Alcor Member Profile: Peter Voss
From Cryonics 1st Quarter 2011
By Chana Phaedra
Peter Voss’ father had an adventurous spirit. He moved the Voss family from their home country of Germany to South Africa when Peter was only 12 in search of a more exciting and rewarding life. The year was 1966, and South Africa’s unstructured society promised a kind of freedom the Voss patriarch wished for his children, Peter and Barbara, to enjoy.
And Peter did enjoy life in South Africa. For 29 years, he lived and learned, worked and played there. He developed a passion for philosophers such as Bertrand Russell and Ayn Rand alongside a thirst for knowledge and a hope for technological progress (not to mention a love for the thrill and excitement of riding a motorcycle). Always interested in computers and technology, he started an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software company in 1979. But as Peter continued to cultivate interests that others in South Africa did not generally share, he naturally desired the companionship of like minds. He had long realized that, for the most part, he could find them in the United States.
A love for motorcycles begins. Peter as a young man, showing off his first bike in South Africa, 1970.
A wild and free Peter stands still long enough for a passport photo in 1974.
It should come as no surprise that the adventurous Voss spirit reared its head in the face of this situation. And what would any life-loving adventurer do but follow his dreams? Peter had always wanted to travel and get to know America. After selling his company, he found himself with some time and money on his hands — a perfect opportunity for an extended holiday in the U.S.A.
Peter landed in Los Angeles in 1995, where he quickly delved into the local activities of interest. It was at a skeptics conference he attended early in his itinerary that he met Abe Heward (son of the late researcher on aging, Chris Heward), and thereby was introduced to Max More and Natasha Vita-More. Dr. More had founded the Extropy Institute, and was an influential thinker, speaker, writer, and transhumanist activist. Peter remembers, “When I first arrived in the U.S. in 1995, I was fortunate to almost immediately get an introduction to Max More and Natasha Vita-More. This led to me getting a crash-course on things extropian: nano-tech, advanced A.I., calorie restriction and other life-extension technologies, and of course, cryonics. This was a very exciting and highly stimulating period in my life.”
So, at the age of 41, the second grand adventure of Peter Voss’s life began. Grasping the opportunity to network and collaborate with a wealth of smart people, he made the decision to stay in the U.S. permanently, and soon was calling the bustling metropolis of Los Angeles “home.” He fondly recalls coming to the U.S. as “a journey of discovery,” where he was amazed by the opportunities, technology, and expertise available. The culmination of his varied interests, new contacts, and novel living environment led Peter naturally to become involved in research and development in the field of artificial general intelligence (AGI). “Anything related to extreme technology was very obvious to me to be interested in,” he explains.
Sharing ideas with Dr. More and other extropians and transhumanists had also quickly brought a new topic into Peter’s life — cryonics. Although he had never really heard or thought about it before coming to the U.S., Peter’s consideration of cryonics was brief but thorough. He reports that, “It didn’t take me long [to join Alcor]. After reading up on and discussing cryonics with several smart people, it seemed totally obvious to me that I wanted this extra chance at an indefinite life-span. After a trip to Alcor and meeting the team there I soon signed up.”
Since becoming a member, Peter says he has become “more aware of the (really long-term) risks of certain of my activities, such as travelling overseas and motorcycling.” Over the years, he has also become involved with promoting and supporting Alcor, most notably by completing standby and stabilization training and contributing his services to the Southern California Emergency Response team since 1998. Helping on about ten cryopreservations has given Peter a very visceral appreciation of both “how crucial and how limited current stabilization methods are.”
Voss has been an Alcor member since 1995.
Now, after many years and lots of thinking and discussion with other cryonicists, Peter has come to the conclusion that public apathy is the strongest challenge to cryonics. Like his friend Max More (who was recently appointed CEO of Alcor), Peter knows that the only way to progress is to exist, and the only way to exist is to evolve. This simple strategy, as natural as it may be, is harder to implement than most people appreciate, in light of the social and political struggles surrounding the rate of technological progress and the goals and desires of those affecting that progress. Peter describes his primary concern as the social risks of public apathy and resistance — that cryonics might be outlawed, or that there may even be terrorist acts against cryonics organizations or cryonicists. Additionally, he acknowledges his worries that embezzlement of funds and other fiscal issues may lead Alcor and other cryonics organizations into bankruptcy. “These are much bigger risks than the ‘risk’ of cryonics not working,” Peter comments.
Again, Peter’s recipe for the continued existence of cryonics involves spreading the word. Boosting membership and further improving rapid response and cryopreservation capabilities are at the top of his list for areas of Alcor’s program that he would like to see developed over the next 5-10 years. “I think Alcor management should focus on growth,” he suggests. “More members are a desirable thing — we aren’t sustainable with such a small membership base.”
Furthermore, as coordinator of the Southern California Emergency Response team for many years, Peter understands the value of local support and would like to see other regions develop strong, fast teams of cryonics volunteers and professionals who can be on hand to stabilize patients before transport to Alcor’s facility in Scottsdale, AZ. But he stresses that those who have received a terminal diagnosis and have some time to put their affairs in order are best served by relocating to the Phoenix area, thereby reducing their transport time and ischemic damage prior to cryopreservation. Of the cases he has participated in, Peter laments, “I find the number of people who are terminally ill and who don’t go to Phoenix [from Los Angeles] disturbing.”
Besides contributing to cryonics by being public about it and participating in local Southern California cases, Peter’s ambition is that his work in the field of artificial general intelligence will be useful as well. “I hope to be able to advance this technology to the point where it can meaningfully help to develop reversible cryopreservation technology,” he explains. [Peter is founder and CEO of Adaptive Artificial Intelligence, Inc., with the goal of developing artificial general intelligence systems. See a transcript of his talk on “Real Artificial Intelligence.”]
Posing with Bonnie Magee (now Alcor’s Finance Director) at Convergence08.
In the meantime, Peter continues to expand his horizons by pursuing interests such as philosophy, rational ethics, life extension, cutting-edge technology, learning, and meeting smart people. And though most life extensionists say “no thank you” to any risky activities, Peter still enjoys the thrill of fast cars and motorcycling. Apparently that Voss spirit just can’t be quashed.