tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34431464Mon, 12 May 2008 15:53:57 +0000Advanced technology, life extension, animal welfare, progress, and a few other things...http://arctime.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Arcturus3)Blogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34431464.post-4706833205421601045Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:06:00 +00002008-04-02T06:10:02.341+13:00One of the reasons I began this blog was to work out, somewhat in a more public arena, some of the ideas I have had. I was hoping to receive a lot of feedback in the form of comments, but the site has not had enough traffic to generate much comment. I haven't tried to advertise the blog, either. So I would like to take the next step. I will be presenting some of my ideas in a more public form inhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~3/262084439/change-of-blog-focus.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Arcturus3)<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~4/262084439" height="1" width="1"/>http://arctime.blogspot.com/2008/04/change-of-blog-focus.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34431464.post-3273076800389105287Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:14:00 +00002008-04-26T13:59:35.397+12:00However painful to watch, this is a must see video. Someday, humans will rise to empathy for other animals and stop the endless cruelty. Someday we will look back upon this period of human history like the days of cannibalism and headhunting. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~3/222369687/earthlings.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Arcturus3)<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~4/222369687" height="1" width="1"/>http://arctime.blogspot.com/2008/01/earthlings.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34431464.post-7979338041989098888Thu, 25 Oct 2007 20:28:00 +00002008-04-26T14:00:30.733+12:00This above all: to thine own self be true. William Shakespeare, Hamlet Act 1, Scene 3 In his essay, “The Abolition of Man,” C. S. Lewis (Lewis) wrote about the use of science and technology to modify the human mind. In particular, he considered the possibility that human beings in the future would be able to shape and modify their own minds into any form they desired. He argued that humans who http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~3/175065078/invention-of-man-response-to-c-s-lewiss.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Arcturus3)<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~4/175065078" height="1" width="1"/>http://arctime.blogspot.com/2007/10/invention-of-man-response-to-c-s-lewiss.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34431464.post-3002676529400415689Sun, 14 Oct 2007 04:31:00 +00002008-04-26T14:00:47.800+12:00Sunday First up was a panel discussion and question-and-answer on cryonics and critical care with David Crippen, M.D., a prominent critical care physician, Leslie Whetstine, Ph.D., a bioethicist, and Tanya Jones, of Alcor, moderated by Alcor's Aschwin de Wolf. The first two panelists did not seem much familiar with cryonics, and they and the audience had some heated discussion, but out of it http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~3/169632475/7th-alcor-conference-october-5-7-2007_14.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Arcturus3)<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~4/169632475" height="1" width="1"/>http://arctime.blogspot.com/2007/10/7th-alcor-conference-october-5-7-2007_14.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34431464.post-3337144261759243435Fri, 12 Oct 2007 17:22:00 +00002008-04-26T14:01:06.087+12:00Another wonderful Alcor conference!! Congratulations and thanks to all the organizers, speakers, and panelists. It was great meeting life extensionists and cryonicists from all over the world. Friday Arizona lobbyist Barry Aarons gave the welcome address. It is good to see Alcor's continuing political engagement, which Alcor needs to survive. But this time, there was a hint of something more http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~3/169044615/7th-alcor-conference-october-5-7-2007.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Arcturus3)<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~4/169044615" height="1" width="1"/>http://arctime.blogspot.com/2007/10/7th-alcor-conference-october-5-7-2007.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34431464.post-3717703237145766377Fri, 21 Sep 2007 16:07:00 +00002008-04-26T14:01:26.196+12:00Well, that was a bit premature of me. I haven't had time to continue the line of thinking from my previous post. But I can at least point out the obvious. As you can see from the graph in the previous post, the final appearance is not so very different from the initial appearance. Even after 48 hours, the neural membranes, while indistinct, still seem to be intact. The nucleus and nucleolus mayhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~3/159536226/slow-road-down-2.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Arcturus3)<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~4/159536226" height="1" width="1"/>http://arctime.blogspot.com/2007/09/slow-road-down-2.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34431464.post-2120410886708564984Fri, 31 Aug 2007 01:08:00 +00002008-04-26T14:01:40.135+12:00For many unfortunate people (more all the time), death begins long before the heart stops beating and the lungs stop breathing. The unique personal identity is eroded by loss of memory and disordering of personality from aging, injury, or some other cause or condition. But for those who manage to make it intact to prolonged cardiac arrest and cessation of breathing, how long does the brain last?http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~3/150771926/slow-road-down.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Arcturus3)<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~4/150771926" height="1" width="1"/>http://arctime.blogspot.com/2007/08/slow-road-down.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34431464.post-6432334461943204267Fri, 24 Aug 2007 20:08:00 +00002008-04-26T14:01:56.577+12:00I want to have the same last dream again, The one where I wake up and I'm alive — Just as the four walls close me within, My eyes are opened up with pure sunlight. I'm the first to know. My dearest friends, Even if your hope has burned with time Anything that is dead shall be re-grown, And your vicious pain — your warning sign. You will be fine. Any type of love, it will be shown, Like every http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~3/147845801/adventure.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Arcturus3)<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~4/147845801" height="1" width="1"/>http://arctime.blogspot.com/2007/08/adventure.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34431464.post-479506403611983543Fri, 10 Aug 2007 23:09:00 +00002008-04-26T14:03:29.730+12:00As you might have noticed from my profile avatar, I started this blog with quite a bit of optimism about the online virtual world, Second Life. In the last few months, though, my enthusiasm has waned considerably. I have decided to try to put down into words the reasons why I am rarely in Second Life anymore, and why I don't expect to be there very frequently anymore in the future. For one http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~3/142910060/second-death.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Arcturus3)<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~4/142910060" height="1" width="1"/>http://arctime.blogspot.com/2007/08/second-death.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34431464.post-5822966270191147029Sat, 21 Jul 2007 03:17:00 +00002008-04-26T14:03:47.887+12:00Estimated total cost of a space elevator: $40 billion Estimated total cost to date of U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq: $400+ billion I have long been impressed by the notion of using a space elevator to ferry solar power to the Earth. Barring the invention of better energy sources, Sol, our local star, will continue to be the biggest source of energy in our vicinity. The trouble is http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~3/137762917/umbilical-cord-to-sun.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Arcturus3)<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~4/137762917" height="1" width="1"/>http://arctime.blogspot.com/2007/07/umbilical-cord-to-sun.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34431464.post-3704138182724458608Fri, 22 Jun 2007 17:13:00 +00002008-04-26T14:03:47.888+12:00Once again, opportunities for federally-funded research with new human embryonic stem cell lines has been thwarted in the United States by one man and a likely 1/3+ of the U.S. Congress. Once again they have acted on their belief that it is more important to keep eight-celled cultures in medium, or simply destroy them, than to conduct research that might improve the lives, or even save the http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~3/137762921/embryonic-stem-cell-research.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Arcturus3)<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~4/137762921" height="1" width="1"/>http://arctime.blogspot.com/2007/06/embryonic-stem-cell-research.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34431464.post-4159969437228225252Fri, 25 May 2007 02:59:00 +00002008-04-26T14:02:18.920+12:00Notes Part 4 of 4 I can only vaguely reconstruct the great announcement at the end of Saturday’s banquet. I wasn’t taking notes, the announcement was very detailed, and I was beginning to suffer just a little fatigue from the day’s activities. So a caveat about everything I say about it. An anonymous donor has funded a multimillion-dollar grant proposal by Greg Fahy to work toward successful http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~3/137762930/conference-advances-in-human_7943.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Arcturus3)<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~4/137762930" height="1" width="1"/>http://arctime.blogspot.com/2007/05/conference-advances-in-human_7943.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34431464.post-1739003155280920941Thu, 24 May 2007 22:46:00 +00002008-04-26T14:02:30.382+12:00Notes Part 3 of 4 Note: These are just my summaries from my notes. As a layperson with bad handwriting and poor memory, I am sure I will have introduced errors that are not to be attributed to the speakers! Blame me not them if something is wrong or doesn’t make sense… Rudi Hoffman kicked off a new sort of panel, one focused on the financial implications of cryonics. Rudi is the most prominent http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~3/137762931/conference-advances-in-human_25.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Arcturus3)<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~4/137762931" height="1" width="1"/>http://arctime.blogspot.com/2007/05/conference-advances-in-human_25.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34431464.post-8992626988212863305Thu, 24 May 2007 00:49:00 +00002008-04-26T14:02:46.877+12:00Notes Part 2 of 4 Note: These are just my summaries from my notes. As a layperson with bad handwriting and poor memory, I am sure I will have introduced errors that are not to be attributed to the speakers! Blame me not them if something is wrong or doesn’t make sense… Brian Wowk, Ph.D., brought up the subject of intermediate temperature storage (ITS). Yes, brains fracture at liquid nitrogen http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~3/137762932/conference-advances-in-human_24.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Arcturus3)<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~4/137762932" height="1" width="1"/>http://arctime.blogspot.com/2007/05/conference-advances-in-human_24.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34431464.post-6655549101800448072Wed, 23 May 2007 12:38:00 +00002008-04-26T14:02:59.979+12:00 The conference was a wonderful opportunity to meet people involved in life extension and hear about the latest research. It truly is amazing, the dedication and persistence of people like Saul Kent, who has been involved since the 1960s I believe and who has contributed so much money to the effort, and people like Greg Fahy, who has been working on organ models of vitrification for over three http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~3/137762933/conference-advances-in-human.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Arcturus3)<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~4/137762933" height="1" width="1"/>http://arctime.blogspot.com/2007/05/conference-advances-in-human.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34431464.post-7544535308987235479Sat, 12 May 2007 23:57:00 +00002008-04-26T14:03:11.251+12:00 I'll be at the Suspended Animation conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida this weekend. I will post my impressions here. Eagerly looking forward to all the new information on new methods and approaches to cryopreservation, vitrification, and wealth preservation for the cryopreserved. The end of death is drawing nigh. How sad it is that so few people realize their deliverance is close at hand.http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~3/137762936/suspended-animation-conference-may-18.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Arcturus3)<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArcturanTimes/~4/137762936" height="1" width="1"/>http://arctime.blogspot.com/2007/05/suspended-animation-conference-may-18.html