Accelerating Future

Rudi Hoffman is the man to go to for life insurance to fund a cryonics contract. Last I heard, he had cornered about 95% of the market in this small niche. In light of the recent Mary Robbins case, Rudi has written up a list of choices cryonicists can make to ensure that our hostile relatives don’t try to pull us out of the freezer, valiantly (according to some people, apparently) making our neural structures available for consumption by a variety of worms and bacteria. Here’s the intro:

Several of my clients and friends have asked me for observations regarding securing their cryonics arrangements even with contrary wishes of friends and relatives. Given the recent Mary Robbins case in Colorado, and multiple previous cases available in some detail on the websites of both CI and Alcor, structuring your affairs in the most secure manner currently has top of mind awareness for many who are serious about their cryonics plans.

The purpose of this article is to provide some insight into how serious cryonicists can structure their affairs to assure themselves they have done everything possible regarding funding and legal structures for their optimal suspensions.

I noticed that Rudi missed one thing that several cryonicists have suggested to me: putting a “certificate of religious belief” in your wallet that makes a concrete statement against autopsy for religious reasons. One friend of mine used a lamination machine to attach this directly to his ID. I am especially concerned about this for young cryonicists because I’ve heard that when a young person dies under circumstances even the slightest bit unusual, autopsies are common.

As soon as blood starts to coagulate, vitrification becomes impossible, seriously reducing the quality of the suspension. Though I am hopeful that even the most primitive suspensions will lead to revivals some day, it casually seems to me (as a non-scientist) that suspensions involving vitrification will require lower levels of technology for a successful revival.

Since I’m on the topic of cryonics, why not quote Ben Franklin:

I have seen an instance of common flies…drown’d in Madeira
wine…Having heard it remark’d that drowned flies were capable of
being reviv’d by the rays of the sun, I proposed making the experiment
upon these; they were therefore expos’d to the sun…In less than three
hours, two of them began by degrees to recover life…and soon after
began to fly, finding themselves in Old England, without knowing how
they came thither.

I wish it were possible…to invent a method of embalming drown’d
persons, in such a manner that they may be recall’d to life at any
period, however distant. For having a very ardent desire to see and
observe the state of America a hundred years hence, I should prefer to
any ordinary death, being immers’d in a cask of Madeira wine…to be
later recall’d to life by the solar warmth of my dear country!”

On one occasion, this caused me to remark to Michael Vassar, “do you think there are some people buried in caskets of Madeira wine in the ground that we just haven’t discovered yet?”, to which he replied, “I doubt it.” A pity… I am looking at a quarter right now, and I should think that in the long term, the world would be willing to trade every quarter in circulation (likenesses of Washington) for the actual preserved brain and body of George Washington. Whether he would care to be revived in the present, however, may be a separate question, but if he were, I can only imagine that he would enjoy some level of political influence in US politics.

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There’s another media explosion over cryonics, this time having to do with a woman named Mary Robbins. She signed numerous documents indicating she wanted to be cryopreserved at Alcor, then, her family claimed that she changed her mind in her final days. A Colorado court recently ruled in favor of Alcor because no documentation to back up the family’s argument was ever produced, as required by Colorado law. Here is the Associated Press coverage. This ruling sets a good precedent. It sometimes seems as if hostile family members are willing to throw away the law to ensure that their relative rots in the ground in lieu of being cryopreserved. Almost as if their soul would be trapped if they were suspended.

It’s disappointing how many family members freak out when they find out that their mother/father/relatives are signed up for cryonics and going into cryosuspension. Even if I thought cryonics was complete bunkum, I would at least have the decency to respect the wishes of my relative.

Even if I thought revival from a preserved state were impossible, I would still be sympathetic to cryonics because it is based on the principle of preserving rather than destroying a very valuable object — the human brain. This leaves open the possibility of future analysis, imaging, and inferences about the person whose brain it was. If my ancestor’s brains were preserved, there would come a day where it could be possible to analyze them non-invasively and maybe learn something about their neurology. For instance, you might have heard about how blind people acquire a better sense of hearing and vision than everyone else. In the not-too-distant future, it could become possible to scan a brain and determine if someone was blind by the structure of their visual cortex. More and more details would follow as neuroscience progressed, until eventually everything would become determined. The brain, just like everything else in the world, is thoroughly non-mystical.

Preservation is our only window into the past. Imagine the knowledge destroyed when the Library of Alexandria was incinerated. Similar knowledge is destroyed whenever worms and bacteria dissolve a brain, we just don’t have all the tools to look at it yet. Surprisingly, many people are still not clear on the acknowledged fact that all our memories, personality, feelings, and inclinations are encoded in the structure and chemistry of our brains. They believe in a separate metaphysical “mind” somehow independent of the brain. But the mind is simply the structure and function of the brain. Even if revival proved impossible in the long term, the preservation of individual brains today could provide a unique window into the past for future generations to analyze, providing a strong argument for its value.

The human brain is the most remarkable known object in the entire universe. Why throw it out like a bit of moldy hamburger? For a very modest cost, the seats of our consciousness can be preserved after our metabolic death. In fact, the technology already exists to destructively scan brains piece-by-piece — ever heard of ATLUM? This serial sectioning method allows for such precise nanoscale scanning that individual synapses and vesicles are visible using a scanning electron microscope. You can read more about the technology at the brain emulation roadmap. Within a few decades or maybe even less, it will be possible to create a computer file that consists of a nanoscale scan of an entire human brain. It’s only a matter of time before scientists learn how to interpret the patterns of such scans as frozen thoughts, memories, personality, and other complex mental features. It may take a while, but hey — if you’re frozen at liquid nitrogen temperature, your neural molecules ain’t going anywhere fast.

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Alcor has some job openings, including CEO for $125,000 a year plus benefits. That’s a lot of moola.

There’s also openings for Technical Coordinator, Readiness Coordinator, paramedics, and emergency technicians.

Come on, people. Those frozen heads aren’t going to beat themselves. Let’s get to work.

(Apologies if anyone is offended by my little joke. Sometimes I think cryonicists are a little too serious and self-important. Full disclosure: I am Alcor member A-2458.)

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Mike Darwin, a cryonics figure who led Alcor 1983 to 1988 and acted as Research Director until 1992, apparently kept an eight-year log (1978 to 1986) of incidents where hostile girlfriends or wives “prevented, reduced or reversed the involvement of their male partner in cryonics”. In a blog post on Depressed Metabolism, Is That What Love is? The Hostile Wife Phenomenon in Cryonics, Darwin and cryonics experts Chana de Wolf and Aschwin de Wolf summarize the phenomenon and the history behind it. They point out that the hostility reaches back to the very dawn of the idea in 1968.

Hostility to cryonics is not always all harmless or in fun: it can lead to divorce or even contribute to accidental death via carbon monoxide poisoning. (See the blog post for details.)

Why are women more traditionally hostile than men to cryonics? I don’t think the answer is rocket science: it’s just that men are more familiar with, skilled in, and comfortable with technology than women. For better or for worse, that’s the average case. This is changing, but still, the average man is more comfortable with technology than the average woman. The flip-side of this, in my eyes, is that women are more likely to express a reasonable degree of skepticism about the ability of new technologies to improve our lives whereas men are more likely to be naively enthusiastic. (Engadget, anyone?)

Thankfully, in my own case, my girlfriend supports cryonics and is signed up for cryonics with me, so I was able to avoid all the nastiness described in the article.

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Here’s the link to the November article. H/t to Roko.

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At Depressed Metabolism, there is an excellent post on the realities of embalming and other post-death practices by licensed funeral director William Faloon. He reveals that the embalming process involves stabbing the body cavities with a “hollow sword” which is then used to suck out the liquid contents, to keep them from putrefying.

This article is especially appropriate in light of the recent absurd allegations against Alcor circulating in the international media. I especially thought CNN did a responsible job covering the story, with the reporter telling the accuser, “Admit it. You’re a profiteer. You’re doing this for profit.” Even people who know nothing about cryonics can see that the allegations are fabricated specifically for maximum tabloid shock value. Other “allegations” simply portray the necessary processes of cryonics (such as head removal, as in neurosuspensions) in a gruesome light, even though they’re less gruesome than rotting in a box.

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While we’re on the topic of cryonics, I am reminded of a letter I wrote to Alcor a while back:

Hello,

I’m a cryonicist and life extension advocate. To help promote the idea of
cryonics, I think it would be a good idea to have available on the Internet
micrograph images of frozen and unfrozen brain tissue, to show the
difference. Do you have any available, or know where I could get some?

Thank you,
Michael

Dr. Brian Wowk kindly responded:

Hi Michael. There are lots of cryopreserved brain micrographs
on the Alcor website. Some of them are after rewarming, and others
were obtained actually in the cryopreserved state by a technique
called freeze-substitution.

http://www.alcor.org/AboutCryonics/index.html

http://www.alcor.org/sciencefaq.htm

http://www.alcor.org/Library/html/braincryopreservation1.html

http://www.alcor.org/Library/html/cambridge.html

http://www.alcor.org/Library/html/annals.html

http://www.alcor.org/notablequotes.html

http://www.alcor.org/Library/html/biology.html

Regards,
Brian

From the quotes page, here is an image of vitrified hippocampus:

(Click for larger.) The page says, “This is “your brain on cryonics”: Transmission electron micrograph of tissue rewarmed from -130°C after in-situ vitrification of a whole mammalian brain. This is essentially normal looking brain tissue (hippocampal region). Not only is there no “intracellular goo,” no “hamburger,” and no “pulverization and destruction,” there is no ice damage whatsoever!”

So, in Dale’s post on cryonics, when he talks about the brain being “hamburgerized” — he is making no sense. Vitrified brains don’t get “hamburgerized”. Dale probably knows about vitrification, so he is just forwarding propaganda because he is politically and morally uncomfortable with cryonics. That is because cryonics symbolizes the affirmation of the individual and potential avoidance of death in a way that can be offensive to hyper-socialistic, here-and-now-and-nothing-else politics. Well, too bad.

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H/t Dale Carrico. Laugh tracks make my skin crawl.

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Apparently Michael Jackson was interested in cryonics, but never signed up.

This is sort of sad, because the structure of the brain holds one’s personality and a lifetime of memories. Even if you don’t believe in the potential of future revival, preserving the structure of the brain would still be incredibly interesting, because future analysis could allow us to read memories and other cognitive features. Already, neuroscientists can read basic thoughts via brain scanning.

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See Ben Best’s page on the subject. If I randomly drop dead, it would be nice to get shoved in the freezer, post haste.

As Eliezer Yudkowsky once said, “it still looks to me like it would be better to just chop off the head and drop it into a bucket of liquid nitrogen as fast as possible.” (I’m actually going for full body because it barely costs more.)

For more cryonics enjoyment, see this page of “Who Are We?”

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While talking to my insurance agent (basically: cryonics agent) Rudi Hoffman, he mentioned something I hadn’t heard of before — intermediate temperature storage. Instead of lowering the temperature of the patient to -196 C, the idea is to lower the temperature only to -140 C or thereabouts. This temperature is low enough to freeze everything solid but warm enough that it avoids microfracturing throughout the tissue. The idea would be that it would destroy less neural information.

I hear that Alcor has been working on this approach for a while. The reason that Rudi mentioned it to me is that intermediate temperature storage, which is not yet available, may cost a bit more than conventional storage when it eventually does become available. Full body currently costs $150K. (See “The Case for Full-Body Suspension” by Michael B. O’Neal.) Intermediate temperature storage, which may be available in a few years, would require electricity and a little more maintenance to keep it going. To cover all the bases, I applied for a $250K life insurance policy, which at my age is only $26/month.

It seems difficult to find info on intermediate temperature storage on the Internet. Depressed Metabolism, the only blog I’m aware of that focuses on technical issues in cryonics, only has a couple posts on it. It looks like Cryonics Institute President Ben Best has done some research on it and wrote up his thoughts in a page “Molecular Mobility at Low Temperature” which tentatively cautions against intermediate temperature storage, mentioning the need for further research:

For Intermediate Storage Temperature (−135ºC , ~138K) the typical distance a water molecule will have been displaced over the course of a century is about 40 nanometers, whereas for −165ºC (~108K) the displacement is about one nanometer and at liquid nitrogen temperature (−196ºC ,~77K) the distance is about one-and-a-half picometers. All of these values would seem acceptable in a cryonics patient if the typical linear distance traveled by the water molecule were the same as the total distance. But the actual total linear distance (path length) traveled by the water molecule due to Brownian motion will be vastly greater than the typical displacement from the point of origin. Doing the same calculation for a water molecule at room temperature (25ºC , about 298K) using the viscosity of ethylene glycol (0.0161 Pa·s) gives a typical distance of about 1.4 meters. A water molecule at room temperature would travel a vastly greater path-length than 1.4 meters over the course of a century.

Also worrisome is the possiblility of ions within the glass that are far more mobile than the molecules constituting the glass. An ionic species (probably protons) in trimethylammonium dihydrogen phosphate glass is nine orders of magnitude more mobile than the glass molecules — and sodium ions in sodium disilicate glass are twelve orders of magnitude more mobile than the glass molecules. Water molecules can be quite mobile when in polydextrose glass, and carbon dioxide is mobile in polyvinyl alcohol (same reference).

But, molecular mobility is not lethal for northern wood frogs that can spend weeks to months in a semi-frozen state. The most damaging effects of molecular mobility at temperatures below T_g should be either from water molecules forming crystals or from mobile free radicals. Concerning the latter, cryobiologist Peter Mazur was quoted at the beginning of this piece as saying: “…there is no confirmed case of cell death ascribed to storage at −196ºC for some 2-15 years and none even when cells are exposed to levels of ionizing radiation some 100 times background for up to 5 yr.”

More experiments exposing tissues to ionizing radiation could be helpful in assessing the safety for cryonics patients of various sub−T_g temperatures above liquid nitrogen temperature. Experiments should also be done to determine the possibility of ice formation at cryogenic temperatures over long periods. More information is needed before it can be stated with certainty that damage due to molecular mobility at Intermediate Storage Temperature would not be worse than the effects of cracking damage.

It will be interesting to follow developments in that area. I would also be concerned about the reliability of suspension under crisis conditions, for instance a nuclear war. Obviously it might be easier to just pour in liquid nitrogen than use electricity in those circumstances.

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So easy… just sign up for a quote at Rudi Hoffman’s website. Rudi takes care of more than 90% of the life insurance for cryonics market. For most people, monthly payments for cryonics-dedicated life insurance policies are very cheap. “Less than the cost of an ice cream cone a day”, as someone recently put it in an article on cryonics in the Daily Mail.

Update: Rudi is authorized for selling life insurance in the USA only, but you can get similar low prices around the world.

I also realized that there is an amusing double meaning on the home page: “You will enjoy a sense of clarity and accomplishment as we comfortably help you crystallize and move towards your goals and dreams.” (Emphasis added.) Comfortably help us crystallize, huh?

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