New issue of Cryonics! Case report, economic dematerialization, record caseload analysis, the math of infinite survival, and more

Don’t miss out on the fourth quarter 2022 issue of Cryonics magazine. Alcor co-founder Linda Chamberlain’s report informs us about member A-3434, a 90-year-old, starting 99 days before legal death, and covering assessment and pre-deployment, preparation, and deployment, standby and stabilization, field surgery and cryoprotectant perfusion, transport, and cooling to liquid nitrogen temperature. The report includes CT scan results and a discussion of issues arising without shying away from confronting what could have gone better.

In “Our Recent Heavy Caseload: How Often Can We Expect This?”, Mike Perry looks at the tight clustering over a recent four-month period in which we had nine human cases (and several pets too). His analysis suggests that the clustering we have seen should not be happening for on the order of a century. So, what explains this challenging case load?

Max More continues his Getting Better series of articles by looking at “Peak Stuff: The Dematerialization of the Economy.” Many anti-life extensionists believe that the future is grim due to worsening pollution and reduced resources. Adding to previous contrary evidence, Max shows that the most advanced economies appear to be starting to use fewer resources and have less environmental impact. This has been true for decades considered relative to population but now is happening absolutely. Arm yourself with this information for the next time you talk to a future-doomster.

In “A Mathematical Model of Infinite Survival”, Mike Perry looks at the problem of the long-term preservation of information.

You will also find updated membership stats, and the usual reports from the front line in the fight against aging.

Revival Update surveys the news and research to report on new developments that bring us closer to the revival of cryonics patients. One example is the recent Yale-developed technology that restored cell and organ function in pigs after death (by the usual standard). Another is that of computer-in-memory chips, which bring us closer to bringing AI directly to our devices rather than needing to shuttle data to the cloud for computation.

Read the issue

Max More talks cryonics on Theo Von podcast

A huge number of people still haven’t even heard about cryonics. Most of those who have understand little about it. I was therefore pleased when Theo Von invited me onto his podcast. His episodes bring between 250,000 and 1.6 million views. Theo has over 400 podcasts and you can find his standup special on Netflix.

We had a good chat, covering a wide range of issues around cryonics, over almost two hours. That amount of time meant we could cover a lot of ground. Within a few days of the podcast coming out, we had a tour from a person living in the Phoenix area who said he saw the podcast and had to come and take the tour.

(679) Dr. Max More | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #404
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqFA3TjWDSw

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:

Read the Fourth Quarter 2021 Issue of Cryonics!

The current issue of Cryonics magazine, published online, packs in plenty of good reading. Following the explanation of the Donor Challenge, in “Limits to Limits to Growth”, Max More critically reviews the infamous and Malthusian 1972 Club of Rome’s report Limits to Growth and how its claims have held up since. An accompanying piece, “Peak Oil Hysteria”, examines repeated claims that we have reached the peak of oil production, and considers what that would imply.

In “Let’s Make Sure The Next Carl Sagan Is a Cryonicist”, Jason Harrow extracts a lesson from Sagan’s failure to make cryonics arrangements.

Alcor Case Metrics 1967-2020” continues to reveal how Alcor is doing on a number of variables from its origin until today.

Schrödinger’s Freezer and the Restoration of Lost Information: Some Consequences of an Interesting Variant of the Many Worlds Interpretation” will stretch the physics-and-philosophy part of your brain.

And this issue includes the usual thorough roundup of anti-aging research and revival-related technologies.

Keep an eye on the Meta-Analysis Project

One Alcor-funded research project that I’m personally especially interested in is the Meta-Analysis Project. This project, led by Advanced Neural Biosciences’ Aschwin de Wolf and Michael Benjamin, gathers a vast amount of data on every one of Alcor’s cryopreservations and analyzes patterns. ANB began the Alcor Meta-Analysis Project in January 2019 with the goal of developing a quantitative method to evaluate the quality of each cryopreservation case based on a thorough review of all the available case data. The project has 3 phases.

In Phase 1, researchers review and collect relevant data points from all case reports, all raw data such as temperature data and any relevant scientific papers and, for the last decade of cases, CT scans of cryopreserved patients. In phase 2, new outcome metrics have been developed to look at variables such as cryoprotectant distribution and ice formation from the analysis of Phase 1 data. The goal of Phase 3 is to identify areas where protocol and procedure upgrades would likely have the maximum impact at improving patient preservation outcomes.

Alcor and cryonics as a whole can expect to benefit from the outcomes of this work, including:

  • a complete secure database of all the important case variables gleaned from case reports, raw data, and CT scans that can be updated with new cases.
  • important information about trends and outcomes of Alcor procedures.
  • a single or set of case metrics that provide a quantitative result that measures the quality of each patient preservation
  • information about the range of typical patient scenarios, including the modelling of unusual scenarios
  • Recommendations to improve procedures, case work, and case logistics
  • A paper to be published in a scientific journal including the exposition of the cryonics case outcome metric(s) and experimental validations

You can read the initial report in the third quarter 2020 issue of Cryonics. Next report will be published in the second quarter 2021 issue.

November 20, 2020 update on COVID-19 in Arizona

It has been about five months since I last wrote an update on the COVID-19 situation in Arizona. For those living here or considering moving here to be closer to Alcor, it’s time for a current look at the situation.

Between my June 10 and June 16 posts, COVID cases in Arizona went up from 29,852 to 39,097 to a total of 40,924 – what seemed like a rapid pace. At that time, Arizona was one of the top 5 states for new cases and new deaths, and the peak was still several weeks away. The 7-day moving average (7-DMA) had run up from 339 on May 27 to 1,356 on June 17. Daily cases reached its peak (so far) on June 29 at 5450. At that time, Arizona ranked #20 in cases per capita and #23 in deaths per capita. Our worst day so far saw 103 deaths on July 17. How does that compare to today and to the rest of the country? (NOTE: By “cases” I mean reported positive diagnostic tests. That someone has tested positive does not mean they are sick or feel sick.)

Just one month ago, the situation looked relatively encouraging. In that month, the number of new cases has accelerated hard, as it has in many states, and the number of new deaths has also been moving up, although more slowly. Today, Arizona has 291,696 cases with today’s increase of 4,471 being the largest in months. The 7-DMA is 3166. We are now well into the red zone with 43.5 daily new cases per 100,000 (25 is considered critical). After doing badly, Arizona has been falling in the ranks of cases per capita and is currently at #25 and is closing in on the average (mean) for the USA as a whole.

The 7-DMA for new deaths has risen from 10 one month ago to 24.3 today.

The positivity rate on diagnostic tests has risen from 5.4% (or 7%, depending on the source) to 12% (or 10.5%). The infection rate has been rising since it reached a low in August.

In the last month, the number of people hospitalized has risen from 947 to 2266. ICU headroom use has risen from 19% to 46% and is close to reaching the “medium” level according to Covidactnow.

But is Arizona doing better or worse than other states? Is it a place to come to or to stay away from? The states with the most Alcor members are California, Texas, Florida, and Arizona. In recent months, Arizona has been doing better than Texas and Florida, although both of those states have been doing better than average. California, so far, despite having the second-largest number of identified cases has been suffering from lower population-adjusted cases and deaths. Like many other states, however, the curves are rising quickly. Among these states, currently none looks likely to be much better or worse than the others.

These four states all look relatively good if you compare them to the country as whole and many specific states. COVID-19 growth appears to not only be resurgent but disproportionately affecting more rural areas. Maine and Vermont, so far, have fared quite well, whereas states such as North and South Dakota, Iowa, Wyoming, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Kansas are seeing high growth in daily cases and high infection rates.

How will COVID-19 play out in Arizona? I’m not going to guess. We have seen trends reverse themselves abruptly and dramatically. Cases in Arizona have been accelerating despite far more people wearing masks (compared to the spring and summer). The influx of “snowbirds” from states with much faster growth in cases could kick up our own numbers drastically. The coming vaccines – and better treatments than we had in the last peak – could hold down the growth in deaths.

At Alcor, we continue to take precautions. Some staff are working entirely from home; others in part. We are still not giving in-person tours, having replaced them with filmed “virtual tours”. Fortunately, we haven’t had a cryopreservation in months, so haven’t had to worry about airplane travel.

Stay safe. And contact Alcor’s Medical Response Director if you have any serious medical issue, COVID-related or otherwise.