Alcor conference marking our 50th year

Alcor is holding its first conference in seven years, celebrating half a century in operation. Come join us in Scottsdale on June 3-5, 2022.

Featured speaker: We are delighted to announce the in-person presence of David Chalmers, one of the most famous contemporary philosophers (and cognitive scientists) who specializes in the areas of philosophy of mind and philosophy of language. Prof. Chalmers is a Professor of Philosophy and Neural Science at New York University, as well as co-director of NYU’s Center for Mind, Brain and Consciousness. Prepare your questions for our special “fireside chat”.  

David’s most recent book, Reality+, is the first serious philosophical treatment of what is real, and what is valuable, in virtual worlds—a topic of unique interest to cryonicists who hope one day to live in the far future with this type of technology.

Featured panel: The first-ever Presidents’ Panel, bringing together the heads of four cryonics organizations: Patrick Harris, Dennis Kowalski, Emil Kendziorra, and Peter Tsolakides.

Other sessions cover exciting cryobiological results, biostasis technologies, long-term financial planning, revival and reintegration, cryonics as “Plan A”, technical advances at Alcor, rewarming of vitrified organs, and more. More information and registration here:

Alcor’s 50th Anniversary Donor Challenge

The highlight of the fourth quarter 2021 issue of Cryonics is Alcor’s ambitious 50th Anniversary Donor Challenge. Rather than ask for financial support, Alcor wants to earn your contribution by running a Donor Challenge! The Donor Challenge focuses on growing membership and awareness of cryonics. Donor Challenge allows you to pledge a donation and make Alcor work to achieve a specific membership goal.

Alcor had 1397 full members at the end of 2021. Alcor’s president, Patrick Harris, is challenging the membership and himself. He asks you to pledge a donation if membership reaches various levels by the end of 2022. For instance:

  • You can pledge $100 if Alcor makes it to 1500 members by the end of the year. That requires almost 7.4% growth – quite good by recent standards.
  • You can pledge $10,000, to be paid only if Alcor reaches 1700 members. You then become a member of the 1700 Club and Alcor grows by at least 21.7%.
  • Or join the Millionaires Club, and pledge that amount if Alcor reaches a stunning 2255 members.

See the new issue for the details and answers to your questions. You have only until February 22, 2022 to make your pledge. The next day – Alcor’s 50th birthday! – new growth strategies will be unveiled. What kinds of strategies will get us to these ambitious levels of growth? You will find out then! Before then, place your bet and make a pledge.

LINK to Donor Challenge

Comment and tell us:

  1. What changes and strategies do you think Alcor will launch on Feb 23, 2022?
  2. What changes and strategies do you think will get Alcor to these ambitious levels of growth?

What types of benefits do you think Alcor should offer to 50th Anniversary Club Members who make pledges before February 23, 2022?

Please donate appreciated cryptocurrency to Strengthen Alcor

In recent years, Alcor has benefited from cryptocurrency donations. In fact, our largest ever research donation of $5,000,000 from Brad Armstrong was in the form of donated cryptocurrency (Stellar). This immediately led to the creation of the Hal Finney Cryonics Research Fund. Although we don’t have a formal survey, it’s clear that Alcor members are far more likely to own some cryptocurrency as compared to the general public.

With Bitcoin up several hundred percent over the last year – and larger gains for some other currencies such as Ethereum – some of our members may be sitting on heavily appreciated assets that are increasingly coming under scrutiny by the tax authorities.

Are you one such member? If so, consider donating to Alcor. Because you would be giving to a tax-exempt non-profit organization, you would both benefit and strengthen Alcor and reduce your tax liability. This is a relatively painless way to contribute.

Donate with Bitcoin

Cryopreservation minimums remain unchanged

No change in minimum cryopreservation funding was made at the September 2019 Annual Meeting. Minimums remain the same as in 2011.

Cryopreservation Minimums Unchanged

At the 2018 Annual Meeting, cryopreservation minimums were left unchanged, remaining at the levels set in 2011. These minimums remain:

Neuro: $80,000 (or $100,000 to receive a waiver of the $180/year Comprehensive Member Standby fee).
Whole Body: $200,000 (or $220,000 to receive a waiver of the $180/year CMS fee)

Membership dues also remain unchanged.

The Alcor Endowment Trust Supporting Organization

Alcor is pleased to announce the creation of the Alcor Endowment Trust Supporting Organization. The Alcor Endowment is a Type II supporting organization intended to support the Alcor Life Extension Foundation. It will provide that support by prudently investing funds above and beyond what makes sense to allocate for general operations and research, and by providing a stable payment stream to Alcor to assist in the running of the organization.

The Alcor Endowment serves several purposes. It provides a structure for strategically investing Alcor’s funds in a way that will put the organization in an ever stronger position as time passes. It guards over $5 million of assets to benefit Alcor, a figure that is expected to grow over time, in a separate organization, making it more secure from lawsuits. It ensures a smooth disbursement of funds to Alcor in a way that both protects against market fluctuations and against future boards/management spending down Alcor’s assets for short-term needs.

The Alcor Endowment makes annual distributions to Alcor which will average very nearly 2% over the long-term. To buffer Alcor from large market fluctuations, increases or decreases in the annual distributions to Alcor can generally vary by no more than 10% either up or down from the previous year’s distribution. The exact distribution algorithm is legally binding on the Endowment pursuant to the Endowment legal documents. Having a set distribution policy also checks against spending down of the endowment by future boards.

Unlike the Patient Care Trust, or its new successor, the Alcor Care Trust, the Endowment’s investment strategy is geared more towards maximizing long-term returns and less towards minimizing year-to-year fluctuations. This is because the Endowment is not focused on paying the patient care expenses.

The Alcor Endowment Board consists of five members. At least three of these members must also be on the Board of Directors of Alcor proper. The current composition of the Endowment is:

Ralph Merkle (Alcor Director)
Mike O’Neal (Alcor Director)
Andy Aymeloglu (Alcor Director)
Kenneth Weiss
Saul Kent

Donations can be made to the Alcor Endowment directly as an alternative to donating to Alcor. Alcor may also choose to transfer funds into the Endowment at its discretion. As of May 12, 2018, the Endowment had $5,980,706.73 under management. The full text of the operating agreement detailing the distribution policy, board composition, and other details can be found here.

Unprecedented $5 Million Contribution to Cryonics Research!

I am delighted to announce that Alcor has received a stunning $5,000,000 contribution to fund cryonics research. Alcor member Brad Armstrong (A-3000), came to visit Alcor in November 2016. After a tour and long and fascinating chat, before he left I suggested that he finally sit down and sign the membership paperwork. We would provide the witnesses and the Notary Public. 90 minutes later, Brad was done and handed us a check, making him a member. (See? It’s not as difficult as you think.)

Fast forward to April 2018. Brad’s assistant called to say that Brad wanted to make a major contribution to Alcor for the purposes of cryonics research. When I called Brad, I was immediately reminded that he is a down-to-earth, easygoing fellow who wants cryonics to work and is eager to fund what he knows matters.

Brad is an enthusiast of cryptocurrencies and an admirer of Hal Finney – the first recipient and early developer of Bitcoin – and an Alcor member cryopreserved in August 2014. The $5 million research contribution is being held in the name of the “Hal Finney Cryonics Research Fund”.

Brad’s cryptocurrency contribution was made by transferring it to an intermediary organization. Formally, we must therefore note that the funds were received from “Against Aging Fund at East Texas Communities Foundation”. But make no mistake. This funding came from Brad.

Brad has done well financially from his inventions and his cryptocurrency investments. Even so, we know that there are Alcor members of considerably greater means. Some of these are well into their later years. I imagine myself in the position of having a net worth of a billion dollars or more and being in my 60s, 70s, or 80s. Certainly, I would be funding life extension research. But I am certain that I would also be putting serious money into cryonics, not only for research to build up Alcor’s technical capabilities and strength.

On behalf of Alcor and the cryonics effort in general, I want to say thank you. But how can I possibly express those thanks adequately?

With a gift of this magnitude comes the responsibility of managing and spending it wisely for maximum impact. Until the Alcor board and Research Group determine how best to hold and use this funding, I have moved it from Alcor’s bank account into a money market fund earning 1.5%. As puny as that percentage sounds historically, it means a yield of $6,000 per month (after keeping $200,000 to shore up the Research Fund). Stay tuned as we determine how to use this remarkable influx of funding to boost Alcor’s cryonics research.

–Max More