The next Alcor Board of Directors meeting is scheduled for Saturday, May 5, 2012, at 11:00 AM (PDST) at the Alcor facility (7895 East Acoma Drive in Scottsdale, AZ). Members and the public are encouraged to attend.
Registration for the Teens and Twenties Cryonics Meeting Still Open
There are still 8 spaces available for the April 2012 Teens and Twenties cryonics meeting in Florida. If you are a funded member of a cryonics organization and meet the eligibility criteria, you can still register until Friday morning and apply for a paid scholarship to cover travel and lodging expenses. More information about the event and application forms are available here.
Associate Membership
Introducing a new class of Alcor member
Supporters of Alcor who are not yet ready to make cryopreservation arrangements can now become an Associate Member by paying $10/month. Associate members are members of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation who have not made cryonics arrangements but financially support the organization. They will:
- receive Cryonics magazine
- discounts on the conference
- access to the Alcor Member Forums
- reduced or waived (after one year of associate membership) sign-up fees if they do decide to become full members.
We will encourage members who are having to drop their arrangements temporarily due to reduced income to remain as Associate Members.
Associate membership is $10/month (or $30/quarter, or $120 annually). Send a check or money order to Alcor Life Extension Foundation, 7895 E. Acoma Dr., Suite 110, Scottsdale, Arizona 85260 or call D’Bora Tarrant at (480) 905-1906 ext. 101 with your credit card information. Or pay online using PayPal. If you want to receive Cryonics magazine, be sure to include your name and mailing address.
CEO Report
Communicating Cryonics
Planning for the Alcor-40 conference continues to move ahead. We announced the date and venue and will send out a “Save the Date!” notice shortly. I have outlined a schedule, gathered a list of potential speakers, and have started inviting some of them. Initial invitations are tentative since we are likely to have more potential speakers and topics than available slots.
The recent BIL 2012 conference, held on the Queen Mary in Long Beach on the weekend of March 4-5, drew some 800 people. This “unconference” informal companion to the TED conference attracted a diverse group of people who nevertheless seemed predominantly creative, enthusiastic about creating better futures, and technology-positive. Bonnie Magee organized local Alcor members to volunteer at our table, situated fairly close to the main entrance, where we talked to interested passersby and handed out information packs and copies of Cryonics.
My talk on cryonics followed immediately after that of Aubrey de Grey, and was titled “Join the 0.00002% and Live”. Along with Bonnie and the Alcor volunteers, I was able to seriously talk about cryonics and Alcor with many people over the weekend. Unexpectedly, I sat down at lunch on that Saturday with someone I had never met. By the end of lunch, she said she was definitely going to join Alcor and that she didn’t understand why everyone wasn’t doing so. Where can we find more of these “naturals”?
We’ve had some interest from Canada recently, taking two forms: I was interviewed on February 21 by a writer doing a piece on cryonics for the Canadian Medical Association; and on March 13 the Radio Canada show, Histoire d’objets conveyed a bit of what we do, based around the idea of the freezer (their object of focus for that show).
In a previous report, I noted my cryonics talk at the SENS5 conference in Cambridge. The video of that talk just became available online: Here are two links:
http://exponentialtimes.net/videos/max-more-cryonic-life-extension-sens5
http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2012/03/sens5-video-max-more-on-the-necessity-of-cryonics.php
If you live here in the Phoenix area, you can now pick up a copy of the Top Doctors special issue of Phoenix magazine, which includes an illustrated interview that I did with them a few weeks ago. The story is: “Death (un) Ltd. What happens to your body after death? Probably what you expect. Or maybe not – after all, this is Arizona.” Several pages of the article are devoted to Alcor, including several photos. The treatment is remarkably positive and accurate.
Also in the area of communication, I’m supporting an initiative by Aschwin de Wolf and Steve Bridge to produce a Best of Cryonics Magazine book. While he was in town this week, Aschwin and I visited our printer, were given a tour, and selected paper stock and binding style for both a paperback and limited hardcover version. The goal is to have the book available for the Alcor-40 conference in October. A two-part story, “Spending eternity in liquid nitrogen”, in the Canadian Medical Association journal was less favorable, with the writer insisting on referring to our patients as “corpses”, rather than the more neutral “bodies”.
Cost Analysis and Control
Bonnie and I have met with M&I Bank reps to find alternatives to existing expensive accounts for prepaid funds. With input from Hugh, I have met several times with the architect who was involved in moving the patient care bay six or seven years ago. This is to get a reliable estimate of the likely costs of expanding the patient care bay. Hugh and I have also estimated how long it may be until that expansion is needed.
Europe
We are moving ahead with building Alcor’s capabilities in Europe, starting with Great Britain. We are ready to ship the neuro dry ice shipper box to London, are evaluating the previous designs for whole body dry ice shippers, and expect to have all elements of the plan in place in the next month.
Resilience
When power went down this week at Alcor (and in a wide radius around us), we discovered that the backup uninterruptible power supply for the server was not even connected to the server. Our regular backup generator was working well. However, the incident prompted Lisa Shock to ask about regular emergency preparedness checks. We will be reviewing and improving emergency plans and holding checks on a regular basis henceforth.
We are relieved that one of Alcor’s previous two contract surgeons appears to have recovered his health. Even so, we have talked to two new surgeons, and will ask them to observe our next cryopreservation case (which we expect to be in the next couple of weeks).
Research
I have been involved in quite a bit of discussion about possible research projects. One of those – which will include, but not be limited to, testing our UK protocol – should soon be put before the Research Committee.
Max More, PhD
President & CEO
Alcor Co-Founder Fred Chamberlain is Cryopreserved
Fred Chamberlain III who, with his wife Linda, incorporated Alcor in 1972, was cryopreserved by Alcor on March 22, 2012. One week earlier, Fred relocated from Florida to a Scottsdale hospice. This allowed us to watch over him and respond immediately when needed. We believe that Fred received an excellent cryopreservation. More details will be released later. Fred (A-1002), a neuro member, was pronounced early in the morning of March 22, 2012.
Linda Chamberlain, has released a document to announce his cryopreservation and honor him:
“One of our great intellectual and emotional bonds was our interest in technological means of extending life. Fred and I incorporated the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in 1972; the minutes of those early Alcor meetings can be viewed by those who might be interested. Many details from those early years are available on Wikipedia.”
New Alcor Website
This week Alcor is launching a new version of its main website at www.alcor.org. This is the first major change to the appearance and navigation of the site since the extensive revamping in 2003. The site content remains the same, but the presentation and organization are improved. Content growth over the past decade had made the once-clear-and-simple menu system of the old site more difficult to use. The new pull-down menus make the rich site content easier to locate and navigate. The new site is also integrated with social sharing networks, and includes feeds from Cryonics magazine and Alcor News blog on every page. It explains more clearly the various media by which Alcor now communicates, including Facebook, Member Forums, RSS feeds, and email subscription options. The new site is the product of months of development by Alcor’s all-volunteer Website Working Group.
Alcor has come a long way since its first CompuServe account in 1986, BBS in 1987, and first website in 1995. Continue the journey with us on our new website.
The Prophets of Science Fiction
This is a series of eight shows produced by Tony and Ridley Scott. It’s about SF’s greatest writers and how they have influenced technology and culture. The last show is about Robert Heinlein and includes an interview with Alcor member Mark Voelker on cryonics and Robert Heinlein’s novel, The Door Into Summer. It will air on the Science Channel at 10PM E/P on Wednesday February 29th.
http://science.discovery.com/tv/prophets-of-science-fiction/episodes/
Alcor Board Meeting Rescheduled
The next Alcor Board of Directors meeting is now scheduled for Saturday, March 17, 2012, at 11:00 AM (MST) at the Alcor facility (7895 East Acoma Drive in Scottsdale, AZ). Members and the public are encouraged to attend.
Alcor-40 2012 Conference
Five years have passed since Alcor held a conference. 2012 is also Alcor’s 40th year. That means it’s time to hold a conference this year. The date and venue are now settled:
When:
Friday October 19 to Sunday October 21, 2012.
Where:
Scottsdale Plaza, 7200 North Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale, AZ 85253.
Rooms are $159/night for single and double rooms.
Registration rates will be decided soon.
The conference is an excellent forum where Alcor members and friends can catch up with one another, learn about the latest thinking in cryonics, and visit Alcor. At the same time, my goal is to keep expenses under control, aiming for the event to pay for itself.
Which speakers and topics would appeal to you? Our budget for speaker expenses will be extremely limited, but don’t assume that a well-known speaker will not be available without speaking fees.
Rather than cramming in as many speakers as possible, there will be ample time between sessions. The conversation and networking opportunities are one of the most valuable aspects of conferences.
Cryonics January-February 2012
The January-February 2012 issue of Cryonics marks the return of Alcor’s magazine as a bi-monthly professionally printed publication. This issue features two major articles on cryonics and brain-threatening disorders. The first article, by Cryonics editor Aschwin de Wolf, provides a framework for thinking about identity-destroying brain diseases and discusses what Alcor members can do to prevent them from threatening your cryopreservation. Alcor staff member Mike Perry returns to the topic of brain-threatening disorders and presents his updated findings on the options available to cryonicists who have been diagnosed with such a disease, (like Alzheimer’s).
After being CEO at Alcor for one year, Alcor CEO and President Max More reflects on his Alcor experience to date and we get a look into the interesting career of one of the pioneers of transhumanism. Another Alcor veteran, Russel Cheney, contributes an article about the importance of “superfunding” your cryopreservation arrangements.
Click on the cover image to download PDF version.
