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Max More

Getting Better Part 2: Scarcity or Abundance?

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Why have so many past predictions and forecasts about resources, health, wealth, and well-being turned out to be excessively pessimistic? In the second part of his “Getting Better” series, Max More details the errors of pessimists as exemplified by ecologist Paul Ehrlich. We can learn from historical fears such as the Great Horse Manure Crisis of 1894. The logic behind that fear is like that behind many recent supposed crises.

Max looks at a famous bet between Ehrlich and economist Julian Simon and extracts some lessons from it. Shots fired by Ehrlich sympathizers largely miss their target but examining the claims leads to a better understanding of how best to measure improvements in living standards. He looks at other badly failed pessimistic predictions and asks what is wrong with excessive pessimism.

He concludes with a look at the Simon Abundance Index, which measures the change in abundance of resources over a period. This shows that the Earth was 6.18 times as plentiful in 2018 as it was when Ehrlich and Simon commenced their wager. Find “Scarcity or Abundance?” starting on page 3 of the third quarter 2021 issue of Cryonics magazine.

Max More

Alcor Case Metrics 1967-1999

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The third quarter 2021 issue of Cryonics magazine includes a new report on the meta-analysis project. This report looks at case metrics from 1967 through 1999. (Previous reports covered more recent cases.) This period covers the pre-vitrification era of high concentration glycerol perfusions. You can find out the percentage of local cases, autopsies, unattended (legal) deaths, straight freezes, standbys, cases with cardiopulmonary support, duration of procedures, and more.

This Alcor-funded research is being carried out by Advanced Neural Biosciences. Among its goals are:

  • to create a complete secure database of all the important case variables gleaned from case reports, raw data, and CT scans
  • to identify important information about trends and outcomes of Alcor procedures
  • to create a set of case metrics that provide a quantitative result that measures the quality of each patient preservation
  • and resulting recommendations to improve procedures, case work, and case logistics.

The Alcor Meta-Analysis Project started in January 2019 and will continue into 2022. Find the current report starting on page 12 of the third quarter 2021 issue of Cryonics magazine.

Max More

Alcor’s First Half Century Part 1: 1970-1976

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Alcor Life Extension Foundation is in its 50th year. How did the organization get started? What inspired the founders? How was what they did different from the failed cryonics organizations of the 1960s? In “Alcor’s First Half Century Part 1: 1970-1976” cryonics historian Michael Perry reveals the details, covering the early years from  just before Alcor’s founding on February 23, 1972, through 1976.

This fascinating article may surprise many readers. The careful, detailed, and intelligent way the founders, Fred and Linda Chamberlain, set about structuring the organization still looks solid today. You can see this in the quoted article, “Alcor Activities and Systems” from November-December 1972. “Alcor’s First Half Century Part 1: 1970-1976” starts on page 27 in the third quarter 2021 issue of Cryonics magazine.

Max More

How do you most effectively argue for life extension and cryonics?

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In the just-released third quarter 2021 issue of Alcor’s Cryonics magazine, Max More provides an answer based on his several decades of discussion and debate. Have you ever been frustrated when trying to argue that extending the maximum human life span is desirable and that cryonics is a way to do it? You may have used perfectly sound arguments and yet hit a wall in the conversation.

Logic and reason are usually not enough. Max explains how to apply the classical rhetorical triumvirate of logos, ethos, and pathos – essentially reason, credibility, and feeling. He shows how to persuasively address typical objections and sources of resistance such as a belief in a natural time to die, the expectation of boredom, the supposed loss of life’s meaning, fears of the stagnation of society, and the belief that life extension is only for the rich.

Check out the article “How to Argue for Life Extension” starting on page 22, to hone your skills in influencing people to be more supportive of extending life.

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Member Profile: Carrie Wong

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Carrie Wong

Carrie Wong’s member profile from Cryonics September 2014 has been added to the website.

Part of the growing constituency of life extension advocates and activists in British Columbia, Carrie Wong splashed into cryonics head first upon learning about it when she attended a meeting of the Lifespan Society of British Columbia at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in the fall of 2012.

“It was an extremely enlightening evening and I made up my mind at that moment that I would attend Lifespan Society meetings,” Carrie says. “The concept of cryonics clicked for me immediately.”

See Carrie Wong’s Member Profile

See all Member Profiles.

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Cryonics Magazine 3rd Quarter 2020

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Cryonics Magazine 3rd Quarter 2020 is now available on the website. Featured articles include:

How to Sustain an Organization for Over a Century. Part One: Corporate Longevity
In this two-part article, Max More reviews the track record of different types of organizations to survive for very long periods and what it means for Alcor.

Interview with Max More
As Max More transitions from his position as CEO to his new role of Ambassador & President Emeritus, we check in with Max to look back on his career at Alcor, his achievements, and how his thoughts on cryonics and Alcor have evolved during his time in this position.

The Alcor Meta-Analysis Project
The Alcor Meta-Analysis Project is a collaboration between Alcor and Advanced Neural Biosciences to conduct a comprehensive meta-analysis of all Alcor cases. This report outlines the objectives of the project and the progress made to date.

Jerry Leaf: Researcher, Surgeon, and Cryonics Advocate
After his untimely cryopreservation there was a brief burst of short articles on Jerry’s life and achievements at Alcor. After almost 30 years we return to the life and career of Jerry Leaf as a surgeon, researcher, and writer.

 

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Member/Patient Profile: Hal Finney

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Hal Finney

We are in the process of adding more Member Profiles to the website from back issues of Cryonics magazine. Hal Finney’s Member Profile from Cryonics, 2nd Quarter 2019, is actually a Patient Profile — Hal was cryopreserved in 2014.

Hal, who had cryopreservation arrangements with the Alcor Foundation for over 20 years, was Bitcoin’s earliest-ever adopter. He was the very first debugger and contributor to Bitcoin’s code and was the recipient of the first Bitcoin transaction in January 2009, receiving 10 bitcoins from Bitcoin’s possibly pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto. Prior to that, Hal was a lead developer on several console games; graduated from the California Institute of Technology with a BS in engineering; was a noted cryptographic activist, including running the first cryptographically based anonymous remailer; and in 2004 created the first reusable proof of work system before Bitcoin.

See Hal Finney’s Member/Patient Profile.

See all Member Profiles.

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Work out your cryo-brain with the Q2 2020 issue of Cryonics magazine

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By Max More

Looking for a cryonics-laden brain workout? Check out the Q2 2020 issue of Cryonics. The single weightiest piece in this issue is “Mathematics and Modeling in Cryonics: Some Historical Highlights” by R. Michael Perry and Aschwin de Wolf. If you find yourself arguing with a critic who says cryonics is based on wishful thinking and not analysis, shove this article at them. As the authors show, mathematics and modeling have been used in cryonics since the very early days. Even back in the early 1970s, Art Quaife used mathematical analysis to model early perfusion systems and then followed up with a 1985 paper examining heat flow in the cryopreservation of humans.

I remember reading a fascinating article by biochemist Hugh Hixon, a long-time Alcor staff member, back in 1988 titled “How Cold is Cold Enough?”. The authors explain that Hixon chose the fastest known biological reaction, catalase and then compared reaction rates as the temperature is lowered from body temperature (37°C) on down. Chemical reactions that happen in one second at body temperature would take about 25 million years at the temperature of liquid nitrogen. Hixon addressed the question of how cold you need to go to not have to worry any further. In reality, below about -135°C, biochemical reactions would slow down far more than his methods suggested because “translational molecular motion is inhibited so safe storage of almost indefinite length should be possible”.

I also found engaging other pieces analyzing the effects of time and chemistry on the quality of cryopreservation. Several people have pondered the question of what cooling rate would be needed to escape ischemic injury. Authors Perry and de Wolf have both delved into the question, and Steve Harris developed a possible indicator in his E-HIT (equivalent homeothermic ischemic time) measure. We use a version of that measure in Alcor’s operating room to tell us when to cease cardiopulmonary support and begin surgery. This measure substitutes cooling rate for a fixed temperature.

There’s plenty more fascinating work examined here. (Really. You don’t have to be a mathematician to be fascinated, I promise.) For instance, cryobiologists Gregory Fahy, Brian Wowk and others at 21st Century Medicine (21CM) uncovered a method of predicting the toxicity of cryoprotective solutions to a fair accuracy based on their molecular constituents, and Perry used his mathematical mind to predict future cryonics caseloads.

If that doesn’t satisfy you, you will find more computational work related to cryonics in scholar profile and Q&A with Roman Bauer, followed by his article “Computational Neuroscience and Cryonics: Strangers that are Just Friends Waiting to Happen”. For a change of pace, I especially enjoyed David Brandt-Erichsen’s critical review of the 1988 Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, “The Neutral Zone”. David echoes my own reactions to an episode that somehow both shows cryonics working while mindlessly repeating the “we need death” rationalization.