Depressed Metabolism

The singularity is not near

Aschwin de Wolf — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:16:46 PST

Singularity skeptic Mark Plus drew my attention to the following blog post. The author writes that: Chalmers’ (and other advocates of the possibility of a Singularity) argument starts off with the simple observation that machines have gained computing power at an extraordinary rate over the past several years, a trend that one can extrapolate to...

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David Stove and the Plato cult

Aschwin de Wolf — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:53:52 PST

David Stove’s book The Plato Cult and Other Philosophical Follies is a remarkable collection of essays. As a staunch positivist ,the author is not impressed with most of what constitutes “philosophy” (or the quality of our thinking in general). As Stove laments in the preface, “there is something fearfully wrong with...

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Death is Gruesome…Cryonics Only Makes it Less So!

William Faloon — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:01:16 PDT

William Faloon is a Licensed Funeral Director and Embalmer (Florida license number: F042784) Human beings are largely unaware about the gruesome nature of “death” Humans also shy away from the mutilation that occurs during hospital surgery. Hollywood films portray cryonics in a glamorous high-tech manner that makes it appear that one’s body can...

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Interview with cryonics funding specialist Rudi Hoffman

Aschwin de Wolf — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 09:36:45 PDT

This is the fourth in a series of interviews with individuals in the life extension and cryonics movement. Rudi Hoffman is an Alcor and CI member and the most prominent seller of cryonics life insurance policies. His website with information about how to fund cryonics can be found here. Did you find out about cryonics before [...]

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The pursuit of cryonics as medicine

Aschwin de Wolf — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:20:35 PDT

The biggest obstacle to the acceptance of cryonics is medical myopia; the idea that someone who has been pronounced dead by contemporary medical criteria will still be considered dead by future criteria. Advocates of human cryopreservation strongly argue against this. There are few things more discomforting than the idea that medical professionals...

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The “yuck factor” and cryonics

Aschwin de Wolf — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:32:06 PDT

In sensationalized accounts of cryonics, explicit descriptions of cryonics procedures, and that of neuropreservation in particular, are used to invoke a negative response in the reader. Some bioconservatives have argued that disgust experienced in response to certain ideas and practices is “the emotional expression of deep wisdom, beyond...

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Reversible cryopreservation

Aschwin de Wolf — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:06:28 PDT

On the forum of the Immortality Institute there is an interesting exchange about the feasibility and time line for reversible cryopreservation. Cryobiologist Brian Wowk weighs in with some interesting observations: I think in the next 20 years more small animal organs, and perhaps some human organs, may be reversibly cryopreserved. The best...

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The future of Alcor

Aschwin de Wolf — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:53:05 PDT

Alcor’s recent news item about its 2009 Annual Board Meeting and Strategic Meeting contains a number of encouraging statements. On the front of institutional reform, however, there is not much news to report. The passage about the need to balance recruiting new Board members and preserving institutional memory reads as a rather uninspired...

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Baby boomers confront the reaper

Aschwin de Wolf — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:54:20 PDT

One question that is going to be of great interest is how aging baby boomers will confront aging and death. Where previous generations have found peace in religion and silent resignation, there are reasons to believe that this generation will not be so complacent. The baby boom generation, or at least those who have shaped [...]

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The 2009 SENS Conference

Ben Best — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 19:45:44 PDT

Once a year I try to attend at least one biogerontology conference. Although I attend biogerontology conferences out of personal interest, and at my own expense, they are the most fruitful grounds for promoting cryonics I have found, and this is especially true of SENS conferences. I have missed none of the four SENS conferences that [...]

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