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Should I FREEZE MYSELF when I die? Katee Sackhoff tours Alcor on YouTube.

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Katee Sackhoff, an actress best known for her starring role in the TV series Battlestar Galactica (2004-2009), toured Alcor on February 7, 2020. She states: “Follow me as I get a fascinating tour of a real-life cryonics facility, with real-life (currently dead) frozen bodies in it. You can decide for yourself if cryonics lands more in the realm of science or fiction. There has been some definite controversy around this subject and I’m not here to promote it one way or the other.”

Many of us at Alcor thought this was a particularly excellent presentation overall. You can view it here:

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A-3360 becomes Alcor’s 178th Patient in June 2020

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Alcor member A-3360 is an 87-year old male with whole body cryopreservation arrangements. He was pronounced legally deceased in June 2020 in California.

This was a third-party sign-up case with cryopreservation arrangements made at the last moment by his family who contacted Alcor shortly after legal death. Alcor’s Deployment Committee dispatched one of its strategic partners, International Cryomedicine Experts (ICE) to send one of their paramedics. Once the legal paperwork had been signed early the next morning, the ICE operative was able to retrieve the patient and manage initial cooldown and transport to Alcor on dry ice. Cryogenic cooldown was completed, and the patient was transferred to long-term storage. A debriefing was held less than two weeks later.

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Member A-1404 became Alcor’s 179th Patient in June 2020

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Member A-1404, a 59-year old female Alcor member with neuro cryopreservation arrangements was pronounced legally deceased in Texas in June 2020.

Alcor contacted Suspended Animation (SA) to deploy for standby. SA was on the plane with equipment loaded in less than five hours but faced unavoidable layovers and mechanical issues with the planes. In case the delays were too much, Alcor’s Readiness Coordinator promptly got on a flight with a full Field Neuro Cryoprotection Kit, carried all of it into the hospital and got set up. Fortunately, SA arrived within four hours before care was withdrawn from the patient.

SA performed a stabilization and field blood substitution. The patient was flown on ice to Alcor where a neuro separation and neuro cryoprotective procedure was performed. Alcor’s gravity-driven Field Neuro Cryoprotection system was used in place of the standard pump and mixing reservoirs to minimize the generation of aerosols at a time when COVID-19 was spreading. A debriefing was held less than two weeks later.

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A-1468 became Alcor’s 177th Patient in May 2020

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A-1468, a confidential, 56-year old male Alcor member with neuro cryopreservation arrangements was discovered legally deceased in his residence in May 2020. Cryogenic cooldown was initiated two days later.

A-1468 had been an Alcor member for many years. The circumstances were extremely unfortunate. This patient experienced an unattended death in his home in California, making him a Coroner’s case. Alcor received notification the morning after the member was discovered by authorities performing a wellness check at the request of family. Despite Alcor rapidly providing paperwork documenting wishes to avoid autopsy, an autopsy was performed. The patient was released to Alcor the following day.

Once Alcor received notification about the circumstances, Alcor immediately called upon International Cryomedicine Experts (ICE) to respond to the location to assist with coordination and logistics. ICE recovered the patient’s brain, which had been sectioned during autopsy, and placed the tissue on dry ice just after noon. The patient was then transported on dry ice by ICE via airline to Alcor and cryogenic cooldown was initiated at 19:52 hrs. that same day. An uneventful cooldown was terminated at 11:35 hrs two days later, and the patient was moved to long-term maintenance at liquid nitrogen temperature.

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CNET covers Alcor

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CNET posted an article and a photo gallery about Alcor today:

Article with video: “Cryonics, brain preservation and the weird science of cheating death.”

Photo Gallery: “Frozen in time: Inside the facility preserving the dead through cryonics.”

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Coronavirus Trends in States with Many Alcor Members

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In my June 16 post I said I would look at other states which are home to many Alcor members. In those five days, Arizona’s confirmed case count has risen 28%. The 7-day moving average has hit three new highs. Mandatory mask-wearing has been imposed in most cities, including Scottsdale and Phoenix. What about California, Florida, and Texas? Those three states account for about 45% of all US Alcor members.

California
7-day moving average here.

Infection rate, positive test rate, ICU headroom used, and contacts traced are here.

Florida
7-day moving average here.

Infection rate, positive test rate, ICU headroom used, and contacts traced are here.

Texas
7-day moving average here.

Infection rate, positive test rate, ICU headroom used, and contacts traced are here.

According to this source, cases are increasing in these states:
CA, TX, FL, GA, NC, AZ, LA, OH, TN, AL, SC, UT, AK, NV, KS, OK, OR, ID, WV, WY, HI.

The change in positive test rates can indicate likely future trajectories for hospital utilization and deaths. Those numbers should be considered in the context of whether testing is increasing or decreasing. You can find a comparison of states on both measures here.

–Max More
Ambassador and President Emeritus, Alcor Foundation

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Alcor Members Speaking at the Humanity+ July 7-8 Online Summit

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POST-PANDEMIC: A World Free from Disease and Destruction. That’s the title of a summit organized by Humanity Plus to be held online via the Zoom platform. Alcor members are likely to find plenty of interest here. In fact, a good portion of the speakers are Alcor members! There are three key topics or themes:

    Beyond Mortality: Preventing Negative Conditions Impacting Life
    Beyond Scarcity: Economy of Abundance
    Beyond Cruelty: Stop Discrimination, Create Compassion

Most obviously, Alcor members will immediately find relevant the first of these topics. Longer lives do not occur in a vacuum. The other topics consider some of the context we might hope for as we live longer lives. The COVID-19 pandemic seems to have provided the original impetus for this event. As the summit page says:

There is an undeniable need for new technology, science, and social efficacy to empower human dignity and to minimize the destruction of life.

Dealing with the pandemic is front page news. Yet, another never-ceasing crisis goes under the radar—all people are aging from failing systems, people are suffering from scarcity, and people are affected by the cruelty of others.

SARS-CoV-2 is a war on human biology and a wake-up call for every person on the planet. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, age, or socioeconomic status. It can affect everybody, but it kills first the oldest, the weakest, and the poorest.

This world-wide killer infection has expanded the bandwidth of news feed and online events as people are trying to understand and strategize a solution. There is no question that human civilization is now alert to its own vulnerability. Rather than continuing with such vulnerability, we need to act at the biological core. The human genome must be strengthened and protected.

Expanding on the three themes:

1. Beyond Mortality: The disease of aging leaves people helpless, locked in a system of sickness and death rather than a system of healthcare and life. We need new technology, science and social structures that promote positive conditions rather than negative conditions.
2. Beyond Scarcity: We must improve global quality of life. An economy of abundance is not about how much; it is about how good—a quality of life that provides basic human needs, freedom, and well-being, and that advances opportunity and potential.
3. Beyond Cruelty: Discrimination of people because of sex, age, race, gender, appearance, religion, beliefs, and political and social status are global, verifiable, and prevalent. What would society need to overcome misperception and cognitive bias? With an abundance of compassion, discrimination has no place or purpose.

The speakers currently confirmed are: Ben Goertzel, Max More, Natasha Vita-More, Nell Watson, Jose Cordeiro, Anders Sandberg, David Brin, Betelhem Dessie, Alishba Imran, Michael Masucci, Kat Cotter, Zoltan Istvan, Maria Entraigues-Abramson, Ryan O’Shea, David Ernst, David Wood, David Kelley, and Didier Coeurnelle.

More Information.

Register.

–Max More
Ambassador and President Emeritus, Alcor Foundation

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Technical Update: Body Bag Modification

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After much discussion between the medical and scientific staff, directors, and others, Alcor recently adopted new guidelines: “Pandemic restrictions on Alcor cryonics procedures”. Two components of those procedures for all cryonics procedures in the operating room (OR) are: 1. Either use a body bag or the Alcor whole body table for OR procedures. 2. Drain into a sealed bladder or bucket pre-loaded with the appropriate quantity of disinfectant. Steve and Jacob Graber figured out how to put this procedure into operation.

In Steve’s view, the best approach is to perform the Field Cryoprotection Procedure (FCP) directly in the body bag with a gravity drain into a sealed bladder pre-metered with the appropriate disinfectant. This enables good control over the drain protocol. It also prevents additional moving of the patient from the gurney onto and off of the WB table – a point of physical exertion and a potential source for contaminated fluid leakage.

Steve and Jacob “came up with a modification to the body bag that provides for a controllable drain system into a waste reservoir during FCP. See the image. The acrylic strengthening rings are welded to the body bag. The barbed drain-nipple is captured on the inside by a threaded nut. It is very strong and completely waterproof.”

Previously, to drain the body bag from the corner into a bucket meant cutting the body bag with scissors. This could expose the operator to the flow of fluid and risks spillage if the bag was moved. Steve writes: “The gurney must be tilted such that the drain is lower and a hydraulic assist at the head-end of the gurney does this, as well as offering the surgeon some height adjustment of the surgical field. We will use a hydraulic jack under that set of wheels and the rear wheels must be locked and/or blocked to prevent movement of the gurney.”

Having a controllable drain for ice bath water and for FCP effluent is a desirable feature. Steve and Jacob will be modifying all body bags with this drain system, including those that are sent into the field.

–Max More
Ambassador and President Emeritus, Alcor Foundation

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A Bad Coronavirus Week for Arizona

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In my last post a week ago, I noted the shortening of doubling times for confirmed cases of COVID-19, starting May 25. In that week, total confirmed cases have risen from 29,852 to 40,924. The daily percentage increase has varied between a low of 2.84% and a high of 6.52%. Another measure of growth in cases that smooths out daily bumps is the 7-day moving average. This is how it has looked over the last month:

05/27: 338
06/03: 710
06/10: 1,090
06/17: 1,581

Today, June 17, Arizona ranks #18 in total cases; #4 in new cases; #20 in cases/capita. #19 in total deaths; and #23 in deaths/capita. Rising numbers of confirmed cases can sometimes be attributed in part to increased testing. That has not been a factor over the last couple of weeks. A disturbing sign is the growing percentage of positive tests:

Covid Act Now’s chart provides several indicators:

In future posts, I’ll be looking at other states in which Alcor has many members and in which the disease is growing.

–Max More
Ambassador and President Emeritus, Alcor Foundation

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COVID-19 Trends in Arizona

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COVID-19 is a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. SARS, MERS, Ebola, and swine flu don’t come close in the number of deaths and disruption of COVID-19 to the economy and everyday life. Today, just three months since the pandemic was formally announced, saw the largest number of new confirmed daily cases at 134,705 globally.

Members who read Alcor News will have been alerted to how we have prepared Alcor’s offices and services here in Arizona for the COVID-19 pandemic. Until very recently, Arizona was one of the least affected states. That has not made much difference to Alcor and its staff since we still have to care for members throughout the country and abroad – and we have to take special precautions to remain uninfected and ready to respond.

The Arizona situation has changed. Along with states such as California and Texas, Arizona has moved close to the top of the list of new cases per day. The first case detected in Arizona was on January 26, 2020. This was a 20-year-old male student of Arizona State University (ASU), who had traveled to Wuhan, China. Curiously, this case was the fifth reported COVID-19 case overall in the United States at the time. Despite that and unlike Washington, Arizona did not see an early rapid rise in cases.

In Arizona, May 25th marked a transition from lengthening to shortening doubling times. In the last week, the doubling time has continued to shorten. On May 1, there were 7,962 confirmed cases, an increase of 314. Today, on June 10 (the end of the day determined by GMT), there were 29,852 cases, an increase of 1,556. That’s a disturbingly rapid daily increase of 5.5%.

Whatever the future holds, Alcor remains prepared and ready. We have been lucky so far. That appears to be changing. Arizona will no longer be a good place to move to in order to avoid infection. If you have major medical issues and are considering relocating near Alcor, you should speak with Blake Honiotes, Alcor’s Medical Response Director.

–Max More
Ambassador and President Emeritus, Alcor Foundation