Get Started with Squarespace today: http://squarespace.com/isaacarthur. To journey across the stars requires voyages of centuries or more, ensuring the crew will be long dead by the time they arrive. If you want your crew available to colonize new worlds after their interstellar voyage, you either have to extend their lives, train their descendants, or freeze them till they arrive. We will examine the third option day, freezing people with cryonics, using hibernation, or suspended animation, or some other form of stasis the future might offer.
Outer Space, Inner Space, and the Future of Networks. Synopsis: Does the History, Dynamics, and Structure of our Universe give any evidence that it is inherently “Good”? Does it appear to be statistically protective of adapted complexity and intelligence? Which aspects of the big history of our universe appear to be random? Which are predictable? What drives universal and societal accelerating change, and why have they both been so stable? What has developed progressively in our universe, as opposed to merely evolving randomly? Will humanity’s future be to venture to the stars (outer space) or will we increasingly escape our physical universe, into physical and virtual inner space (the transcension hypothesis)? In Earth’s big history, what can we say about what has survived and improved? Do we see any progressive improvement in humanity’s thoughts or actions? When is anthropogenic risk existential or developmental (growing pains)? In either case, how can we minimize such risk? What values do well-built networks have? What can we learn about the nature of our most adaptive complex networks, to improve our personal, team, organizational, societal, global, and universal futures? I’ll touch on each of these vital questions, which I’ve been researching and writing about since 1999, and discussing with a community of scholars at Evo-Devo Universe (join us!) since 2008.
For fun background reading, see John’s Goodness of the Universe post on Centauri Dreams, and “Evolutionary Development: A Universal Perspective”, 2019.
Australian scientists have taken the first step towards improved storage of human cells, which may lead to the safe storage of organs such as hearts and lungs.
The team’s discovery of new cryoprotective agents opens the door to many more being developed that could one day help to eliminate the need for organ transplant waiting lists. Their results are published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry B.
Cryopreservation is a process of cooling biological specimens down to very low temperatures so they can be stored for a long time. Storing cells through cryopreservation has had big benefits for the world—including boosting supplies at blood banks and assisting reproduction—but it is currently impossible to store organs and simple tissues.
Cryostasis Revival by Robert Freitas is the first comprehensive technical exposition how to revive cryonics patients in the future. This 700+ page book with thousands of references, and technical color illustrations, is now available on Amazon in a limited textbook hardcover edition.
Cryostasis is an emergency medical procedure in which a human patient is placed in biological stasis at cryogenic temperatures. A cryopreserved patient can be maintained in this condition indefinitely without suffering additional degradation, but cannot yet be revived using currently available technology. This book presents the first comprehensive conceptual protocol for revival from human cryopreservation, using medical nanorobots. The revival methods presented in this book involve three stages: collecting information from preserved structure, computing how to fix damaged structure, and implementing the repair procedure using nanorobots manufactured in a nanofactory – a system for atomically precise manufacturing that is now visible on the technological horizon.
This year, the Alcor Life Extension Foundation is celebrating its 50th year. To mark the occasion, we are holding a conference on June 3–5, 2022, at the Scottsdale Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The conference itself will be Alcor’s first major in-person gathering in seven years, so we’re going to “go big.” We expect members, prospective members, and others interested in life extension and the far future to turn out enthusiastically. We hope not only that our attendees will enjoy hearing from and interacting with you, but also that you may find the experience enjoyable. There is no organization quite like Alcor, after all, and very few opportunities to explore cryonics and its implications for society now and in the far future.
This is an invitation to the Annual General Meeting of the Cryonics Institute & the Immortalist Society.
The Cryonics Institute’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held on Sunday, September 11th 2022 from 3:00pm to 6:30pm at the Infinity Hall & Sidebar 16,650 E. 14 Mile Rd, Fraser, MI 48,026 (USA). For more information visit www.infinityhallsidebar.com
The 2021 Lifeboat Foundation Guardian Award has been given to Martine Rothblatt who has devoted her life to moving humanity towards a positive future.
Martine was the 500th person to join our Advisory Board, has contributed to our blog, and has generously supported the Lifeboat Foundation’s goal of “Safeguarding Humanity”.
Martine is cofounder of the Terasem Movement Foundation. Their mission is to promote the geoethical (world ethical) use of nanotechnology for human life extension. They conduct educational programs and support scientific research and development in the areas of cryonics, biotechnology, and cyber consciousness. This foundation is related to the Lifeboat Foundation programs LifePreserver and PersonalityPreserver (which Martine contributed text to).
