Member Profile: Gregory Benford

[FEATURED ARTICLE]

Cryonics, 4th Quarter 2011

By Chana de Wolf

It may come as no surprise that many cryonicists are avid science fiction fans. After all, cryonics is only necessary because we can’t already reverse aging and cure lethal diseases, so being on board to see the (possibly far-distant) future is requisite. Indeed, cryonics is somewhat of a science fiction staple, and such stories have inspired a select few readers to investigate real-world cryonics since the very first writers began freezing characters as a means to move futuristic plots forward. But one of those writers is a cryonicist himself, and his name is Gregory Benford.

Benford, a professional research physicist since 1967 and professor at UC Irvine since 1971, also discovered cryonics through his love of science fiction, having read some of the early classics like The Door into Summer and The Age of the Pussyfoot. But he didn’t learn of Alcor until the Eaton Collection annual conference on science fiction in 1992. The theme that year was life extension and immortality in science fiction and fantasy—a topic which piqued Gregory’s curiosity. Since the event was held at UC Riverside near the Alcor facility, he and fellow science fiction writer Joe Haldeman left the conference and took a tour. “[Alcor] impressed me with its realistic style of doing what one can now, despite the many unknowns,” Gregory remembers. “I was about 50 and realizing how the mortality wall was coming up on my horizon. That led me to write my longest novel, closely modeled on the Alcor experience.”

That novel, Chiller, Gregory wrote while immersed in the study of cryonics. Under pressure from his publisher, Bantam, it was published under the pseudonym ‘Sterling Blake’ in 1993 just after he had executed his arrangements with Alcor. Set around the UC Irvine campus and its medical school, the novel is based on Alcor and well-known figures in Alcor history such as Mike Darwin, Saul Kent, Steve Harris, Mike Perry, David Pizer, Hugh Hixon, Arthur McCombs, Ralph Whelan, Max More, Fred and Linda Chamberlain, Dr. Thomas Donaldson, and Jerry Leaf. “Studying the odds and thinking through the grand sweep of what the 21^stcentury could bring, I saw that joining Alcor and getting a cryonics contract seemed like a calculated gamble, worth the price,” he says. “Still does.”

As a writer of “hard” science fiction – that based on science fact and often incorporating his own research in plasma turbulence theory and astrophysics – Gregory embraced the opportunity to write a novel that allowed him to call attention to cryonics and to educate readers about the real science behind “freezing people.” To that end, he is currently in the process of reissuing Chiller under his own name with some updating and rewriting, plus a long afterword. “There’s an enormous social weight leaning against us, working to ignore our approaching demise,” he notes. “Facing it demands courage. Maybe Chiller…will help in the struggle.”

Gregory may have been reading science fiction since he was a kid and writing it since the 1960s, but it was his first wife’s long battle with kidney disease all through the 1990s and her death due to cancer in 2002 that impressed him with the terrible burden that death places upon humans, causing him to think about the possible alternatives. “What would humans be like if not under this incessant threat?” he wondered. The answer to that question, he determined, “was definitely worth seeking and cryonics is the stop-gap measure that might get us there.”

Understandably, recovering from his wife’s death was very difficult, taking Gregory through years of depression. His wife had refused to be cryopreserved, so he knew he would never see her again. He thought long and hard about how to do something to improve human health and extend the healthy portion of the human lifespan. And then he did it.

“In 2006 I started Genescient, a firm dedicated to extending heathspans now using genomics, well ahead of the sluggish big pharma drug route,” he explains. “Our first product, STEMCELL100 (http://www.stemcell100.com), upregulates repair genes in our cardiovascular system, increasing fitness. There are more products built on the same strategy coming.”

In fact, Genescient is set to tackle the biggest threat to human health of all – neurodegenerative disease. Brain-threatening diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are notoriously difficult to treat. The brain is well-protected by the blood-brain-barrier (BBB), making drug delivery difficult. And even therapeutic drug treatment ultimately cannot stop the onslaught of degeneration. So far, there is no cure. This bleak state of affairs begs us to take a different approach. “The fact that there’s not much you can do about neurological diseases has pushed Genescient in that direction,” explains Gregory.

“Longevity has many approaches,” stresses Gregory. “Genescient developed STEMCELL100 to gain time, because we’re all in a race with the clock.” In fact, Gregory feels that buying time to let the technology for suspension and resuscitation develop is the most challenging aspect of cryonics. Because resuscitation from cryopreservation is likely to be a last-in-first-out technology, he is convinced that the more time you can get now, the sooner you’ll see the future. “The later you emerge, the harder will be the adjustments to future societies.”

As a science fiction author, Gregory has written over twenty-five novels, including Jupiter Project, Artifact, Against Infinity, Eater, and Timescape. He is a two-time winner of the Nebula Award, and has also won the John W. Campbell Award, the Australian Ditmar Award, and the 1990 United Nations Medal in Literature. In 1989 he was host and scriptwriter for the television series “A Galactic Odyssey,” and later contributed to Japan 2000. He has served as scientific consultant to the NHK Network and for Star Trek: The Next Generation. His scientific contributions and awards are also numerous – importantly, his work for contributions to science and the public comprehension of it was commended by his receipt of the Lord Foundation Award in 1995. You can see what he’s up to at gregorybenford.com.

Aside from his work in science and science fiction, Gregory enjoys an active life. He loves the beach in particular and has been an avid surfer for years, though he mostly prefers to body surf now. Living on the beach also allows him the opportunity to swim every day. Additionally, he takes great pleasure in hiking and travel – “the banquet of life,” as he calls it. And, as with many members, making cryonics arrangements has contributed to his passionate indulgence in life. “Focusing on the long future made me live more intensely,” he acknowledges.