerful. Itdoesn’t push things people don’t want. It findsout what they do want and then gives it tothem. Resisting good marketing means resist-ing the things you most desire. Very few peo-ple can do that. Very few want to.

And what particularly makes it powerful isthe fact that it is not rooted in speculation, butin hard data. It’s easy enough to sit around atable and express one’s gut feeling as to whatthe market may want. But an expressive gut isnot a marketing tool. Market researchers donot speculate. They gather data until they canmake statistically valid predictions about publictastes and public behavior.

Learning How to ListenCould we apply this process to cryonics?

Certainly. And I strongly encourage the exist-ing cryonics organizations to give it a try. Astatistically valid study of public reactions tocryonics could be done easily enough througha competent marketing research firm. I per-sonally would suggest an extensive in-depthprofessional study examining everything fromthe packaging, pricing and services the publicmight like in this area, to more subtleapproaches such as psychographic and seg-mentation analysis.

Gathering the data will be challenging.But it will be rewarding. Because all we knownow for sure is that the existing approacheshave not worked. They haven’t workedbecause we’ve been presenting cryonics topeople in a way that doesn’t appeal to them.We need to find out exactly why it doesn’tappeal, and we need to find out what does. Ifall we do repeat what doesn’t work, all we’llget is the same results.

Numbers and Depths Suppose that Alcor considered offering

some form of DNA testing to the public aspart of its business service. Or suppose thatit considered opening a Toronto facility.These are closely focused, specific questions.Once such questions have been developed,simple polling or data gathering can provideinformation that would help Alcor make abetter business decision. This is the functionof what is called quantitative marketingresearch.

Marketing is the systematic discovery of whatthe market wants and how the market likes to

be approached based on qualitative and/orquantitative market research. It then shapes

and re-shapes the product and/or its presenta-tion until those wants are satisfied.


Other marketing questions are wider andmore open-ended. “Why do people join orleave?” “What kind of visual imagery mightbe most effective?” “How can we get morepeople to sign up?” And then there’s themost challenging question of all – “Whichquestions are the best ones to ask?” Becausethe fact is that you often have to study themarket before you can even frame the rightquestions.

This area involves qualitative, orexploratory, research. Good qualitativeresearch probes deeper market preferences.The questions used in quantitative researchideally develop from qualitative research, andthat’s where good marketing really begins.

I suspect this will especially be the casewith cryonics. You see, few people realizethat casual information-gathering often mis-leads more than it informs. Consumers oftendon’t really know what motivates them to buy,and the reasons they give when they’re askedhave little – although not nothing – to do withit.

Political marketers know this well. Ininterviews and focus groups, respondentsoften select the more politically correct candi-date because that’s the choice that’s sociallyapproved. Yet once in the ballet box, votes goto the hard-liner who calls for criminals tohang.

This isn’t simple hypocrisy. People’sreports about themselves are honest ones.Respondents really do believe that health foodis healthy and junk food is junk. Unfortunate-ly, they go out and buy the junk food anyway.And marketing is concerned with what theydo, not what they say.

How does this affect cryonics? Greatly.Simply put, the rational case has failed. Cry-onicists have made a very rational case fordecades, and the case could not be stronger.If cryonics works, you live – perhaps for avery, very long time. If it doesn’t, you remainno deader than you would have been other-wise. It is an affordable choice betweenpotentially tremendous gain and nothing tolose. Yet, the choice has almost invariablybeen against cryonics.

Many of us have experienced this, I’msure, in talks with people. Objections nosooner come up than we shoot them down.‘No reputable scientist supports cryonics.’ Drexler,Minsky, Merkle, Fahy, Wowk, de Grey, Harris.

‘It’s too expensive.’ Insurance can make cryop-reservation as affordable as cable. ‘You can’traise the dead.’ What about the thousandswho’ve died on operating tables and beenrevived? The embryos that have been frozen,implanted, and brought to term?

Each objection has an answer. Andwhen all the objections are answered – the lis-tener still creeps away. Clearly there are aver-sions to cryonics that have nothing to do withthe reasons given.

The reasons given are certainly not irrel-evant, and the practice of educating the pub-lic is certainly very important. Advertisingicon David Ogilvy nailed this perfectly whenhe said that buyers have a very deep need forrational reasons – to justify the irrationalurges that really drive their choices.

Can marketing techniques unearth thosedeeper, less obvious reasons? Of course.Entire branches are devoted precisely touncovering visceral and unconscious reac-tions. Marketing analysts such as Harvard’sDr. Gerald Zaltmann1 and France’s Dr.Clotaire Rappaile2 regularly – and successfully– employ projective psychological techniquesto probe such factors for leading Fortune 500companies.

What might such factors be in cryonics?They may well be related to subjective fearsinvolving helplessness and dependency whilein a vulnerable state. Or fears of social con-demnation. Or the result of childhood pho-bias relating to fears of defying God or the‘natural order of things.’ Or quite probablysomething which we don’t, at the moment,even suspect. Which reasons are central?How can they best be addressed? You simplydon’t know until you do the research.

But one thing we do know: the explicitresponses people give in focus groups andquestionnaires are not clearly reflected in theirsubsequent behavior. Those responses mat-ter; they are a critical part of shaping or justi-fying that behavior. But they don’t alwayspredict it or explain it. In the case of cryon-ics a depth approach will almost certainly benecessary.

Social PsychologySemi-rational factors explored by both

qualitative and quantitative research are partof the discipline of social psychology. Acad-emic researchers from Stanley Milgram3 to

Robert Cialdini4 have shown decisively thatmany of our most important choices aremade simply because of social influence. Wesee similar others making a choice and wemake the same choice. Humans are an imita-tive species, deeply predisposed to grouppressure and peer influence. And I suspectthis has affected the acceptance of cryonicsprofoundly.

Cryonics members are rare. Many ofthem are isolated or anonymous. Few adver-tise their affiliation. Fewer still are householdnames known to the common man. The vastmajority of potential cryonics members don’tknow, see, or associate with anyone who haschosen the cryonics option.

Fortunately, marketing problems tend tocontain the clues to their solution. I once sug-gested to more than one cryonics organiza-tion that it write a letter to every agent in theentertainment and arts industries, pointingout the media attention likely to follow theirfamous client should that client sign up forcryonics. Would it be possible to persuade apublicity agent that if publicity at any price isgood, worldwide publicity for the price of anAlcor membership would be a good bargainindeed? I think so. If Qaballah can getMadonna in the papers for months, why can’tcryonics?

Behind the suggestion lies marketingpractice and social-psychological principle.Research in both areas shows that people willdo what they see others doing. Most Ameri-cans are not moved by Eric Drexler’s or Mar-

To choose cryonics is often to stand alone –and to face the social criticism that accrues to

anyone who does something outside the ordinary. Social psychology predicts that veryfew people indeed will take such a singular

option. And the history of cryonics confirms it.


vin Minsky’s choice for cryonics because mostAmericans do not know who these worthygentlemen are. If they saw a Tom Hanks, aDanny De Vito, a Tiger Woods opting forcryopreservation and liking it, would they bemore inclined to sign too? The studies pre-dict yes.

Or consider families. One reason thegrowth of family memberships in cryonics ison the rise is that children and spouses and sib-lings see significant, similar, respected othersmaking the choice for cryonics. They see oth-ers do it, and so they make the same choice.The more families join, the more the effectspreads. And marketing policies can be shapedto encourage this and to encourage it in othersocial networks, possibly with social networkswith compatible outlooks such as transhuman-ists, extropians and other futurists.

Another social psychology principle iscognitive dissonance. Get people supportingan idea intellectually, even without commit-ment, and commitment follows. People whoare asked to make a positive case for some-thing end up convincing themselves.

One marketing idea along these linesmight be to blanket as many universities aspossible with the annual offer of a thousanddollars in scholarship funds for a winningessay about why one should sign up for cry-onics. The organization would look good forsupporting education; students would benefit;and many of them would be thinking andarguing strongly in favor of cryonics member-ship. Theory and practice suggest member-ships would burgeon.

Science and the Science of Marketing

Marketing cryonics can be a frustratingbusiness. Perhaps understandably. Existingcryonics organizations are not marketing

firms. They have many other duties to per-form, and many other services to provide.

But the value of a specialist organizationfocused on such efforts is obvious. To thatend, in late 2005 publisher and direct mailspecialist Nick Pavlica, Canadian attorneyBruce Waugh, and I formed a nonprofitorganization called the Cryonics Society(www.cryonicssociety.org) to do just that –put a polished professional case for cryonicsbefore the public.

So far the Society has already put a posi-tive message about cryonics before hundredsof thousands of people. And it has not beeneasy to do. The Cryonics Society is not affili-ated or supported by any cryonics servicesorganization. The only support we get comesfrom tax-deductible contributions by peoplein the cryonics community. What we can doin the future depends totally on how muchsupport people give us today. But to thedegree that the Society has already raisedawareness of cryonics and the need to marketit better, our efforts have been well spent.

And what should we be most aware of?That ways to make cryonics more acceptableto the public are there and that there areproven methods to find them. Cryonics canbe made appealing, attractive, desirable, evenpopular. If pet rocks and tobacco and bungeejumping can be sold, cryonics can too. It issimply a matter of studying the market andfinding the key.

I have always been surprised at the wayadvocates of cryonics champion science,analysis, and the use of qualified professionalsin technical research – yet rely on luck, intu-ition, and guesswork when it comes to mar-keting. When we learn to apply the same pro-fessional rigor to social research that we applyto cryobiological research, we will take a giantstep towards making cryonics a reality. �

David Pascal

David Pascal is a marketing consult-ant living in Upstate New York. For-merly Member Relations and PublicRelations Coordinator at the Cryon-ics Institute, David is currently Sec-retary of the Cryonics Society, anindependent non-profit organizationdedicated to the better promotionof cryonics. He has a Bachelor ofScience degree in Psychology and aBachelor of Arts degree in Interdisci-plinary Studies in the Humanities.Pascal is a professional copywriterand has worked as a freelance mar-keting consultant since the mid-nineties for companies such asXerox and Kodak.

More information about the Cryon-ics Society is available online atwww.CryonicsSociety.org.

More information about David andabout marketing is available at hisweb site at www.davidpascal.com

Contact the author:[email protected]

1 Zaltman, G., How Customers Think, Harvard Business School Press: 1st ed., 2003.

2 Rapaille, C., The Culture Code, Broadway Press: 1st American ed., 2006.

3 Milgram, S., Obedience To Authority, Harpercollins: 1st ed., 1974.

4 Cialdini, R., Influence, Collins: 1st ed., 1998.

References

Phot

o by

John

Ret

alla

ck


CRYONICSUsing low temperatures to care for the critically ill

By Aschwin de Wolf

IntroductionIn contemporary medicine terminally ill

patients can be declared legally dead usingtwo different criteria: whole brain death orcardiorespiratory arrest. Although many peo-ple would agree that a human being withoutany functional brain activity, or even withouthigher brain function, has ceased to exist as aperson, not many people realize that mostpatients who are currently declared legallydead by cardiorespiratory criteria have not yetdied as a person. Or to use conventional bio-medical language, although the organism hasceased to exist as a functional, integratedwhole, the neuroanatomy of the person is stillintact when a patient is declared legally deadusing cardiorespiratory criteria.

It might seem odd that contemporarymedicine allows deliberate destruction of theproperties that make us uniquely human (ourcapacity for consciousness) unless one con-siders the significant challenge of keeping abrain alive in a body that has ceased to func-tion as an integrated whole. But what if wecould put the brain “on pause” until a timewhen medical science has become advancedenough to treat the rest of the body andrestore the patient to health?

Metabolic ArrestPutting the brain on pause is not as far

fetched as it seems. The brain of a patientundergoing general anesthesia has ceasedbeing conscious. But because we know thatthe brain that represents the person is stillthere in a viable body, we do not think ofsuch a person as “temporarily dead.”

One step further than general anesthesiais hypothermic circulatory arrest. Some med-ical procedures, such as complicated neuro-surgical interventions, require not only cessa-tion of consciousness but also complete ces-sation of blood flow to the brain. In thesecases the temperature of the patient is low-ered to such a degree (≈16 degrees Celsius)that the brain can tolerate a period withoutany circulation at all. Considering the fact thatparts of the human brain can become irre-versibly injured after no more than five min-utes without oxygen, this ability of the brainto survive for at least an hour at these temper-atures without any oxygen is quite remark-able.

Again, because we know that in the abovecases the brain that represents the person isstill there in a viable body, we do not think ofsuch a person as “temporarily dead.” These

Conventional medicine routinely puts

the brain “on pause” to treat a patient,

such as with general anesthesia and

hypothermic circulatory arrest. Because the

person is capable of being restored to health,

these unconscious states are distinguished

from death. Using the same philosophy, is it

possible that cryonics patients could come to

be seen as undergoing long-term critical care?


examples illustrate that the medical communityalready recognizes and accepts the fact that amedical procedure that produces loss of con-sciousness, and even loss of circulation, doesnot constitute irreversible death.

Unfortunately, general anesthesia andhypothermic circulatory arrest cannot be usedto pause the brain long enough to find a treat-ment for a person who has been declared legal-ly dead by cardiorespiratory criteria. A personunder general anesthesia may require tens, ifnot hundreds, of years of artificial circulationto keep the brain viable until medical science isable to return him to health. Leaving financialconsiderations aside, artificial circulation of anorgan, let alone such a vulnerable organ as thebrain, will produce increasing brain injury overtime, and ultimately, destruction of the person.

Hypothermic circulatory arrest eliminatesthe need for metabolic support of the brain,but only for a limited period of time. Currentresearch into hypothermic circulatory arrestindicates that the brain might tolerate up to 3hours of complete circulatory arrest if thetemperature is lowered close to the freezingpoint of water (zero degrees Celsius). This isnot nearly long enough to put the brain onpause to allow the patient to reach a time wherehis current medical condition may be treatable.In light of these limitations, it is understand-able that no serious attempts are currentlybeing made to continue long-term care for apatient whose body has stopped functioning asan integrated organism.

But if low temperatures can extend theperiod that the brain can survive without circu-lation, much lower temperatures should be ableto extend this period even further. At -196degrees Celsius, during human cryopreserva-tion, molecular activity has become so negligi-ble that it can be said that the brain has beenput on pause in the literal sense of the word.This allows the patient to be “transported” toa time when more advanced medical technolo-gies are available, even if this would requirehundreds of years. Advocates of human cry-opreservation argue that long-term care atcryogenic temperatures offers a rational alter-native to the current practice of burial and cre-mation of persons no longer treatable by con-temporary medicine.

VitrificationContrary to popular views of cryonics,

cryonics is not about preserving dead peoplebut about long-term care of critically ill patients.The objection that cryonics is an attempt toresuscitate dead people reflects a misunder-

standing of the philosophy behind cryonics.Human cryopreservation does not offer any-thing radically different than the already estab-lished rationality behind general anesthesia andhypothermic circulatory arrest; it merely intro-duces lower temperatures and longer care. There-fore, the difference between contemporarymedicine and cryonics is quantitative, not qual-itative, in nature. Likewise, the relationshipbetween cryonics and religion is not qualita-tively different than that between contempo-rary medicine and religion. In both cases med-ical technology is used to preserve life.

But does the procedure of cooling apatient to cryogenic temperatures not causeinjury in itself ? Most of the human body con-sists of water and lowering the body belowthe freezing point of water will produce mas-sive ice formation. For this reason, patientswho present for cryonics are protected fromice damage by using a cryoprotective agent toreduce, or even eliminate, ice formation. Con-ventional extracorporeal bypass technologiesare used to circulate the solution throughoutthe body. When enough water is replaced withthe cryoprotective agent the patient is main-tained at cryogenic temperatures for longterm care. Historically the cryoprotectiveagents that were used in cryonics are main-stream cryoprotective agents for cells such asDMSO and glycerol. High concentrations ofglycerol or DMSO can significantly reduce iceformation, but cannot eliminate it altogether.

A better alternative to conventional cry-oprotection is vitrification. Vitrification offersthe prospect of cooling an organ to cryogenictemperatures without ice formation. Althoughvitrification of pure water requires extremelyhigh cooling rates, these cooling rates can begreatly reduced if high concentrations of cry-oprotective agents and “ice blockers” areadded. Ice blockers are synthetic variants ofnaturally occurring anti-freeze proteins used byhibernating animals to protect themselvesfrom freezing injury. This vitrification agent isintroduced in a so-called “carrier solution”which includes molecules to prevent cellswelling, support metabolism, maintain physio-logical pH, and prevent oxidative damage. Thevitrification agent is introduced in a gradualfashion to prevent excessive volume changes incells. During the final stages of cryoprotectantperfusion the temperature is dropped belowzero to protect the cells from toxicity that iscaused by high concentrations of the vitrifica-tion agent at higher temperatures.

The current generation of vitrificationagents can preserve the fine details (ultrastruc-

ture) of the brain without requiring unfeasiblecooling rates. Although electrical activity hasrecently been demonstrated in vitrified rabbitbrain slices, reversible vitrification of thehuman brain without loss of cellular viability iscurrently not possible. The current researchobjective, therefore, is to improve on these vit-rification agents to allow for reproducible vitri-fication and recovery of organs with completelong-term viability. Such a breakthrough wouldnot only lead to cryogenic organ banking fortransplantation and research but would removethe most fundamental obstacle to suspendedanimation of humans.

Brain Death and CryonicsAlthough a vitrified patient cannot be

rewarmed and restored to health with con-temporary technologies, the extremely lowtemperatures at which a patient is main-tained permit possible resuscitation of apatient in the far future without any risk ofdeterioration during long-term care. In thissense it compares favorably to proceduressuch a hypothermic circulatory arrestwhich allow for only a few hours to treat apatient. This not only offers the option totreat patients who cannot be treated withcontemporary medical technologies, it alsooffers the possibility to treat medical condi-tions where successful resuscitation is pos-sible but higher brain function will be lostif care is resumed at normal body temper-ature.

A good example of this is cardiac arrest.Patients who have suffered more than 5-7minutes of cardiac arrest can often be resus-citated, but some of the most vulnerable cellsin the brain (such as the hippocampal CA1neurons) will die within days of the insult.There are currently no effective medical inter-ventions or neuroprotective agents that willprevent such damage. As a result, today’smedicine can restore viability to such patients,but only by losing some, or most, higher brainfunctions.

If one believes that the objective ofmedical care is not just to preserve life in thesense of integrated biological function, butalso to preserve the person, then one wouldagree that such patients might be betterserved by interventions that place them underlong-term care in the form of cryonics.Although there is no guarantee that suchpatients will be restored to full functionality inthe future, the certainty of higher brain deathis an alternative that many people would pre-fer to avoid.


ConclusionHuman cryopreservation does not

involve the freezing of dead people. Cryonicsinvolves placing critically ill patients that can-not be treated with contemporary medicaltechnologies in a state of long-term care usinglow temperature biostasis in an attempt topreserve the person until a time when futuretreatments might be available. Philosophicallysimilar to such common medical practices asgeneral anesthesia and hypothermic circulato-ry arrest, cryonics does not require a funda-mental paradigm shift in how conventionalmedicine thinks about biology, physiology,and brain function. Although current cryop-reservation methods are not reversible, underideal circumstances the fine structure thatencodes a person’s personality is likely to bepreserved. Complete proof of reversible vit-rification of human beings would be suffi-cient, but is not necessary, to gain acceptanceof cryonics as a form of long-term criticalcare medicine.

The current alternative is death; or forpersons who are at risk of suffering extensivebrain injury, loss of personhood.

For very old and fragile patients, mean-ingful resuscitation would require reversal ofthe aging process. Obviously, the objective ofcryonics is not to resuscitate patients in adebilitated and compromised condition, butto rejuvenate the patient. Ongoing research infields such as biogerontology, nanomedicine,and synthetic biology inspire optimism thatsuch treatment will be available in the future.The fortunate thing for cryonics patients isthat even if fundamental breakthroughs inthese fields will be the result of long andpainstaking research, the cold temperaturesallow them time – a lot of time. �

This article is an abridged version of an intro-duction to cryonics that was solicited andpublished by Pharmaciae Sacrum, the annualpublication for pharmacology students at theUniversity of Groningen, the Netherlands.


The First Minutes After “Death”

As currently practiced, cryonics procedures can only be started after

legal death has been pronounced by a medical professional. To preventbrain injury between pronouncement of legal death and long-term carein liquid nitrogen all major cryonics organizations offer standby servicesto ensure that the time of circulatory arrest is minimized. In ideal circum-stances the cryonics organization of which the patient is a member willdeploy a standby team consisting of cryonics professionals to stabilize thepatient immediately after pronouncement of legal death.

A mechanical device is used to restart blood circulation and ventilatethe patient. Because the objective of this intervention is not to resusci-tate but to stabilize the patient this is called cardiopulmonary support. At thesame time the patient is lifted into a mobile portable ice bath to inducehypothermia to slow metabolic rate. A number of medications are alsogiven to support blood flow to the central organs, reverse and preventblot clotting, restore physiological pH, prevent edema, and protect thebrain from ischemic injury.

If the patient is pronounced legally dead at a remote location an addi-tional step to this protocol is added and the patient’s blood is washed outand replaced with an organ preservation solution to preserve viability ofthe tissue during transport at low temperatures. The organ preservationsolution that is currently used by cryonics organizations is similar to thecold organ preservation solutions that are used in conventional medicine(like Viaspan) to preserve organs for transplantation.

At the cryonics organization the patient’s blood (or the organ preserva-tion solution) is replaced with the vitrification agent to prevent ice forma-tion during cooldown to liquid nitrogen temperatures for long-term care.


Three and one half years ago the Alcormembership learned the importance of

remaining current and participating in thepolitical process of our home state of Arizona.Without rehashing the issues that confrontedus in 2004 suffice it to say that legislation intro-duced in that year could have had a devastatingaffect on our ability to fulfill our mission.

Part of the debate in that year centered onAlcor’s ability to accept patients under the Uni-form Anatomical Gift Act (UAGA). Under aCalifornia judicial decree Alcor received per-mission to accept anatomical gifts under theUAGA. Because one state (California) author-ized Alcor to receive anatomical gifts the thenexisting UAGA applied in Arizona.

For many years Jim Bush, a prominentPhoenix attorney and member of the Uni-form Laws Commission, has been pushingfor revision of the UAGA to conform to thechanges adopted by the Commission. In 2007,Arizona Senate Health Committee Chair Car-olyn Allen agreed to run that legislation.

From early on in the deliberations wewere deeply involved in the discussions andnegotiations. We knew that the ability ofAlcor to continue to accept its patients in Ari-zona was critically dependant on the clarity ofthe UAGA. Therefore, we inserted ourselvesinto the process early on.

One of the interesting aspects regardingany changes in the UAGA is the large numberof organizations that hold a stake in the issue.When Senator Allen convened a stakeholdergroup to review the provisions of the pro-posed bill, literally dozens of lobbyists andattorneys were present.

Mainly, their interest was to retain theability to receive anatomical gifts, but the give-and-take, as well as the jousting among theinterests, was too significant. Organ donororganizations differ mightily on this issue. Butwhile they all have issues with each other, theywere ambivalent at worst, and for the mostpart supportive, of Alcor’s concerns.

When the original bill was introduced, itwas clearly flawed from Alcor’s perspectiveand position. The clear statement of unifor-mity was missing. The provision allowing aprocurement organization to accept dona-tions if authorized to do so by the laws of anyother state, was not initially included.

Following the original stakeholder meet-ings there were significant amendments devel-oped which made improvements in the lan-guage of the original bill. Unfortunately, thelanguage was not yet crystal clear.

In conversations with Senator Allen, it wasobvious that she was not going to allow legisla-tion that would damage Alcor’s ability to contin-

Uniform

Anatomical

Gift ActProtecting Alcor’s InterestsBy Barry M. Aarons

Arizona lawmakers recently modified the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act. How has this affected Alcor, which accepts anatomical donations under that law?


ue operating in Arizona. She directed us to visitwith Jim Bush and work out the language thatwould rectify the error in the original draft.

At the same time, others in the Legisla-ture that have become Alcor supporters overthe past few years were on alert to make surethat corrective action was taken before the billcould be enacted into law. Had difficultiesoccurred, there were plenty of stops in theprocess where we could recommend changes.

It turned out that a simple, one word lan-guage change, was all that was needed to rec-tify the problem. Jim Bush agreed with thechange and in fact the change was so simplethat it was made as a verbal amendment in theSenate Health Committee. But it is importantto note that, simple or not, had the deficiencynot been noticed and changed during theprocess our rights under the UAGA may wellhave been jeopardized.

As we have articulated in the past the leg-islative process is a marathon, not a sprint. Itis important that we continue to be interested,observant and involved. Down at the Legisla-ture, absence does not make the heart growfonder. Down there, clearly out of sight is outof mind. When it comes to cryonics in Ari-zona, Alcor is committed to keeping the Leg-islature mindful of its best interests. �


The new Arizona Anatomical Gift Act is clear and protects Alcor’s interests.

The definitions section defines a procurement organization as:

“A storage facility that is licensed, accredited or approved under federal law or the laws of any state to engage in the recovery, screening, testing, processing, storage or distribution of human bodies or parts.”

Another governing section defining persons who may receive anatomical gifts says:

“An anatomical gift may be made to…a hospital, accredited medical school, dental school, college, university, procurement organization or any other appropriate person, for research or education.”

When taken together these two statutory declarations absolutely maintain the authority Alcor currently enjoys under the UAGA.An additional protective part of the new law that is generally part of all uniform laws says:

“In applying and construing this article, consideration must be given to the need to promote uniformity of thelaw with respect to its subject matter among states that enact it.”

Read the revised Arizona UAGA in full: http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/48leg/1r/bills/sb1099c.pdf

Barry M. Aarons

Barry M. Aarons is the owner of TheAarons Company, a public policy con-sulting firm. Aarons has over 30 yearsexperience in policy development, pub-lic affairs implementation and lobbyingin state legislatures and the U.S. Con-gress. He has represented the AlcorFoundation since 2004.


Tech News R. Michael Perry, Ph.D.

Gene Clue to Longevity Uncovered

The mystery of how eating less boostslongevity is closer to being solved. USresearch on nematode worms (Caenorhabditiselegans) published in Nature, has uncovered agene, pha-4, that is linked to this unusualeffect. The scientists say mammals have agene similar to pha-4. The find could lead todrugs that mimic the consequences of calorierestriction but negate the need for severe fast-ing regimes. Andrew Dillin is an author of thepaper and an associate professor at the SalkInstitute for Biological Studies.

BBC News5/2/07

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6612411.stm

To Treat the DeadThe new science of resuscitation is changingthe way doctors think about heart attacks—

and death itself. Cells cut off from their bloodsupply die hours later. So why can’t doctorsrevive someone who has been dead for onlyone hour? Because once the cells have beenwithout oxygen for more than five minutes,they die when their oxygen supply is resumed.This is known as reperfusion injury. It wasthat “astounding” discovery, says Dr. LanceBecker, an authority on emergency medicine,that led him to his post as the director of theUniversity of Pennsylvania’s newly createdCenter for Resuscitation Science. The Centerresearches one of medicine’s newest frontiers:treating the dead. A study at four hospitals,published last year by the University of Cali-fornia, showed a remarkable rate of success intreating sudden cardiac arrest with anapproach that involved, among other things, a“cardioplegic” blood infusion to keep theheart in a state of suspended animation.Becker also endorses hypothermia—loweringbody temperature from 37 to 33 degrees Cel-sius—which appears to slow the deleteriouschemical reactions touched off by reperfusionwith oxygen.

MSNBC/Newsweek5/7/07

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18368186/site/newsweek?GT1=9951

Diamond Offers Stable QuantumComputing Building Block

Surmounting several distinct hurdles to quan-tum computing, physicists at Harvard Univer-sity have found that individual carbon-13atoms in a diamond lattice can be manipulat-ed with extraordinary precision to create sta-ble quantum mechanical memory and a smallquantum processor, also known as a quantumregister, operating at room temperature. Thefinding brings the futuristic technology ofquantum information systems into the realmof solid-state materials under ordinary condi-tions. The results, described this week in Sci-ence, could revolutionize scientists’ approachto quantum computing, which is built on theprofound eccentricity of quantum mechanicsand could someday far outperform conven-tional supercomputers in solving certainproblems. “These experiments lay thegroundwork for development of a new

approach to quantum information systems,”says Mikhail D. Lukin, professor of physics inHarvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

ScienceDaily6/1/07

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070531142118.htm

Nanotech Guru Turns Back on “Goo”

The scientist many regard as the father ofnanotechnology, an umbrella discipline con-cerned with engineering objects and workingdevices from individual atoms and molecules,has backed away from his famous claim thatnanomachines could turn the planet into“grey goo.” Dr. Eric Drexler now saysnanomachines that self-replicate exponential-ly are unlikely ever to enter widespread use. Inthe journal Nanotechnology, he stresses that tinymachines would need close control in order tobe efficient. Dr Drexler says when he madethe statement in the 80s, he underestimatedthe impact it would have on the field. “WhatI did not expect was that efforts to quiet con-cerns over grey goo would lead to false scien-tific denials of feasible technologies.”

BBC News6/9/07


Pill to End Monthly PeriodsApproved

Lybrel, a birth-control pill that does away witha woman’s monthly period, was approved May22 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.The estrogen-progestin hormonal pill differsfrom traditional birth-control pills in that itdoes not include the “week off ” of placebopills that leads to a cessation of artificial hor-mones and onset of menstruation. Lybrel isdescribed as “continual contraception” but it“works the same way as the 21-days on,seven-days off [pill] cycle—it stops the body’smonthly preparation for pregnancy by lower-ing the production of hormones that makepregnancy possible,” explained Dr. DanielShames, deputy director of the FDA’s Office

Studies have shown that severe calorie restriction markedly extends lifespan in miceand many other species – but the reasons forthis have remained elusive. Could a gene be

behind this unusual effect?


of Drug Evaluation III at the Center forDrug Evaluation and Research.

Health.ivillage.com5/22/07

http://health.ivillage.com/gyno/gynonews/0,,wbnews_bmz3b2sf,00.html

Cooling May Have Helped SaveNFL Player’s Spine

When paramedics wheeled Buffalo Bills tightend Kevin Everett into Buffalo’s Millard Fill-more Hospital September 9, a life-threateningspine injury had rendered him functionallyquadriplegic and potentially paralyzed for life.But an experimental treatment may have dras-tically improved his chances of walking again,according to some doctors. The treatment,which involves an infusion of ice-cold saline,nudges the body into a state of hypother-mia—a step aimed at limiting the cascade ofevents in the body that can lead to furtherspinal cord damage after an injury. Dr. KevinGibbons, one of the neurosurgeons at MillardFillmore Hospital who operated on Everett,said that his team had decided to go forwardwith the cooling after Everett’s body temper-ature rose dramatically after his injury.“Although we are not sure that cold tempera-ture is good, we know high temperature is badin a neurological injury,” Gibbons said. Butthe procedure may have done more than sim-ply cool Everett down; it may also havehelped limit the damage caused by the injury.

ABC News9/12/07

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=3592871&page=1

Bush Aide Says Warming Man-Made

Professor John Marburger, who advises Pres-ident Bush, said it is more than 90% certainthat greenhouse gas emissions from mankindare to blame for global warming. The earthmay become “unlivable” without cuts in car-bon dioxide output, he said, but he labeledtargets for curbing temperature rise as “arbi-trary.” His comments come shortly beforemajor meetings on climate change at the UNand the White House. Despite disagreementon the details of climate science, he said: “Ithink there is widespread agreement on cer-tain basics, and one of the most important is

that we are producing far more carbon diox-ide from fossil fuels than we ought to be. Andit’s going to lead to trouble unless we canbegin to reduce the amount of fossil fuels weare burning and using in our economies.”

BBC News9/14/07


Saving MemoriesPhysicians can treat the symptoms ofAlzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenera-tive disorders, but there is no way to preventor reverse the underlying degeneration anddeath of neurons that characterize these dis-eases. Now research by scientists at Harvardand MIT suggests a potential new therapeuticapproach. The scientists have shown that agene called SIRT1 and a plant compound

found in red wine called resveratrol can pro-tect against neuron degeneration in a mousemodel of Alzheimer’s disease and amyotroph-ic lateral sclerosis. The researchers demon-strated that activating SIRT1 and injectingresveratrol, which have both been previouslyassociated with life-span extension in lowerorganisms, can also prevent cognitive prob-lems in the mice. “Thus, resveratrol is not onlyneuroprotective, it also improves cognitivefunction after severe neurodegeneration,” saysLi-Huei Tsai, the professor of neuroscience atMIT who led the research with David Sinclair,a professor of pathology at Harvard.

MIT Technology Review7/23/07

http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/19080/

Universal Flu Vaccine Being Tested on Humans

A universal influenza vaccine that has beenpioneered by researchers from VIB andGhent University (Belgium) is being tested forthe first time on humans by the British-Amer-ican biotech company Acambis. This vaccineis intended to provide protection against all ‘A’strains of the virus that cause human influen-za, including pandemic strains. Influenza is anacute infection of the bronchial tubes and iscaused by the influenza virus. Flu is probablyone of the most underestimated diseases: it ishighly contagious and causes people to feeldeathly ill. An average of 5% of the world’spopulation is annually infected with this virus.This leads to 3 to 5 million hospitalizationsand 250,000 to 500,000 deaths per year, withtotals much higher should a pandemic devel-op. Today’s flu vaccines need to be adaptedevery year and, consequently, they must alsobe administered again every year. A universalflu vaccine that provides broad and lifelongprotection—like the vaccines for polio, hepa-titis B or measles—is not yet available. How-ever, in the 1990s, VIB researchers connectedto Ghent University, under the direction ofProf. Emeritus Walter Fiers, invented a uni-versal flu vaccine. After further development,phase I clinical trials of the vaccine are nowunderway.

Intern Daily7/18/07

http://www.interndaily.com/reports/Universal_Flu_Vaccine_Being_Tested_

On_Humans_999.html

Resveratrol is shown to protect against neurondegeneration in animal experiments. It is

found in grapes, wine, grape juice, peanuts,and berries. In grapes, resveratrol is found

only in the skins. The amount of resveratrol ingrape skins varies with the grape cultivar, its

geographic origin, and exposure to fungal infec-tion. The amount of fermentation time a winespends in contact with grape skins is an impor-

tant determinant of its resveratrol content.

Source: http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/phytochemicals/resveratrol/


Insulin Signaling Possible Key to Extended Longevity

New research shows it may be possible toone day take a life-extending pill that mim-ics the healthy effects of exercise and alow-calorie diet by lowering insulin signal-ing in the brain. The key to a longer life islower insulin levels, said Morris White, apediatrician and endocrinologist at HowardHughes Medical Institute. Less insulinhelps cells fend off diseases that lead to anearly death, like cancer, said White, whosestudy appears in the July 19 Science. “Withcalorie restriction and exercise, cancer, dia-betes, cardiac disease and others all getpostponed. It still happens, but at a laterage. It’s thought to be at least partlyinvolved in the longer life span,” Whitetold United Press International. Insulin isthe substance made by the pancreas thatallows cells to metabolize glucose. Butrecent research shows that too muchinsulin is far from helpful and insteadmakes cells vulnerable to diseases that mayshorten life, like cancer, artery disease,Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Whilelowering insulin throughout the body canlead to a diabetic state, scientists found thatthe life of mice was extended by allowinginsulin levels to be high throughout most

of the body, while lowering the insulin sig-naling only in the brain through geneticmanipulation.

Intern Daily7/20/07

http://www.interndaily.com/reports/Insulin_Signaling_Possible_Key_To_

Extended_Longevity_999.html

Memory Seen in the MakingThe physical changes that occur when thebrain makes a new memory have beenobserved for the first time, say researchers,who hope to go on to map the distributionof memory across brain regions. GaryLynch of the University of California,Irvine, and his colleagues examined thejunctions between neurons—synapses—inthree dimensions using a technique calledrestorative deconvolution microscopy(RDM). In previous work the group devel-oped a fluorescent marker that attaches tosynapses in the brain that have recentlyundergone a certain type of neuron-to-neuron connection believed to be responsi-ble for encoding memory, called long-termpotentiation (LTP). In the current study theteam exposed live rats to a novel environ-ment and allowed them to learn its layout.They then removed the animals’ brains toexamine the hippocampus—a regioninvolved in memory—using RDM toobserve individual synapses. A secondgroup of rats was shown the new environ-ment but not allowed to explore it beforetheir brains were examined. A third groupwas allowed to learn the same new environ-ment but given a drug to block LTP. Onlyrats that had undergone learning and mem-ory acquisition without blockage of LTPshowed new synaptic growth.

Nature.com7/25/07

http://intl.emboj.org/nature/journal/v448/n7152/full/448397a.html

Implant Boosts Activity inInjured Brain

Brain function has been improved in apatient who was in a minimally consciousstate, by electrically stimulating a specificbrain region with implanted electrodes. Theachievement raises questions about thetreatment of other patients who have been

in this condition for years, the researcherssay. Patients in a minimally conscious state,often the result of severe brain trauma,show only intermittent evidence of aware-ness of the world around them. Typically,they are assumed to have little chance offurther recovery if they show no improve-ment during their initial 12-month rehabili-tation program. In the latest case study,Nicholas Schiff of Weill Cornell MedicalCollege in New York, and his colleaguesdescribe how they implanted electrodes inthe brain of a 38-year-old man who hadbeen in a minimally conscious state formore than six years following a seriousassault. By electrically stimulating a brainregion called the central thalamus, theywere able to help him name objects onrequest, make precise hand gestures, andchew food without the aid of a feedingtube.

[email protected]/1/07

http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070730/full/448522a.html


Some people who live past 100 may have a natural genetic tendency for lower insulin

signaling in the brain.


We were young and felt immortal.Though, time still had its way.Years hurried past without warning to leave only memories of sweeter days.

There should be angry indignationbecause everything we are just fades away.Is it inevitable that people age and die,or can we repair the havoc nature plays?

Modern medicine, as we know it,routinely saves lives once given up for dead.Marvelous discoveries we take for grantedhelp us avoid our ancestors’ fate.

What if we could strike a bargainto somehow keep death at bay?Cryonics offers the possibilitythat we might one day see this world again.

Some say freezing the body is too radical,or the concept seems unsound.Yet, the world of tomorrow may hold scientific wonders;amazing inventions we can only dream about.

Our date with death remains arbitrary,when the doctor tells us she can do no more.That end point will keep changingas technology and science evolve.

So, don’t bury my body to rot in the ground.Don’t scatter my ashes in the wind.I will gladly risk the unknown of a “frozen future”for one chance to be with you again.

Poem © 2006 by Beth Bailey

Contact the author: [email protected]

CR

YO

NIC

S

When I tell people that I have signed up for cryopreservation, the firstquestion I am usually asked is, "Why?" I wrote this poem to explain tofamily and friends the reasons that shaped my decision to join Alcor.

Beth Bailey,Alcor member since 2004

CRYONICS

FIND OUT MORE

ENROLL

What is Cryonics?

How do I find out more?

How do I enroll?

Cryonics is an attempt to preserve and protect the gift of human life, not reverse death. It is the spec-ulative practice of using extreme cold to preserve the life of a person who can no longer be support-

ed by today’s medicine. Will future medicine, including mature nanotechnology, have the ability to heal atthe cellular and molecular levels? Can cryonics successfully carry the cryopreserved person forwardthrough time, for however many decades or centuries might be necessary, until the cryopreservationprocess can be reversed and the person restored to full health? While cryonics may sound like sciencefiction, there is a basis for it in real science. The complete scientific story of cryonics is seldom told inmedia reports, leaving cryonics widely misunderstood. We invite you to reach your own conclusions.

The Alcor Life Extension Foundation is the world leader in cryonics research and technology. Alcoris a non-profit organization located in Scottsdale, Arizona, founded in 1972. Our website is one of

the best sources of detailed introductory information about Alcor and cryopreservation (www.alcor.org).We also invite you to request our FREE information package on the “Free Information” section of ourwebsite. It includes:

• A 30-minute DVD documentary “The Limitless Future”

• A fully illustrated color brochure

• A sample of our magazine

• An application for membership and brochure explaining how to join

• And more!

Your free package should arrive in 1-2 weeks.

(The complete package will be sent free in the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom.)

Signing up for a cryopreservation is easy!

Step 1: Fill out an application and submit it with your $150 application fee.Step 2: You will then be sent a set of contracts to review and sign.Step 3: Fund your cryopreservation. While most people use life insurance to

fund their cryopreservation, other forms of prepayment are alsoaccepted. Alcor’s Membership Coordinator can provide you with alist of insurance agents familiar with satisfying Alcor’s current fund-ing requirements.

Finally: After enrolling, you will wear emergency alert tags or carry a specialcard in your wallet. This is your confirmation that Alcor will respondimmediately to an emergency call on your behalf.

Call toll-free today to start your application: 877-462-5267 ext. 132 [email protected]

The Limitless FutureGet your FREE copy of Alcor’s

30-minute DVD documentary by visiting the“Free Information” section of our website

21st century - alcor life extension foundationpascal, a marketing consultant who has given...

Documents