Terry Grossman. As principal author of The Baby Boomers’ Guide to Living Forever, Grossman offers practical advice on staying healthy at a time when knowledge in the field is advancing rapidly. Nine others assist with expertise in their various specialties, and the book is both entertaining and optimistic in a way not possible until recently. With the rising tide of research into the causes of and possible cure for aging, we can at last glimpse the end of this universal death sentence—but we aren’t there yet. Many treatments now being offered remain controversial, and the wise reader will benefit by keeping an open mind and not attaching certainty to possibilities in a fastchanging field. Present inadequacies in antiaging therapy are acknowledged, and the book continues with a section on “immortality medicine,” for those not interested in giving up. Cryopreservation is advocated as a backup, in case the necessary medical breakthroughs happen too slowly to save you. Can anything be more sensible?
concerned with the deep nature of reality and whether literal immortality might be possible and for whom. I uphold optimistic conclusions similar to those of Frank Tipler and Hans Moravec. Everyone who ever lived, even the long deceased whose remains were not preserved, can expect eventual reanimation and immortalization in some form. If nothing else it will happen through the activation of replicas whose eventual occurrence seems inevitable given the randomizing nature of reality and, arguably, the existence of multiple, parallel universes. In this way my effort meets what I consider minimal requirements for a satisfying, rational philosophy of life. There must be no appeal to supernatural or paranormal elements, but the individual must have permanence, and not merely in terms of abstractions or achievements but as an entity with continuing, personalized, remembered experiences. Yet, while the idea of survival through random replicas and other such means is defensible, such survival has its drawbacks, and I also argue that, when possible, a better approach is to provide for one’s preservation after clinical death so that a more straightforward reanimation can follow.
R. Michael Perry. Though active in cryonics for many years now, it’s only recently that I’ve entered the ranks of authors I’d list here, with my book, Forever for All, published last summer. In this I try to unite two strands of immortalist philosophy, one dealing with cosmological perspectives, the other with more immediate issues such as cryopreservation. With cosmology we are
Notes: 1. In particular Bedford was not perfused but only injected with perfusate, as Nelson confirmed in an interview V ( enturist Monthly News 2(5) 4 [May 1990]). 2. See “Interview with Saul Kent,” Cryonics #16 13 (November 1981). 3. Quoted from the web site <http://www.extropy.com/about.htm>. 4. Much information in this paragraph was obtained from an interview with Freitas, <http://www.foresight.org/Updates/Update38/ Update38.2.html#Interview>, which also has links to other related sites. Other, corroborating material for this article will be found in newsletters such as Cryonics, Cryonics Reports, American Cryonics Society Journal, and The Immortalist, available from the author or Alcor’s files.
Photo credits: Ettinger: Cryonics Reports 2(5) front cover (May 1967). Cooper: Macleans, Apr. 2, 1966. Nelson: Cryonics Reports 4(4) 9 (Apr.-May 1969). Esfandiary, Drexler: widely available photos—see, for example, http:// www.transhuman.org/ (Esfandiary); http://foresight.org/FI/Drexler.html (Drexler). Kent, Segall: brochure for Life Extension Breakthrough Conference (1986). Benford: <http://www.twbookmark.com/authors/25/1807/index.html>. Platt, Russo, Halperin, Donaldson: Alcor’s files. Du Charme, dust jacket of Becoming Immortal, with author’s permission. Freitas: <http://www.foresight.org/Updates/Update38/Update38.2.html#Interview>. Grossman: photo supplied by author, used with permission. Other photos, writer’s personal collection.
Bibliography of Principal Works Cited: Benford, Gregory. See under Blake, Sterling. Blake, Sterling (Gregory Benford). Chiller. New York: Bantam Books (paperback), 1994. Chamberlain, Fred, and Linda Chamberlain, Instructions for the Induction of Solid State Hypothermia in Humans. La Canada, Calif.: Manrise Corporation, 1973. Cooper, Evan. See under Duhring, Nathan. Donaldson, Thomas. A Guide to Antiaging Drugs. Half Moon Bay, Calif.: Periastron Books, 1994. Drexler, K. Eric. Engines of Creation. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1986.
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