Robert C. W. Ettinger: News Media Obituaries, the Raw Feed

Posted on July 26, 2011 by admin

Introduction

Reproduced below is the raw feed of obituaries for Robert Ettinger. There are many more, most repetitive and based on the same primary sources (i.e., news services and THE WASHINGTON POST). Examining a representative of the raw feed is instructive because local news outlets will frequently cut, edit, or add to their primary source and they will also impact public perception of the story by how they title and illustrate it. What follows is thus an attempt to capture the quality and quantity of the regional coverage of Robert Ettinger’s cryopreservation. – Mike Darwin

THE DETROIT NEWS
Last Updated: July 26. 2011 1:00AM

Ettinger, father of cryonics movement, dies; placed in deep freeze

Kim Kozlowski/ The Detroit News

Robert Ettinger devoted his life to providing an option that could possibly lead to eternal life with the help of science.

But that type of science had yet to evolve when he died over the weekend.

So the body of the man whom many hail as the father of the cryonics movement on Monday was being prepared for storage in a liquid nitrogen tank in Clinton Township beside 100 others who shared his views. His hope: future technology will resurrect him, cure what ailed him and give him everlasting life.

“I am very sad about it,” said his son, David Ettinger. “But at the same time, the nice thing about cryonics is that hopefully I will see him again one day.”

Ettinger, 92, became the 106th patient at the organization he founded 35 years ago, the Cryonics Institute. Only one other major cryonics facility exists in the world.

The five-day process for preparing Ettinger’s body involved packing it on ice, perfusing it with chemicals to limit freezer damage and slowly cooling it to the temperature of liquid nitrogen. It began within minutes of his death on Saturday afternoon, his son said, to assure the least amount of damage. He is expected to be submerged upside down in a tank, known as a cryostat, filled with liquid nitrogen by Thursday.

Those who were inspired by Ettinger said he leaves behind a profound mark.

“Bob Ettinger inspired at least two generations of young visionaries to consider humanity’s long-term future and their place in it with a level of rationality that had rarely been applied to that topic hitherto,” said Aubrey de Grey, chief science officer of the SENS Foundation, which is working to advance rejuvenation therapies. “He showed us that cryonics makes sense. … Until he benefits personally from his vision, he will be sadly missed.”

Ettinger was 14 when he read a science fiction story that spawned cryonics. The story, “The Jameson Satellite,” relayed how a professor sent a corpse into Earth’s orbit for indefinite preservation. Millions of years later, aliens found the body, took the brain out and put it in a mechanical body. Ettinger thought the author missed the point of his own story.

“Why wait for aliens?” Ettinger told The Detroit News in 2009. “Why not do it ourselves?”

Ettinger served in World War II, where he was injured in Germany. He spent months in the hospital and discovered science was accelerating the concept of cryonics.

He self-published a book in 1962: “The Prospect of Immortality.” Two years later, Doubleday published the book, which was eventually translated into several languages.

“I thought the premise was so logical,” said Ettinger, who taught physics and math at Wayne State University and Highland Park Community College.

He founded the Cryonics Institute in 1976, first located in Detroit. For years, membership was in the single digits, but it has grown to more than 900 people from around the globe. All want either to preserve themselves, DNA or pets.

Ettinger joins his mother, Rhea Ettinger — who was the first cryopreserved corpse at the institute, in 1977 — and his first and second wives, Elaine and Mae Ettinger, the institute’s No. 2 and 34 patients, respectively.

kkozlowski@detnews.com

(313) 222-2024

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110726/OBITUARIES/107260364/Ettinger–father-of-cryonics-movement–dies–placed-in-deep-freeze#ixzz1TFZeYchG

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DAILY MAIL (London, UK)

Frozen in time: ‘Father of Cryonics’ entombed at -321F after dying aged 92

Body of Robert Ettinger committed to his own institute

Placed alongside his mother and two wives

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 1:47 PM on 26th July 2011

• Comments (19)

A pioneer of the cryonics movement which advocates freezing the dead in the hope that medical technology will enable them to live again in the future has died at the age of 92.

Robert Ettinger, from Clinton Township, Detroit, became the 106th person to be stored at the Cryonics Institute which he founded in 1976.

The World War Two veteran, who taught physics at Wayne State University, was seriously wounded during the Battle of the Bulge and spent years in hospitals.

Legacy: Robert Ettinger, 92, has been frozen in the Cryonics Institute he founded after his death.

High tech: The institute, in Detroit, Michigan, already has Mr Ettinger’s mother and two wives as patients

Bone graft surgery that saved his legs inspired his optimism about the future prospects of preserving life through technology, a statement from the Cryonics Institute said.

His son David Ettinger said he had been inspired by science fiction writings about deep-freezing the dead and expected researchers to make serious progress toward developing the idea.

But when nothing seemed to be happening, he wrote a book in 1964 entitled ‘The Prospect Of Immortality’, introducing the concept of cryonics.

He wrote: ‘If civilisation endures, medical science should eventually be able to repair almost any damage to the human body, including freezing damage and senile debility or other cause of death.’

‘Sooner or later our friends of the future should be equal to the task of reviving and curing us,’ said Ettinger

Optimist: Mr Ettinger was inspired by successful bone graft surgery he underwent after being injured during World War Two. Right, the 1964 book he wrote in which he introduced the idea of freezing humans after death

BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE

Cryonics is the low-temperature preservation of humans and animals with the hope that they will be able to be ‘brought back to life’ when science is able to do so.

It is often confused with cryogenics, the study of the production of very low temperatures and how materials react to them.

The procedure has to be begun within minutes of cardiac arrest. Cryoprotectants are used to prevent ice crystals forming between body cells, which would then cause irreparable damage if the victim was then ‘thawed’.

The belief is that memories and identity could survive the freezing process.

Only around 200 people have been preserved cryonically since it was first proposed in 1962.

Films featuring cryonics include Woody Allen’s 1973 Sleeper, James Cameron’s Aliens in 1986 and the 1992 movie Forever Young, starring Mel Gibson (pictured).

He added: ‘No matter what kills us, whether old age or disease, and even if freezing techniques are still crude when we die, sooner or later our friends of the future should be equal to the task of reviving and curing us.’

Mr Ettinger promoted his theory in other writings and appearances on television talk shows.

The Cryonics Institute has 900 members. Similar facilities for preserving dead bodies operate in Arizona, California and Russia.

He also established the Immortalist Society, a research and education group devoted to cryonics and extending the human life span.

The institute charged $28,000 to prepare a body and store it long-term in a tank of liquid nitrogen at minus 321 degrees Fahrenheit.

The first person frozen there was Mr Ettinger’s mother, Rhea Ettinger, who died in 1977.

Both his wives, Elaine and Mae, are also patients at the institute.

His son said he was never bothered by ridicule and was a ‘reluctant prophet’.

‘He did what he thought was necessary and appropriate and didn’t worry much about what people thought,’ he said.

‘The people who are scoffers are like the people who said heavier-than-air flight won’t work.’

Robert Ettinger died at his home in Detroit after weeks of declining health.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2018628/Pioneer-cryonics-movement-92-body-frozen-institute-death.html#ixzz1TFa8WYRI

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NEW KERLA NEWS (Melbourne, AU)

Process to freeze dead body of father of cryonics Robert Ettinger starts

Melbourne, July 26 : The body of late Robert Ettinger, who is known as the father of the cryonics movement, is currently undergoing a five-day process to cool it for storage at a very low temperature.

According to the Detroit News, Ettinger, who died July 23 at the age of 92, will become the 106th patient at the organisation he founded, the Cryonics Institute, in Clinton Township, Michigan.

Once there, he will join his mother, who was the first cryo-preserved corpse at the institute in 1977, and his first and second wives, who were numbers two and 34 respectively.

The paper said Ettinger did not want a memorial service because he believed he may return.

The five-day process to preserve Ettinger’s body began within minutes of his death and involved packing the body on ice, using chemicals to limit freezer damage and slowly cooling it to the temperature of liquid nitrogen.

It quoted his son, David, as saying the body was expected to be ready to be submerged upside down in a liquid nitrogen filled tank by July 28.

“He really has been viewed as the inspirational leader of the cryonics movement, and thousands of people around the world have looked up to him and will be upset that’s gone but hopeful that he will be back,” News.com.au quoted David as saying.

–ANI

Read More: http://www.newkerala.com/news/2011/worldnews-35581.html

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KYIVPOST.COM

Cryonics pioneer Robert Ettinger dies, body frozen

Robert Ettinger, pioneer of the cryonics movement

Yesterday at 12:22 | Associated Press

TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan (AP) — Robert Ettinger, pioneer of the cryonics movement that advocates freezing the dead in the hope that medical technology will enable them to live again someday, has died. He was 92.

Ettinger died Saturday at home in the Detroit suburb of Clinton Township after weeks of declining health, son David Ettinger said.

His body became the 106th to be stored at the Cryonics Institute, which he founded in 1976.

“My father devoted himself to doing what he could to enable his family, his friends and others to come back and live again,” David Ettinger told The Associated Press. “Whether he will achieve that nobody knows at this point, but we think he has a good shot.”

Robert Ettinger, who taught physics at Wayne State University, was seriously wounded during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II and spent years in hospitals.

The bone graft surgery that spared his legs inspired his optimism about the future prospects of preserving life through technology, a Cryonics Institute statement said.

His son said Ettinger also was inspired by science fiction writings about deep-freezing the dead and expected researchers to make serious progress toward developing the idea.

But when nothing seemed to be happening, he wrote a 1964 book, “The Prospect of Immortality,” introducing the concept of cryonics.

“If civilization endures, medical science should eventually be able to repair almost any damage to the human body,” he wrote, “including freezing damage and senile debility or other cause of death.”

He added: “No matter what kills us, whether old age or disease, and even if freezing techniques are still crude when we die, sooner or later our friends of the future should be equal to the task of reviving and curing us.”

Ettinger promoted his theory in other writings and appearances on television talk shows.

The Cryonics Institute has 900 members. Similar facilities for preserving dead bodies operate in Arizona, California and Russia.

Ettinger also established the Immortalist Society, a research and education group devoted to cryonics and extending the human life span.

The Cryonics Institute charges $28,000 to prepare a body and store it long-term in a tank of liquid nitrogen at minus 321 degrees Fahrenheit.

The first person frozen there was Ettinger’s mother, Rhea Ettinger, who died in 1977. His two wives, Elaine and Mae, also are patients at the Institute.

Ettinger was never bothered by ridicule and was a “reluctant prophet,” his son said.

“He did what he thought was necessary and appropriate and didn’t worry much about what people thought,” David Ettinger said. “The people who are scoffers are like the people who said heavier-than-air flight won’t work.”

Read more: http://www.kyivpost.com/news/world/detail/109397/#ixzz1TFb2u9yV
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UPI
U.S. News

Cryonics pioneer Ettinger dead at 92

Published: July 26, 2011 at 2:49 AM

CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich., July 26 (UPI) — Robert Ettinger, who pioneered cryonics — the idea of freezing people’s bodies to be resurrected in the future, has died in Michigan at 92, his family said.

His son David told the Michigan news Web site MLive.com his father died Saturday at his home in Clinton Township. The Detroit News reported he died of respiratory failure.

Robert Ettinger was an early proponent of storing people’s bodies at very low temperature after death in hopes that future technology would allow for revival and curing of aging and disease.

Appropriately, upon his death he became the 106th person to go through the process at the organization he founded, the Cryonics Institute, the News said.

Over a period of five days, Ettinger’s body was being slowly cooled to the temperature of liquid nitrogen, and by Thursday is expected to be ready to be submerged upside down in a tank filled with liquid nitrogen, his son said.

“He really has been viewed as the inspirational leader of the cryonics movement, and thousands of people around the world have looked up to him and will be upset that’s [he's] gone but hopeful that he will be back,” David Ettinger said.

Robert Ettinger had said he was inspired in his effort by reading the science fiction story “The Jameson Satellite” when he was 14 years old, the News said.

David Ettinger said his father, a former Wayne State University physics professor, believed in taking facts and logic “and see where it leads you,” MLive.com said.

“Hopefully it leads us to see him again,” he said.

© 2011 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/07/26/Cryonics-pioneer-Ettinger-dead-at-92/UPI-70501311662990/#ixzz1TFbPYARV

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TEXARKANA GAZETTE

Founder of Cryonics Institute Robert Ettinger dies, body frozen

By: Associated Press – Texarkana Gazette

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.—Robert Ettinger, pioneer of the cryonics movement that advocates freezing the dead in the hope that medical technology will enable them to live again someday, has died. He was 92.

Ettinger died Saturday at home in the Detroit suburb of Clinton Township after…

Published: 07/26/2011

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NEW SCIENTIST

Dead cryonics founder is frozen as planned

22:37 25 July 2011

Health

Science In Society

Ferris Jabr, reporter

Ettinger (right) entertains visitors (Image: Cryonics Institute)

In Clinton Township, Michigan, in what looks like just another drab office building, more than 100 people float peacefully inside giant bottles filled with liquid nitrogen. Before they died they asked the Cryonics Institute to freeze them in the hopes that one day doctors will have technology to revive them.

Robert Ettinger, founder of the cryonics movement, has finally become a human popsicle himself after dying on 23 July from unspecified causes following weeks of declining health. The 92-year-old joins his mother, Rhea, his first wife, Elaine, and his second wife, Mae, who were all cryopreserved at the Cryonics Institute as well. The minimum price tag: $28,000.

Other organisations charge upwards of $200,000 and offer the option of “neuropreservation”: instead of freezing their whole bodies, clients freeze only their heads. The idea is that one’s personality and memories will be preserved in the brain and could be uploaded to a computer or artificial body in the future.

Ettinger was inspired by the Neil Jones short-story “The Jameson Satellite,” which tells of a professor who has his corpse launched into space, where – millions of years later – a race of robotic men resuscitate the professor by transplanting his brain into a mechanical body. The work of French biologist Jean Rostand, who froze and defrosted frog sperm without serious damage, also enthused Ettinger.

(Image: Sipa Press/Rex Features)

No one really knows whether we can ever return consciousness to frozen corpses, but cryopreservation is a genuine phenomenon in the animal kingdom and a useful technique in medicine.

Many living animals have evolved tricks to survive sub-zero temperatures and thaw out after temporary periods of icy paralysis. And scientists have made significant headway in freezing living tissues and even whole human organs for medical purposes. To the disappointment of Jurassic Park fans and enthusiasts of prehistoric life, the notion of resurrecting a frozen mammoth has not panned out so far.

Other people who have been cryonically preserved include American baseball player and manager Ted Williams and his son John Henry Williams, University of California psychology professor James Bedford and mathematician Thomas Donaldson.

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THE ATLANTIC

Cryonics Founder Dies, Now Patiently Awaiting His Comeback

By Rebecca J. Rosen

Jul 26 2011, 4:47 PM ET 2

Robert Ettinger, 1918-2011?

Cryonics Institute

Ettinger is now frozen in a facility in Michigan along with his two wives. “If both of my wives are revived,” he said, “that will be a high class problem.”

Over the weekend, Robert Ettinger, founder of the cryonics movement, died at his home in Michigan and was quickly frozen. “We’re obviously sad,” said his son David in an obituary in The Washington Post. But “we were able to freeze him under optimum conditions, so he’s got another chance.”

For the uninitiated: Cryonics is the preservation of dead people — “patients” in cryonics-speak — at very low temperatures in preparation for a time when medical advances allow them to be thawed and brought back to life. At the top of the page, take a look at the facilities, machines, and people that are working to keep more than 100 people and several dozen animals frozen in the suburbs of Detroit.

A dream of a world where death can be undone raises some nasty ethical problems, but cryonicists are not to be deterred. In a New Yorker profile of Ettinger two years ago (subscription required), Jill Lepore wrote:

But if no one ever dies, won’t there be too many people on the planet? “The people could simply agree to share the available space in shifts, Ettinger suggested, “going into suspended animation from time to time to make room for others.” There will be no childbirth. Fetuses will be incubated in jars. “Essentially, motherhood will be abolished.” Then, too, eugenics will help keep the birthrate down, and deformed babies could be frozen against the day that someone might actually want them, or figure out how to fix them. “Cretins,” for instance, or babies born with cerebral palsy. For the weak-minded, who might find making such a decision difficult, Ettinger offered a philosophical rule of thumb: Ask yourself, “If the child were already frozen and it were within my power to return him to deformed life, would I do so? If the answer is negative, then probably the freezer is where he belongs.”

Regardless of your position on the movement’s moral standing or the odds you’d give of anyone ever being revived, it is clear that cryonics presents an immense technological challenge. How do you freeze a body for hundreds of years? Machines break, electricity fails, people shirk their responsibilities. If a body warms up, even for a short while, decomposition will set in and any hope of awakening will be dashed. (For a fantastic look at the difficulties faced when trying to keep bodies frozen, check out this episode of This American Life.)

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THE AGE.COM.AU

Cryonics pioneer is coolly waiting for second chance

John Flesher

July 27, 2011

In storage … Robert Ettinger.

TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan: Robert Ettinger, pioneer of the cryonics movement that advocates freezing the dead in the hope that medical technology will enable them to live again, has died. He was 92.

Mr Ettinger died on Saturday at home in Detroit after weeks of declining health, his son, David Ettinger, said. His body has become the 106th to be stored at the Cryonics Institute, which he founded in 1976.

”My father devoted himself to doing what he could to enable his family, his friends and others to come back and live again,” David Ettinger said. ”Whether he will achieve that nobody knows at this point but we think he has a good shot.”

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Robert Ettinger, who taught physics at Wayne State University, was seriously wounded during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II and spent years in hospitals. The bone graft surgery that spared his legs inspired his optimism about the prospects of preserving life through technology, a Cryonics Institute statement said.

His son said Mr Ettinger also was inspired by science fiction writings about deep-freezing the dead and expected researchers to make serious progress towards developing the idea. But when nothing seemed to be happening, he wrote a book in 1964 called The Prospect of Immortality, introducing the concept of cryonics.

”If civilisation endures, medical science should eventually be able to repair almost any damage to the human body,” he wrote, ”including freezing damage and senile debility or other cause of death.”

The institute charges $US28,000 ($25,890) to prepare a body and store it long term in a tank of liquid nitrogen at minus 160 degrees. The first person frozen there was Mr Ettinger’s mother, Rhea, who died in 1977. His two wives, Elaine and Mae, are also held by the institute.

David Ettinger said his father was a ”reluctant prophet”. ”He did what he thought was necessary and appropriate and didn’t worry much about what people thought … Scoffers are like the people who said heavier-than-air flight won’t work.”

Associated Press

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/cryonics-pioneer-is-coolly-waiting-for-second-chance-20110726-1hymi.html#ixzz1TFciv96e

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THE GUARDIAN UK

Would you want to be brought back to life after death?

Tuesday 26 July 2011 14.44 BST

Robert Ettinger, a pioneer of the cryonics movement, has died and had his body stored in a tank of liquid nitrogen, in the hope that medical technology may one day bring him back to life. If Ettinger’s technology worked, would you be tempted to have yourself laid to rest in a deep-freezer?

1. Yes

2. No

Cryonics pioneer Robert Ettinger dies

Ettinger’s body is frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at the institute he founded, along with those of his mother and wives

Robert Ettinger, a pioneer of the cryonics movement, has died and had his body stored at the facility he founded in the hope that medical technology will enable him to live again one day.

Ettinger died at home on Saturday, aged 92, in a suburb of Detroit after weeks of declining health. His body became the 106th to be frozen and stored at the Cryonics Institute, which he founded in 1976.

“My father devoted himself to doing what he could to enable his family, his friends and others to come back and live again,” said his son David. “Whether he will achieve that nobody knows at this point, but we think he has a good shot.”

Ettinger, a university physics teacher, was seriously wounded during the second world war at the Battle of the Bulge and spent years in hospitals. The bone graft surgery that saved his legs inspired his optimism about the prospects of preserving life through technology, a statement from the institute said. .

His son said Ettinger was also inspired by science fiction writings about deepfreezing the dead, and expected researchers to make serious progress toward developing the idea. But when nothing seemed to be happening, he wrote a 1964 book, The Prospect of Immortality, introducing the concept of cryonics.

“If civilization endures, medical science should eventually be able to repair almost any damage to the human body, including freezing damage and senile debility or other cause of death,” he wrote.

“No matter what kills us, whether old age or disease, and even if freezing techniques are still crude when we die, sooner or later our friends of the future should be equal to the task of reviving and curing us.”

Ettinger promoted his theory in other writings and appearances on television. There are now similar facilities for preserving bodies in Arizona, California and in Russia. Ettinger also established the Immortalist Society, a research and education group devoted to cryonics and extending the human life span.

The Cryonics Institute charges $28,000 (£17,000) to prepare a body and store it in a tank of liquid nitrogen. The first person frozen there was Ettinger’s mother, Rhea, who died in 1977. His two wives, Elaine and Mae, also are stored at the institute.

Ettinger was never bothered by ridicule and was a “reluctant prophet”, his son said. “He did what he thought was necessary and appropriate and didn’t worry much about what people thought,” he said. “The people who are scoffers are like the people who said heavier-than-air flight won’t work.”

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THE HERALD SUN

Robert Ettinger, father of cryonics, joins his mother and two wives on ice

• From: NewsCore

• July 26, 2011 6:38AM

1940s photograph of Robert Ettinger, who served in the US Army in Belgium during World War II. Picture: Wikipedia Source: Supplied

THE man known as a father of the cryonics movement has died at 92 and his body is currently undergoing a five-day process to cool it for storage at a very low temperature.

The Detroit News reported Robert Ettinger, who died Saturday, will become the 106th patient at the organisation he founded, the Cryonics Institute, in Clinton Township, Michigan.

Once there, he will join his mother, who was the first cryo-preserved corpse at the institute in 1977, and his first and second wives, who were numbers two and 34 respectively.

The paper said Mr Ettinger did not want a memorial service because he believed he may return.

The five-day process to preserve Mr Ettinger’s body began within minutes of his death and involved packing the body on ice, using chemicals to limit freezer damage and slowly cooling it to the temperature of liquid nitrogen, the News reported.

Mr Ettinger’s son David told the paper his father’s body was expected to be ready to be submerged upside down in a liquid nitrogen filled tank by Thursday.

Read more at: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/technology/robert-ettinger-father-of-cryonics-joins-his-mother-and-two-wives-on-ice/story-fn7celvh-1226101952473

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NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Father of cryonics, Robert Ettinger, dead – for now?

BY DOAK JANTZEN

DAILY NEWS WRITER

Monday, July 25th 2011, 8:25 PM

Richard Lee/Detreoit Free Press /AP

Robert Ettinger, former president of Cryonics Institute is shown at the institute facilities in Clinton Township, Mich., July 29, 2002.

Robert Ettinger, a founder of the cryonics movement in the US, died — and began the process of cryopreservation — on Saturday, July 23, 2011.

With his blood replaced by antifreeze, Ettinger will spend the foreseeable future swimming in liquid nitrogen – at minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit.

He will be housed at the Cryonics Institute in Clinton Township, Michigan, which was founded in 1976 and is where Ettinger first froze his dead mother, followed by his first wife.

The founder will be the 106th patient to be frozen.

Ettinger was born in Atlantic City in 1918. In the 1920s his family moved to Detroit and he began reading science-fiction in Hugo Gernsback’s “Amazing Stories” magazines.

According to a New Yorker profile, it was Neil R. Jones’ story “The Jameson Satellite,” published in the magazine in 1931, which first sparked his interest in immortality.

In 1964 he published his cryonics manifesto, “The Prospect of Immortality,” which envisioned a world in which no one ever dies, overcrowding is handled by sharing the earth in shifts, and science, perfected over the ages, can cure all human ailments.

The process of cryonics aims to render the patient immortal by keeping their body around long enough for the science of reanimation to catch up. According to the Institute’s website, liquid nitrogen cools the body “to a temperature where physical decay essentially stops,” so that, while dead, one’s body does not rot.

Over 900 people worldwide have signed up as members of Ettinger’s Cryonics Institute alone. Besides the 106 frozen patients, the wearhouse holds 179 human tissue/DNA samples, 51 pet tissue/DNA samples, and 78 pets in cryostasis according to its website.

Most famously, Boston Red Sox left fielder Ted Williams’ head was cryonically frozen after his death in 2002, though not at the Cryonics Institute, but at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Arizona, a rival company founded in 1972 by Fred and Linda Chamberlain.

Read more at: http://www.nydailynews.com/tech_guide/2011/07/25/2011-07-25_father_of_cryonics_robert_ettinger_dead__for_now.html

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WALL STREET JOURAL

Robert Ettinger | 1918-2011
Pursuing A Frozen Path

By STEPHEN MILLER

Robert Ettinger was the leading apostle of cryonics, the practice of freezing corpses in the hope that one day science will bring them back to life, cure what killed them and restore them to youth and vigor.

Robert Ettinger

Mr. Ettinger, who died Saturday at age 92, popularized cryonics in his 1962 book, “The Prospect of Immortality,” where he wrote, “Sooner or later our friends of the future should be equal to the task of reviving and curing us.”

In 1976, Mr. Ettinger founded the Cryonics Institute in a Detroit suburb, where he eventually stored more than 100 bodies in giant vats of liquid nitrogen, at 320 degrees below zero. Clients must be declared legally dead prior to immersion.

The price for preservation at the institute is about $30,000, including perpetual care. Mr. Ettinger is now preserved there.

“Our patients are not truly dead in any fundamental sense,” he told the New Yorker in a 2010 profile. None have ever been brought back to life, and many scientists are skeptical about cryonics.

Mr. Ettinger’s enthusiasm for suspended animation proved infectious: At least a half-dozen other cryonic-suspension organizations exist in the U.S., Russia and Portugal, with hundreds of frozen clients awaiting revivification.

The son of Jewish immigrants who ran a furniture store in Detroit, Mr. Ettinger grew up reading science fiction and studied physics and mathematics in college. He went to teach physics at Wayne State University and Highland Park Community College, both in Michigan.

Mr. Ettinger fought in World War II and was badly injured by German mortar fire, which left him with a permanent limp. While recuperating in a hospital stateside, Mr. Ettinger began musing about mortality and in 1948 published “The Penultimate Trump,” a science-fiction story about a man who is frozen and revived centuries later.

Inspired in part by British advances in freezing and thawing living cells, Mr. Ettinger began producing nonfiction articles on the topic for magazines. He then wrote “The Prospect of Immortality,” which garnered newspaper articles and interviews on TV and radio. Cryonics societies sprang up in New York and California. In 1967 the first human was cryonically preserved, a California psychology professor, kicking off what Mr. Ettinger called “The Freezer Era.”

He rejected cloning as an alternative route to immortality, because “all it does it get you a twin.”

Mr. Ettinger went on to found the nonprofit Cryonics Institute where the first client to be preserved was his mother. He went on to preserve his wife after she died. He remarried and his second wife was also preserved upon death. But he failed to persuade his father or his brother to join the frozen members of his family.

“That was one of my major sorrows,” Mr. Ettinger said in 2010. “He was my brother. I had hoped to save him from death.”

Unlike other cryonic organizations, Mr. Ettinger’s Cryonics Institute freezes only entire bodies, not just heads as some organizations do, at reduced cost. This practice—neurocryopreservation—became notorious when it was revealed that baseball slugger Ted Williams had undergone the procedure after death.

Write to Stephen Miller at stephen.miller@wsj.com

Read more at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904772304576468460105071604.html

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ABC NET.COM

US cryonics founder dies, has body frozen

Posted July 26, 2011 06:54:24

Robert Ettinger, the founder of a movement that advocates storing bodies at ultra-low temperatures after death until new technology allows them to be revived, has died and his body frozen at the institute he founded, his family said Monday.

Mr Ettinger died on Saturday at his home in Clinton Township, Michigan and “has been frozen at the Institute,” a statement sent to AFP by his son David said.

The Cryonics Institute, which Mr Ettinger founded in 1976 as a “non-profit organisation that could freeze and store patients at death” has more than 900 members around the world and “106 patients in storage,” the statement says.

Born in 1918, Mr Ettinger went public with his theory of cryonics in 1964 with the publication of his work The Prospect of Immortality.

In the book, he contends that “at very low temperatures it is possible, right now, to preserve dead people with essentially no deterioration, indefinitely.

“If civilisation endures, medical science should eventually be able to repair almost any damage to the human body, including freezing damage and senile debility or other cause of death,” he said in the book.

Mr Ettinger’s keen interest in the life-saving promise held by future medical technology was sparked, according to the statement, by the years he spent in hospitals after he was seriously wounded in combat in World War II.

“His legs were saved as a result of then innovative bone graft surgery. That sparked Mr Ettinger’s interest in the promise of future medical technology,” the statement says.

AFP

Topics: human-interest, death, united-states

Read more at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-26/cryonics-founder-dies/2810076

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SYDNEY HERALD SUN

Father of cryonics Robert Ettinger dies, body starts freezing process

• From: NewsCore

• July 26, 2011 6:38AM

THE man known as a father of the cryonics movement has died at 92 and his body is currently undergoing a five-day process to cool it for storage at a very low temperature.

The Detroit News reported Robert Ettinger, who died Saturday, will become the 106th patient at the organisation he founded, the Cryonics Institute, in Clinton Township, Michigan.

Once there, he will join his mother, who was the first cryo-preserved corpse at the institute in 1977, and his first and second wives, who were numbers two and 34 respectively.

The paper said Mr Ettinger did not want a memorial service because he believed he may return.

Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.

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• Deep freeze as an injury aid Adelaide Now, 7 Apr 2011

• Man dies as thieves target hair extensions Herald Sun, 19 Mar 2011

End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.

It quoted his son, David, as saying the body was expected to be ready to be submerged upside down in a liquid nitrogen filled tank by Thursday.

Read more at: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/father-of-cryonics-robert-ettinger-dies-body-starts-freezing-process/story-e6frf7jx-1226101738208

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THE AUSTRALIAN AGE

An idea frozen in time that promises life hereafter

July 26, 2011

CA Residents Save $400, Exp 8/22. In support of CA cord blood policy

Robert Chester Wilson Ettinger.

ROBERT CHESTER WILSON ETTINGER IMMORTALIST 4-12-1918 – 23-7-2011

ROBERT Ettinger, the intellectual father of the cryonics movement, whose members have themselves frozen at death pending scientific resurrection, has died at his home at Clinton Township in, Michigan, in the United States. He was 92.

Ettinger styled himself an ”immortalist”, since he argued that whole body or head-only freezing (”neurological suspension”) was only one means of achieving indefinite life. His rationale for pursuing this goal was contained in his book The Prospect Of Immortality (1964), which revealed him as an unquenchable optimist about mankind’s technological future.

Robert Chester Wilson Ettinger.

A physics teacher with an interest in science fiction, he predicted the evolution of machines that would manufacture from raw atoms all that humans needed. He foresaw intergalactic settlement, and argued that science would produce medical machines that would cure all diseases.

What now seemed to be a fatal illness would be no more than a twinge by 2050. From this it followed that the dead might be ”cured” by the doctors of the future.

Introducing what he called the Freezer Era, Ettinger described a world in which people would become nobler and more responsible as they were confronted with the reality of living forever. And if Earth became too crowded with long-lived humans? ”The people could simply agree to share the available space in shifts,” he wrote, ”going into suspended animation from time to time to make room for others”.

Ettinger proposed that governments immediately initiate a mass-freezing program. He suggested that this might have huge social benefits. To pay the premiums on their frozen families, people would need steady work and would be compelled to live responsible lives. He predicted that when immortality was achieved, crime would become extinct, since criminals would be afraid of justice pursuing them beyond the grave. Immortality would secure for man a higher, nobler nature.

The authorities remained unmoved. But his book proved popular and did inspire a number of cryonics organisations. In 1967, the first man was drained of blood and permeated with cryoprotectant (a sort of human antifreeze) and placed in a vat of liquid nitrogen at minus 196 degrees.

Despite Ettinger’s lofty aims, there were also opportunists, who imagined that cryonics would become big business, and outright ghouls. In the 1970s, one Californian cryonics society went bust without informing the relatives of its dozen ”patients”, who found their loved ones decomposing in packing cases in a suburban crypt. The head of that business had found alternative work repairing television sets.

The movement is hated by orthodox scientists, who hold that resurrecting a frozen body would be like ”trying to turn a hamburger back into a cow”.

The Cryonics Institute in the United States claims there are about 900 dues-paying members around the world (payments range between $US28,000 and $US150,000) who plan to be frozen when their time comes. The Cryonics Association of Australia says at least eight Australians have been frozen at death and the association has 25 affiliates, with a number of others also signed up.

The son of Russian immigrants of Jewish stock, Ettinger was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and went to school in Detroit after his family moved there, and then on to Wayne State University, where he studied physics and maths. He grew up a determined atheist.

During World War II he served as a second lieutenant (pictured, left) and was wounded before the Battle of the Bulge. The scenes of destruction he witnessed during the war had little effect on his immortalist views.

After the war he taught physics at Wayne State University and at a college near Michigan. He had begun brooding on the possibilities of cryonics in the 1930s, and was later inspired by The Jameson Satellite, a science-fiction short story by Neil Jones, about a man who has his corpse placed into orbit in the belief that the cold of outer space would preserve him. Millions of years passed, and the human race died out. Then a race of advanced aliens came along with mechanical bodies; they took the man’s frozen brain, and put it in a mechanical body.

”It was immediately obvious to me,” Ettinger said, ”that the author had missed the main point of his own story – namely that if there was any sense at all in expecting a frozen person to be revived someday, there was no point in waiting for aliens to do it in millions of years. We could do it ourselves in a very short time, and not just for a few eccentrics, but for everybody.

”We have to wait for the technology of revival. But we have to see to the arrangements of freezing ourselves, because most of us are going to die long before the technology is there.”

In 1947, Ettinger wrote a short story on the theme, fully expecting that other more influential people would pick up on his idea. When, by 1960, no mass freezing program had been initiated, Ettinger wrote an essay on the subject, dealing mainly with ”the insurance aspect”, which he sent to about 200 people selected at random from Who’s Who In America.

There was ”virtually zero response”, so he wrote The Prospect of Immortality, which was first published privately. The sequel, Man Into Superman, appeared in 1968.

Ettinger retired from teaching in 1972, but to the end remained convinced that cryonics would catch on. ”Someday there will be some sort of psychological trigger that will move all these people to take the practical steps they have not yet taken. When people realise that their children and grandchildren will enjoy indefinite life,” he said, ”that they may well be the last generation to die.”

He took encouragement from advances in nano-technology, the manipulation of computers at a microscopic level, which he thought would provide the machinery to successfully repair frozen corpses.

Ettinger’s frozen body has joined those of his mother and two wives in cold storage. His first patient was his mother, Rhea, who died in 1977. ”I don’t know if she was very enthusiastic about it,” he said, ”but she was willing.” A decade later, he froze his second patient – his wife Elaine, who died in 1987 and with whom he had two children. The next year he married his second wife, Mae. When she died in 2000, she was the institute’s 34th patient.

Cryonics was a serious topic for Ettinger, but he had a sense of humour. ”If both of my wives are revived,” he said last year, ”that will be a high class problem.”

He is survived by a son, David, and daughter, Shelley, from his first marriage, both of whom are active immortalists.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/obituaries/an-idea-frozen-in-time-that-promises-life-hereafter-20110725-1hx1f.html#ixzz1TFh7ox00

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TELEGRAPH (LONDON, UK)

All Headline News

Father of Cryonics dies, has body frozen

Cost for cryo-freezing starts at $30,000.

Source: (AHN)

Reporter: Ayinde O. Chase

Location: Traverse City, MI, United States Published: July 26, 2011 03:18 pm EDT

Topics: Human Interest, Curiosity, Science And Technology, Technology, Human Interest, People

Robert Ettinger, founder of the cryonics movement in the United States has died and had his body placed in a tank of liquid nitrogen. It is his hope that someday in the future medical technology can bring him back to life.

Ettinger, who died Saturday, will become the 106th patient at the organisation he founded, the Cryonics Institute, in Clinton Township, Michigan.

He is now joined at the facility with his mother, who was the first cryo-preserved corpse at the there in 1977. He is also in the company of both his first and second wives, who were numbers two and 34 respectively.

He also said, “No matter what kills us, whether old age or disease, and even if freezing techniques are still crude when we die, sooner or later our friends of the future should be equal to the task of reviving and curing us.”

The price for preservation at the institute is about $30,000, including ongoing perpetual care.

One of Etttinger’s final wishes was that no memorial service be held because he believed he may return.

The 92-year-old pioneer died in his home in a suburb outside of Detroit after weeks of fighting declining health.

Read more: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/90055380?Father%20of%20Cryonics%20dies%2C%20has%20body%20frozen#ixzz1TFhgvFBK

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INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES

Life After Death: Cryonics Pioneer Robert Ettinger Dies

By IBTimes Staff Reporter | July 26, 2011 12:53 AM EDT

Robert Ettinger, the founding father of the cryonics movements that believes in the low-temperature preservation of the dead with the hope that healing and resuscitation may be possible in the future, died on Saturday. He was 92.

Ettinger died in his home in the Detroit suburb of Clinton Township. His health had been declining in recent weeks, his son David Ettinger said. Ettinger’s body became the 106th to be stored at the Cryonics Institute which he founded in 1976.

Etiinger, the son of Jewish immigrants, served in the U.S. military during World War II and was severely wounded in battle in Germany. While recuperating in hospitals, Ettinger nurtured the idea of preserving life through technology.

Ettinger who grew up on Science fiction was especially inspired by a Neil R. Jones story, “The Jameson Satellite, which he read when he was 12. The tale, about a man who has his corpse placed into orbit in the belief that the cold of outer space would preserve him and was discovered millions of years later by an advanced race of aliens who put the man’s brains in a mechanical body, got Ettinger brooding on the possibilities of cryonics in the 1930′s. It was Ettinger’s founding document on cryonics, “The Prospect of Immortality” that made him an overnight celebrity and garner a lot of media attention. Following the publication of the document, which describes the practical and moral aspects of deep-freezing the dead, Ettinger made a lot of television appearances with David Frost, Johnny Carson, Steve Allen, among others.

“The Prospect of Immortality” led to various Cryonics societies springing up in New York and California. In 1966 Ettinger was elected the President of the Cryonics Society of Michigan which was later transformed under his direction into the Cryonics Institute in 1976. More than 100 bodies are stored at the institute in giant vats of liquid nitrogen, at 320 degrees below zero. The price for preservation at the institute is about $30,000, including perpetual care. Ettinger’s mother became the first to be preserved there. He went on to preserve his first and second wife at the Institute. The Cryonics Institute has 900 members. Similar facilities for preserving dead bodies operate in Arizona, California and Russia.

Ettinger who taught physics at Wayne State University strongly believed that someday medical science and technology would become advanced and sophisticated enough to heal the preserved bodies and bring them back to life.

“He did what he thought was necessary and appropriate and didn’t worry much about what people thought. The people who are scoffers are like the people who said heavier-than-air flight won’t work,” David Ettinger told the Associated Press.

Read more at: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/186694/20110726/robert-ettinger-cryonics-immortality.htm

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WIRED.CO.UK

Founder of the cryonics movement dies (and is frozen)

By Katie Scott

26 July 11

Robert Ettinger — the founder of the cryonics movement –has died aged 92, and his body has now been frozen.

Ettinger died at his home in Michigan and his body has now beencryopreserved at the Cryonics Institute. Among the 105 people already stored at the facility are his mother Rhea, and his two wives: Elaine, and former editor of The Immortalist magazine, Mae. The Wall Street Journal adds that Ettinger’s father and brother refused to be frozen.

Born in 1918, Ettinger was a university physics lecturer whose interest in medical engineering came about after sustaining a serious injury in the Second World War. He had to have bone graft surgery — which, at the time, was a nascent technique — and, says the Cryonics Institute, “sparked his interest in the promise of future medical technology.”

In 1964, Ettinger penned The Prospect of Immortality — a book “advocating and explaining the cryonics thesis”. In it he wrote: “If civilisation endures, medical science should eventually be able to repair almost any damage to the human body, including freezing damage and senile debility or other cause of death…Hence we need only arrange to have our bodies, after we die, stored in suitable freezers against the time when science may be able to help us.

12 years later, in 1976, Ettinger founded the Cryonics Institute– a non-profit organisation, which freezes and then stores patients in liquid nitrogen at 320 degrees below zero — a process that costs around $28,000. The Institute has more than 900 members worldwide. Ettinger also founded the Immortalist Society and wrote other titles including Man into Superman.

His son, David Ettinger told the Guardian: “He did what he thought was necessary and appropriate and didn’t worry much about what people thought. The people who are scoffers are like the people who said heavier-than-air flight won’t work.”

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+ MASS DEVICE

Founder of cryonics movement dies, is cryogenically frozen

July 26, 2011 by MassDevice staff

Robert Ettinger, founder of the Cryonics Institute, is stored in a freezer after death in hopes of being revived one day.

MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Cryonics Institute founder Robert Ettinger was stored in a freezer alongside his mother and first and second wives after passing away over the weekend in hopes of being revived in the future.

Ettinger is considered by some to be the father of the cryonics movement, through which sick or dying humans and animals who can’t be sustained by contemporary medicine are preserved at low temperatures under the assumption that science will one day unlock the key to reanimating the lifeless body and curing what ailed it.

“At very low temperatures it is possible, right now, to preserve dead people with essentially no deterioration, indefinitely,” Ettinger wrote in his 1962 novel, The Prospect of Immortality. “If civilization endures, medical science should eventually be able to repair almost any damage to the human body, including freezing damage and senile debility or other cause of death.”

Ettinger popularized the cryonics movement during the 1960s and 1970s by publishing novels and making the rounds at a television talk shows, including an appearance on The Tonight Show. He founded the Cryonics Institute in 1976, a non-profit organization that has over 900 members worldwide as well as 106 patients in storage, according to a press release.

Ettinger was 92 years old when he was frozen.

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NEWSER

Cryonics Founder Robert Ettinger Dead … for Now

He’s frozen at 92

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Jul 26, 2011 2:39 AM CDT

DiggFarkLinkedInStumbleUponDeliciousGoogle BuzzRedditTumblr(Newser) – After a lifetime pushing the benefits of freezing dead people in the hope that they can someday be revived by medical science, Robert Ettinger has died—and been frozen. The 92-year-old father of the cryonics movement has joined 105 other people—including his mother and two wives—frozen in liquid nitrogen at the Cryonics Institute in Michigan he founded in 1976, AP reports.

Ettinger, a professor of physics, was seriously wounded in World War II and got the idea for preserving life through technology after receiving bone graft surgery to save his legs. “He did what he thought was necessary and appropriate and didn’t worry much about what people thought,” his son says, describing his father as a “reluctant prophet” who was unafraid of ridicule.

Read more at: http://www.newser.com/story/124302/father-of-cryonics-robert-ettinger-dead-at-92.html

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UPI

U.S. News

Cryonics pioneer Ettinger dead at 92

Published: July 26, 2011 at 2:49 AM

LINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich., July 26 (UPI) — Robert Ettinger, who pioneered cryonics — the idea of freezing people’s bodies to be resurrected in the future, has died in Michigan at 92, his family said.

His son David told the Michigan news Web site MLive.com his father died Saturday at his home in Clinton Township. The Detroit News reported he died of respiratory failure.

Robert Ettinger was an early proponent of storing people’s bodies at very low temperature after death in hopes that future technology would allow for revival and curing of aging and disease.

Appropriately, upon his death he became the 106th person to go through the process at the organization he founded, the Cryonics Institute, the News said.

Robert Ettinger had said he was inspired in his effort by reading the science fiction story “The Jameson Satellite” when he was 14 years old, the News said.

David Ettinger said his father, a former Wayne State University physics professor, believed in taking facts and logic “and see where it leads you,” MLive.com said.

“Hopefully it leads us to see him again,” he said.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/07/26/Cryonics-pioneer-Ettinger-dead-at-92/UPI-70501311662990/#ixzz1TFjrUP8T

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WASHINGTON POST

Man Who Vowed to Live Forever Died Over the Weekend

Charlie Jane Anders

Robert C.W. Ettinger, who famously said that death was for the unprepared and the unimaginative, died on Saturday. But the physics teacher and science fiction writer may be coming back — his family froze his body cryogenically.

Ettinger, widely considered the founder of the cryogenics movement, is being stored in a vat of liquid nitrogen in a facility just outside Detroit, along with 100 other “immortalists” who were frozen at death. Ettinger wrote The Prospect of Immortality in 1962, arguing that people would become nobler and more responsible if they were going to live forever — and if the world got too crowded, everyone could take turns going into suspended animation. He told the New Yorker last year that his frozen clients are “not truly dead in any fundamental sense.”

Among those 100 people already frozen are Ettinger’s two deceased wives, one of whom died in 1987 and the other of whom died in 2000. If both women are revived at once, along with Ettinger himself, “that will be a high-class problem,” Ettinger once admitted. [Washington Post]

Photo via Cryonics.org.

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THE DETROIT NEWS

Last Updated: July 25. 2011 6:07PM

Ettinger, father of cryonics movement, dies; placed in deep freeze

Kim Kozlowski/ The Detroit News

One of the founders of a movement to store people’s bodies at very low temperature after death in hopes that future technology would allow for revival and curing of aging and disease has died of respiratory failure. He was 92.

Robert Ettinger — the Clinton Township man widely regarded as the father of the cryonics movement — has become the 106th patient at the organization he founded, the Cryonics Institute, housed in a nondescript industrial park off Interstate 94 in Clinton Township.

The five-day process — which involved packing Ettinger’s body on ice, profusing with chemicals to limit freezer damage and slowly cooling to the temperature of liquid nitrogen — began within minutes of his death on Saturday afternoon to assure the least amount of damage. He is expected to be ready to be submerged upside down in a tank, known as a cryostat, filled with liquid nitrogen by Thursday, according to his son, David Ettinger.

Robert Ettinger was 14 years old when he read a science fiction story that spawned the idea that today is known as cryonics.

The story, “The Jameson Satellite,” relayed how a professor sent a corpse into the earth’s orbit for indefinite preservation. Millions of years later, aliens found the body, took the brain out and put it in a mechanical body. Ettinger thought the author missed the point of his own story.

“Why wait for aliens?” Ettinger told The Detroit News in 2009. “Why not do it ourselves?”

Ettinger served in World War II, where he was injured in Germany. He spent months in the hospital and discovered science was accelerating the concept of cryonics. He wrote to scores of people in Who’s Who of America, trying to persuade them to get behind the concept and do something about it.

When he got no response, he self-published a book in 1962 called “The Prospect of Immortality.” Two years later, Doubleday published the book, which was eventually translated into several languages, including French, German, Dutch and Italian.

“I thought the premise was so logical,” said Ettinger, who taught physics and math at Wayne State University and Highland Park Community College.

Ettinger founded the Cryonics Institute in 1976, first located in Detroit. He also founded the Immortalist Society, an organization devoted to education and research relating to cryonics and life extension.

He eventually relocated the institute to Clinton Township.

For years, membership was in the single digits, but it has exploded 500 percent since 2000 to more than 900 people from around the globe. All want either to preserve themselves, DNA or pets. The facility has preserved more than 64 animals, mostly dogs and cats, but a few birds and a hamster.

Besides his son, Ettinger leaves behind a daughter, Shelley Ettinger, who is not a member of the Cryonics Institute.

At the institute, Ettinger joins his mother, Rhea Ettinger, who was the first cryopreserved corpse at the institute, in 1977. He also joins his first and second wives, Elaine and Mae Ettinger, who were the institute’s No. 2 and 34 patients, respectively.

Ettinger didn’t want a memorial service because he believed he may come back again. But his son said there was discussion about having one during the annual meeting of the Cryonics Institute in September.

Memorials may be made to the institute or the Immortalist Society Research Fund.

kkozlowski@detnews.com

(313) 222-2024

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110725/METRO/107250393/Ettinger–father-of-cryonics-movement–dies–placed-in-deep-freeze#ixzz1TFkooMUE

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MLIVE

Cryonics founder Robert Ettinger dies at 92, but family hopes to see him alive again in future

Published: Monday, July 25, 2011, 11:41 AM Updated: Monday, July 25, 2011, 1:36 PM

By Jonathan Oosting | MLive.com

Courtesy Photo Robert Ettinger

Robert Ettinger, the “father of cryonics,” died at his Clinton Township home on Saturday at the age of 92, but the movement he helped create gives his family hope they will see him again.

“My father didn’t believe in deferring to authority,” David Ettinger told MLive.com this morning. “He always said you take the facts, you take the logic and you see where it leads you. Hopefully it leads us to see him again.”

The former Wayne State University physics professor died of natural causes following weeks of poor health. His body was suspended in liquid nitrogen at the nonprofit Cryonics Institute, which he founded in 1976 after hypothesizing similar technology in his 1962 book The Prospect of Immortality.

He joins 105 other “frozen” patients at the Macomb County facility, including his wife and mother, which suspends bodies in an indefinite state of “cryostasis” as they await scientific breakthroughs that may allow them to be revived and rejuvenated.

David Ettinger described his father as a “reluctant prophet” who first began thinking about cryonics in the 1940s and — since no one else did — wrote a book and — since no one else did — opened the nonprofit in order to turn his idea into a “practical option.”

Robert Ettinger would go on to popularize the cryonics moment as a regular guest on The Tonight Show and through interviews with David Frost, Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin. He continued to publish books, and the Cryonics Institute saw a surge in popularity in recent years.

Asked about his father’s legacy, David Ettinger said it could be decades before his life’s work might reward him with additional life.

“I never had a conversation about how he would be remembered,” David Ettinger said. ” Memorial services and funerals didn’t interest him. He was interested in pracitically preserving his life.”

Related topics: Buzz, Cryonics Institute, Robert Ettinger

Read more at: http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2011/07/cryonics_founder_robert_etting.html

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PR NEWSWIRE

Founder of Cryonics Movement Dies, is Frozen at Cryonics Institute

CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich., July 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Robert Ettinger, the founder of the cryonics movement and of the Cryonics Institute, died on Saturday, July 23, at home in Clinton Township, Michigan, and has been frozen at the Institute. The cryonics movement advocates storage at very low temperatures after death in the hope that future technology will permit revival and the cure of aging and disease.

Mr. Ettinger wrote The Prospect of Immortality in 1962, a book advocating and explaining the cryonics thesis. From The Prospect of Immortality:

The fact: At very low temperatures it is possible, right now, to preserve dead people with essentially no deterioration, indefinitely…

The assumption: If civilization endures, medical science should eventually be able to repair almost any damage to the human body, including freezing damage and senile debility or other cause of death. . .

Hence we need only arrange to have our bodies, after we die, stored in suitable freezers against the time when science may be able to help us. No matter what kills us, whether old age or disease, and even if freezing techniques are still crude when we die, sooner or later our friends of the future should be equal to the task of reviving and curing us.

The Prospect of Immortality has been published around the world, with new editions currently in print or planned in South Korea, Taiwan and China.

Mr. Ettinger popularized the cryonics movement in the 1960s and 1970s through appearances on a wide variety of talk shows, including The Tonight Show and the David Frost, Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin programs.

Other books by Mr. Ettinger further discussed the cryonics thesis and the promise of future technology. They include Man Into Superman (1970) and Youniverse (2009). New Asian editions of Man into Superman are also currently planned. The Philosophy of Robert Ettinger (2002) is a collection of academic essays discussing Mr. Ettinger’s ideas.

Mr. Ettinger was born in 1918, and served in the U.S. Army in Belgium during World War II, where he was seriously wounded. Mr. Ettinger spent several years in hospitals after the war, and his legs were saved as a result of then innovative bone graft surgery. That sparked Mr. Ettinger’s interest in the promise of future medical technology.

Mr. Ettinger founded the Cryonics Institute in 1976 in order to create a non-profit organization that could freeze and store patients at death. CI (www.cryonics.org) has over 900 members worldwide in addition to 106 patients in storage. As advances in research have further confirmed the likelihood of dramatic improvements in future medicine, the cryonics movement has grown to include thousands of supporters worldwide, including organizations in Russia, Australia, Germany and other locations.

Mr. Ettinger also founded the Immortalist Society, an organization devoted to education and research relating to cryonics and life extension.

SOURCE Cryonics Institute

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SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

Cryonics founder dies and has his body frozen … at 92

Robert Ettinger … founder of the Cryonics Institute.

Robert Ettinger, founder of a movement that advocates storing bodies at ultra-low temperatures after death until new technology allows them to be revived, has died and his body has been frozen at the institute he founded.

Mr Ettinger died aged 92 at his home in Clinton Township, Michigan, in the US on Saturday.

His body “has been frozen at the institute”, his son David said in a statement.

Advertisement: Story continues below

Born in 1918, Mr Ettinger went public with his theory of cryonics in 1964 with the publication of his work, The Prospect of Immortality.

In the book, he contends that “at very low temperatures it is possible, right now, to preserve dead people with essentially no deterioration, indefinitely”.

“His legs were saved as a result of then innovative bone graft surgery. That sparked Mr Ettinger’s interest in the promise of future medical technology,” the statement says.

New editions of The Prospect of Immortality are in print or in the planning stage in South Korea, Taiwan and China.

AFP

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/cryonics-founder-dies-and-has-his-body-frozen–at-92-20110726-1hxob.html#ixzz1TFm1Uyg8

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BELFAST TELEGRAPH

Cryonics pioneer frozen after death

Tuesday, 26 July 2011

Robert Ettinger, pioneer of the cryonics movement that advocates freezing the dead in the hope medical technology will enable them to live again some day, has died. He was 92.

The Cryonics Institute in the Detroit suburb of Clinton Township said Mr Ettinger died on Saturday and was promptly frozen.

Son David Ettinger said his father’s health was failing for some time.

Mr Ettinger senior first proposed storing dead bodies at low temperatures to await future revival in a 1964 book. He continued promoting the idea for decades in writing and public appearances.

He founded the Cryonics Institute in 1976. He is the 106th person whose body is stored at the institute at minus 321F (minus 196C) in liquid nitrogen.

David Ettinger said his father was a “reluctant prophet” who was not bothered by people ridiculing his ideas.

Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/cryonics-pioneer-frozen-after-death-16027918.html#ixzz1TFmdekHM
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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Cryonics Pioneer Robert Ettinger Dies, Body Frozen

Published July 26, 2011

| Associated Press

, pioneer of the cryonics movement that advocates freezing the dead in the hope that medical technology will enable them to live again someday, has died. He was 92.

Ettinger died Saturday at home in the Detroit suburb of Clinton Township after weeks of declining health, son David Ettinger said. His body became the 106th to be stored in at the Cryonics Institute, which he founded in 1976.

Robert Ettinger, who taught physics at Wayne State University, was seriously wounded during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II and spent years in hospitals. The bone graft surgery that spared his legs inspired his optimism about the future prospects of preserving life through technology, a Cryonics Institute statement said.

His son said Ettinger also was inspired by science fiction writings about deep-freezing the dead and expected researchers to make serious progress toward developing the idea. But when nothing seemed to be happening, he wrote a 1964 book, “The Prospect of Immortality,” introducing the concept of cryonics.

Ettinger promoted his theory in other writings and appearances on television talk shows. The Cryonics Institute has 900 members. Similar facilities for preserving dead bodies operate in Arizona, California and Russia. Ettinger also established the Immortalist Society, a research and education group devoted to cryonics and extending the human life span.

The Cryonics Institute charges $28,000 to prepare a body and store it long-term in a tank of liquid nitrogen at minus-321 degrees Fahrenheit. The first person frozen there was Ettinger’s mother, Rhea Ettinger, who died in 1977. His two wives, Elaine and Mae, also are patients at the Institute.

Ettinger was never bothered by ridicule and was a “reluctant prophet,” his son said.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/07/26/cryonics-pioneer-robert-ettinger-dies-body-frozen/#ixzz1TFnBoAfa

————————————

FORBES

Associated Press

Cryonics pioneer Robert Ettinger dies, body frozen

By JOHN FLESHER , 07.26.11, 08:34 AM EDT

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — Robert Ettinger, pioneer of the cryonics movement that advocates freezing the dead in the hope that medical technology will enable them to live again someday, has died. He was 92.

Robert Ettinger, who taught physics at Wayne State University, was seriously wounded during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II and spent years in hospitals. The bone graft surgery that spared his legs inspired his optimism about the future prospects of preserving life through technology, a Cryonics Institute statement said.

Ettinger was never bothered by ridicule and was a “reluctant prophet,” his son said.

Read more at: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/07/25/general-us-obit-ettinger_8583693.html

————————————

NEW YORK NEWSDAY

Cryonics pioneer Robert Ettinger dies, body frozen

Originally published: July 25, 2011 7:04 PM

Updated: July 25, 2011 8:18 PM

By The Associated Press JOHN FLESHER (Associated Press)

Cryonics pioneer Robert Ettinger dies, body frozen at institute in hope of future resurrection

(AP) — Robert Ettinger, pioneer of the cryonics movement that advocates freezing the dead in the hope that medical technology will enable them to live again someday, has died. He was 92.

————————————

CBS MONEY WATCH

Cryonics pioneer Robert Ettinger dies, body frozen

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS | JUL 26, 2011 8:35 AM ET | 0 COMMENTS

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — Robert Ettinger, pioneer of the cryonics movement that advocates freezing the dead in the hope that medical technology will enable them to live again someday, has died. He was 92.

Robert Ettinger, who taught physics at Wayne State University, was seriously wounded during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II and spent years in hospitals. The bone graft surgery that spared his legs inspired his optimism about the future prospects of preserving life through technology, a Cryonics Institute statement said.

Ettinger was never bothered by ridicule and was a “reluctant prophet,” his son said.

Read more: http://moneywatch.bnet.com/economic-news/news/cryonics-pioneer-robert-ettinger-dies-body-frozen/6265145/#ixzz1TFotOjDT

————————————

GANT DAILY.COM

Father of Cryonics dies, has body frozen

July 26, 2011 at 11:18 AM by AHN • Leave a Comment

Ayinde O. Chase – AHN News Staff

Traverse City, MI, United States (AHN) – Robert Ettinger, founder of the cryonics movement in the United States has died and had his body placed in a tank of liquid nitrogen. It is his hope that someday in the future medical technology can bring him back to life.

Ettinger, who died Saturday, will become the 106th patient at the organisation he founded, the Cryonics Institute, in Clinton Township, Michigan.

The price for preservation at the institute is about $30,000, including ongoing perpetual care.

One of Etttinger’s final wishes was that no memorial service be held because he believed he may return.

The 92-year-old pioneer died in his home in a suburb outside of Detroit after weeks of fighting declining health.

————————————

TRUTHDIVE.COM

Cryonics pioneer Robert Ettinger dead

Post a Comment July 26, 2011 – 5:53 pm By News Desk | Permalink | Print This Article |

Detroit (US), July 26 (ANI): Robert Ettinger, a pioneer of the cryonics movement, has died at his home in Detroit. He was 92.

Ettinger, who died on Saturday, has had his body frozen and stored at the facility he founded in the hope that medical technology will enable him to live again one day.

Ettinger’s body is the 106th to be frozen and stored at the Cryonics Institute, which he founded in 1976, the Gaurdian reports.

“My father devoted himself to doing what he could to enable his family, his friends and others to come back and live again,” said his son David.

“Whether he will achieve that nobody knows at this point, but we think he has a good shot,” he added.

His son said Ettinger was also inspired by science fiction writings about deep freezing the dead, and expected researchers to make serious progress toward developing the idea.

But when nothing seemed to be happening, he wrote a 1964 book, The Prospect of Immortality, introducing the concept of cryonics.

Ettinger promoted his theory in other writings and appearances on television.

There are now similar facilities for preserving bodies in Arizona, California and in Russia.

Ettinger also established the Immortalist Society, a research and education group devoted to cryonics and extending the human life span. (ANI)

Read more at: http://truthdive.com/2011/07/26/Cryonics-pioneer-Robert-Ettinger-dead.html

————————————

CRAINS DETROIT

Originally Published: July 25, 2011 12:55 PM Modified: July 25, 2011 3:50 PM

Founder of cryonics movement frozen and stored in Clinton Township institute he began

By Ellen Mitchell

Robert Ettinger, the founder of the cryonics movement and the Cryonics Institute, died respiratory failure July 23 at home in Clinton Township and has been frozen at the institute he founded.

He was 92.

The cryonics movement advocates storage of bodies at very low temperatures after death in the hope that future technology will permit revival and the cure of aging and disease.

Ettinger founded the Cryonics Institute in 1976 as a nonprofit that freezes and stores patients after death. CI, based in Clinton Township, has more than 900 members worldwide and 106 patients in storage.

Ettinger popularized the cryonics movement in the 1960s and 1970s and wrote “The Prospect of Immortality” in 1962, advocating and explaining the cryonics thesis.

Read more at: http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20110725/FREE/110729933#

————————————

SIOUXS CITY JOURNAL

Cryonics pioneer Robert Ettinger dies, body frozen

ASSOCIATED PRESS | POSTED: MONDAY, JULY 25, 2011 7:18 PM

Robert Ettinger, pioneer of the cryonics movement that advocates freezing the dead in the hope that medical technology will enable them to live again someday, has died. He was 92.

Robert Ettinger, who taught physics at Wayne State University, was seriously wounded during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II and spent years in hospitals. The bone graft surgery that spared his legs inspired his optimism about the future prospects of preserving life through technology, a Cryonics Institute statement said.

Ettinger was never bothered by ridicule and was a “reluctant prophet,” his son said.

Posted in National on Monday, July 25, 2011 7:18 pm Updated: 9:02 pm. |

Read more: http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/news/national/article_8645c6a4-7f3f-561e-b631-dc1cfc425966.html#ixzz1TFqTxY7V

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Robert C.W. Ettinger | 1918-2011

Father of cryonics chilling in freezer after his death

Tuesday, July 26, 2011 03:07 AM

By Emma Brown

The Washington Post

Robert C. W. Ettinger, a physics teacher and science-fiction writer who believed death is only for the unprepared and unimaginative, died Saturday at his home in Clinton Township, Mich.

He was 92 and had been in declining health, said his son David, who could not specify a cause. “We’re obviously sad,” he said, but, “We were able to freeze him under optimum conditions, so he’s got another chance.”

Ettinger is widely considered the father of the cryonics movement, whose adherents believe they can achieve immortality through quick-freezing their bodies at death in anticipation of resurrection.

Ettinger’s frozen body is being stored in a vat of liquid nitrogen at a nondescript building outside Detroit, home to more than 100 fellow immortalists – including his mother and two wives – who are awaiting revival.

If all goes as Ettinger envisioned, he will remain in a period of icy stasis for however long it takes for doctors, armed with technology of the future, to defrost him and restore him to good health.

Ettinger was a little-known community-college professor in the mid-1960s when he wrote the founding document of cryonics, “The Prospect of Immortality.”

Introducing what he called the Freezer Era, Ettinger described a world in which people would become nobler and more responsible as they were confronted with the reality of living forever.

And if Earth became too crowded with long-lived humans? “The people could simply agree to share the available space in shifts,” he wrote, “going into suspended animation from time to time to make room for others.”

Originally self-published in 1962, the book was put out by Doubleday in 1964. It launched Ettinger as a celebrity.

Ettinger’s dogma was covered in The New York Times and Newsweek, and he was invited to appear on talk shows hosted by Johnny Carson and David Frost.

Ettinger’s book helped spur the development of a number of organizations devoted to deep-freezing the dead, one of which – the now-defunct Cryonics Society of California – successfully froze a person for the first time in 1967.

The next decade, Ettinger founded his nonprofit Cryonics Institute. Today, his institute houses 106 human patients and dozens of dogs, cats and at least one parrot.

About 900 dues-paying members throughout the world plan to be frozen when their time comes. Total fees at his institute start at about $28,000.

Robert Chester Wilson Ettinger was born Dec. 4, 1918, in Atlantic City, N.J. He was a boy when he moved to Detroit and read a short story that sparked his interest in immortality.

“The Jameson Satellite,” by Neil Jones, told of a dying professor who launched himself into space, where he was found eons later by aliens who brought him back to life by transplanting his brain into a mechanical body.

Ettinger’s first patient was his mother, Rhea, who died in 1977.

A decade later, he froze his second patient: his wife Elaine, who died in 1987 and with whom he had two surviving children, David and Shelley.

The next year he married his second wife, Mae. When she died in 2000, she became the institute’s 34th patient.

“If both of my wives are revived,” Ettinger told the Detroit News last year, “that will be a high-class problem.”

Read more at: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/national_world/stories/2011/07/26/father-of-cryonics-chilling-in-freezer-after-his-death.html?sid=101

SOME LINKS TO STORIES NOT REPRODUCED HERE:

MIAMI HERALD: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/07/25/2330666/cryonics-pioneer-robert-ettinger.html

BANGOR DAILY NEWS: http://bangordailynews.com/2011/07/25/news/nation/robert-ettinger-founder-of-the-cryonics-movement-dies-at-92/

TULSA WORLD: http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=13&articleid=20110726_11_A11_Robert679564&rss_lnk=1

DELTASELF: http://www.deltaself.com/2011/07/robert-ettinger-founder-of-the-cryonics-movement-dies-at-92/

ANDHRANEWS INDIA: http://www.andhranews.net/Intl/2011/Cryonics-pioneer-Robert-Ettinger-dead-dead-12810.htm

This entry was posted in Cryonics Biography, Cryonics History, Cryonics Philosophy, Culture & Propaganda. Bookmark the permalink.

48 Responses to Robert C. W. Ettinger: News Media Obituaries, the Raw Feed

Jordan Sparks says:

July 27, 2011 at 6:43 am

The Wall Street Journal article was front page.

Reply
- admin says:
  
  July 27, 2011 at 10:46 am
  
  Wow! Impressive! Can you give us a URL for that????? — Mike Darwin
  
  Reply
Mark Plus says:

July 27, 2011 at 8:42 am

Some of the articles about Ettinger which allow comments have gotten some really stupid ones.

Reply
- admin says:
  
  July 27, 2011 at 11:13 am
  
  Yes, I know and I am really disappointed that cryonicists did NOT comment. I sure did, and my comments in THE TELEGRAPH stirred positive controversy, and generated two inquiries from journalists asking about the possibility of a follow up piece, BOTH CI and Alcor should have done mass emails to members asking them to post comments on these articles. This is another example of the clueless failing of the “cryonics societies” to act aggressively to protect cryonics and promote it.. Your letter on New Cryonet was the only call for action. I waited and watched to see what would happen. Nothing did. There are at least SIX US-based organizations supposedly pledged to promote and protect cryonics: Alcor, CI, IS, the Cryonics Society, the American Cryonics Society, The Venturists. They did NOTHING despite your admonition. THAT IS COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE. Cryonics can only be defended and promoted by a grass roots effort, from the bottom up, not the top down. People who want to follow the activist philosophy being espoused here should ACT. Mark, if you put together a list of any articles or sites still open for comment, I’ll publish it on Chronosphere, immediately.
  
  Finally, think about this, REALLY think about this: Robert Ettinger was 92 years old and obviously dying for at least the past 2 years. When I saw him last, at the CI AGM several years ago, I shook my head and said to myself that he was clearly in the last 2-4 years of life, He almost fell going from the restaurant where we ate to the car in the parking lot – and that was with assistance. Cl;aassic “old man’s shuiffle; aterminal prognosticator.”
  
  My obit for Bob had been ready for 5 years! My list of media outlets to mail to had been put together and was ready to go as of the time I returned from London last year. My covering Press release, which began “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE” was prepared immediately after I returned from London this year. The complete “kit” to mail out was done several months ago, including “marked” photos. I’m betting not a single so called “cryonics organization” had a media kit ready to go. I know my photos were widely used and that tells me that the users GOT THE PRESS KIT. For instance, there was a photo by Chris Asadian of Bob in the CI facility, with pictures of CI patients in the background: http://www.google.com/imgres?q=robert+ettinger+Chris+asadian&hl=en&safe=off&sa=G&biw=1280&bih=568&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=03s459M_zKv1CM:&imgrefurl=http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisasadian/page7/&docid=ipbdVrrnm7N3lM&w=500&h=372&ei=k1IwTod6xteIAsqhzCs&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=362&vpy=89&dur=1702&hovh=194&hovw=260&tx=136&ty=207&page=1&tbnh=130&tbnw=173&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0. To me, this was an undignified photo of Bob to release to the media, so my “watermarking” of this photo consisted of going into Photoshop and removing the mussed and unkempt hair at the back of his head: http://www.google.com/imgres?q=robert+ettinger+Chris+asadian&hl=en&safe=off&sa=G&biw=1280&bih=568&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=JyfUAJucbOcFXM:&imgrefurl=http://chronopause.com/index.php/2011/07/24/robert-c-w-ettinger-first-life-cycle-1918-to-2011/&docid=3GWfdWNKDXUsLM&w=500&h=372&ei=k1IwTod6xteIAsqhzCs&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=466&vpy=235&dur=3755&hovh=194&hovw=260&tx=91&ty=153&page=1&tbnh=138&tbnw=186&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:0. You can thus tell which media outlets used my photo/press kit in this instance, because if you see the cleaned up photo, well that was from Chronopause Foundation.
  
  This is ELEMENTARY public relations. This public relations 00.0101. And yet it was not, apparently done. Chronopause press kits were out the door to over 100 media outlets by 2200 the day Bob was cryopreserved.
  
  So, for nth time I ask again, WHAT’S WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE AND WHAT ARE THEY DOING WITH TEN EMPLOYEES AND MILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF YOUR MONEY???????? — Mike Darw9n
  
  Reply
  - Abelard Lindsey says:
    
    July 27, 2011 at 12:32 pm
    
    The lack of action is not limited to cryonics, believe me. I have worked for two employers since my return to the U.S. in 2001 and both of them were completely lackadaisical. The second one was most disappointing as the company owner talked tough and came across to me as the boss who cracks the whip. Once I hired on, I found out differently (and many sales that I made did not get fulfilled).
    
    People I knew in private companies in the 80′s worked hard. They don’t seem to these days. Maybe there’s a virus in the air or something in the drinking water that is making Americans, in general, become lazier over time.
    
    About the comments in the news articles, I noticed very few comments in general, but most of those I noticed seem to be either positive or just making mirth. Except for the one in the Telegraph, I did not notice any real negative ones, which is why I didn’t say anything.
    
    Reply
    - Fundie says:
      
      July 27, 2011 at 12:49 pm
      
      I think there is a virus of ideas, Abelard. I think a big part of it is the number of people in the last twenty years who have come of age during a credit boom where it seemed the money would never run out.
      
      But I’m probably going out of scope for chronosphere. :)
      
      Reply
      - Abelard Lindsey says:
        
        July 27, 2011 at 3:24 pm
        
        I think you’re spot on, and its not out of scope for chronosphere at all. I really despise the credit bubble and its effects on this society, and I really despise the motherf**ker that created it (Alan Greenspan).
  - Fundie says:
    
    July 27, 2011 at 12:55 pm
    
    I believe I saw your cleaned up photo on a number of articles. Definitely didn’t see the original in any. I assumed you were probably the source of most of the photos I saw.
    
    I agree he looks much more dignified with the hair cleaned up, although the unkempt hair reminds me of some of my relatives I remember fondly. :)
    
    Reply
    - Fundie says:
      
      July 28, 2011 at 6:34 pm
      
      Speaking of pictures of Ettinger, this may not be the best, but it is my favorite:
      
      http://cryonics.org/images/P95_Family.jpg
      
      Robert Ettinger, with his namesake, Rob Henderson, and Rob’s family, at the preservation of Curtis Henderson.
      
      Reply
  - Mark Plus says:
    
    July 27, 2011 at 3:58 pm
    
    Alcor had plenty of warning about the release of Larry Johnson’s book as well. (I even corresponded with an Alcor board member about that when I noticed announcements of its scheduled publication.) But instead of having a plan ready to go to counteract the media circus Johnson created, I heard from an insider that the bad publicity overwhelmed and demoralized the people working at the lab at the time.
    
    Reply
  - gwern says:
    
    September 4, 2011 at 8:38 am
    
    http://www.jstor.org/pss/10.1525/sp.2010.57.4.505
    
    > In a paper published in Social Problems, Sarah Sobieraj looks at activists’ attempts to influence media coverage. She finds that activsts, recognizing their dependence on media coverage, have learned the rules of media coverage as experienced in the corporate world, and like their CEO counterparts, have sought to build positive relationships and “bend over backwards to be media-friendly.” Unfortunately, this strategy doesn’t seem to work for them. The more professional they’ve become in managing media relations, the less successful they are at generating it. The reason for this, Sobieraj argues, is that journalists hold activists accountable to a different set of rules. Rather than responding to professionalism and well-honed messages, journalists respond to activists when they perceive their actions are authentic and spontaneous. Her analysis, then, suggests that political outsiders have to play by a different set of rules than elite insiders, like CEOs or politicians. Becoming too polished is a detriment to getting covered.
    
    https://orgtheory.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/making-friends-with-the-media/
    
    Reply
- Fundie says:
  
  July 27, 2011 at 12:53 pm
  
  I took the opportunity yesterday to talk about cryonics with a couple of coworkers, for the first time. One Christian, one atheist. Several typical reactions. I made the case for cryonics being a rational choice and explained why some objections don’t really hold water. It was an interesting experience.
  
  For that matter, I also emailed a media outlet that I assume had already heard the story and chose not to report on it.
  
  Reply
Mark Plus says:

July 27, 2011 at 9:41 pm

So far no one on the Cult Education Forum has posted about Ettinger.

Reply
Abelard Lindsey says:

July 27, 2011 at 10:24 pm

I’m starting to post comments in some of these news articles. Usually they are to clarify misconceptions about cryonics.

Reply
- admin says:
  
  July 28, 2011 at 9:45 am
  
  Excellent. Keep up the good work. And please, post a list of the still active comment sites here so others can do the same. AND YOU OTHERS: DO IT! — MD
  
  Reply
  - Abelard Lindsey says:
    
    July 28, 2011 at 11:42 am
    
    The problem is that most of the articles simply are not attracting many comments. The WaPost article, for example, has 7 comments to it, with all of them being attempts at snarky humor. Only the Independent article has attracted a lot of comments (around 700 last I saw).
    
    Reply
    - Fundie says:
      
      July 28, 2011 at 2:09 pm
      
      I honestly do not think most people comment on news articles that much. Some sites attract a lot of comments, but I think most people who write Internet comments do so on secondary news sources, such as this site, Slashdot and its more modern replacements, discussion forums, etc. I think a lot of people just don’t see the point in commenting to the audience on a newspaper/news station site.
      
      I could be way wrong.
      
      Reply
      - admin says:
        
        July 28, 2011 at 4:17 pm
        
        Good, so they don’t comment. But they READ the comments there, so keep up the commenting. – MD
      - unperson says:
        
        July 28, 2011 at 5:02 pm
        
        We will soon be crawling with Christians wanting to sign up for cryonics. I just posted the following comment on the atlantic.com Ettinger story:
        
        Ettinger joined Jesus Christ in his battle against death by starting cryonics.
        
        Ettinger and Christ will live forever.
        
        In the bible, Jesus told his disciples to raise the dead.
        
        from MATTHEW 10:8
        “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. ”
        
        Corinthians 15:25 tells us that Jesus “must reign until
        he has put all his enemies under his feet.” And the next
        verse tells us what Jesus wants: “The last enemy to be
        destroyed is death.”
        
        further, Jesus told his disciples they were to teach others
        to do EVERYTHING He had commanded them — even to
        the “end of the age.”
        
        FROM MATTHEW 28:18-20
        
        18 Then Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All
        authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
        
        19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,
        baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son
        and of the Holy Spirit,
        
        20 “teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am
        with you always, even to the end of the age.”
        
        Furthermore, Jesus said believers would also do the
        works that he did: from JOHN 14:12
        
        12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he
        will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My
        Father.”
        
        So Jesus wants us to help him in defeating death.
        
        And what will be our reward for helping jesus raise the dead and thereby defeat death?
        Psalm 37:29 tells us that “The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein
        forever.”
        
        So, if we are righteous and act according to what the bible and jesus tell us to do, to raise the dead and help jesus defeat death, then we will live on the land, this earth, forever, as immortal. Death will not harm us.
        
        So how do we raise the dead?
        
        Do what Robert Ettinger did==be a cryonicist. Cryonics is the only endeavor involved in raising the dead and achieving Christ’s goal of defeating death forever.
        Are you a disciple of Christ?
        Be a good Christian and sign up for cryonics.
        
        Are you signed up, sinner?
      - Fundie says:
        
        July 28, 2011 at 7:10 pm
        
        We will soon be crawling with Christians wanting to sign up for cryonics
        
        One can only hope.
        
        Unless one is like Mark Plus and believes cryonics does not need Christians.
        
        I doubt the cryopreservation of Robert Ettinger will release an onslaught of Christian interest in cryonics. But it does make one more news story out there, one more data point in minds, especially young minds.
    - admin says:
      
      July 28, 2011 at 3:21 pm
      
      That’s good! That means that we have the opportunity not just to comment, but to make our comments count. I wish I could communicate how this works over the long run. Fundie is a case in point, and I hope he doesn’t mind me using him as an example. Fundie was recruited to interest in cryonics by the publicity attendant to the Donaldson case. At the time he was opposed to what TKD was doing and did not think well of cryonics. But the gestalt of that whole media barrage somehow reached him. Now, the thing about the Donaldson PR was that a lot of it was neutral to slightly sympathetic. And a disproportionate amount of the “supposed” public reaction was sympathetic, or asked questions in a positively loaded way. I know this was so, because it was partly my job to coordinate the letter writing. Not only did many Alcor members genuinely write letters themselves, many HUNDREDS of hand written, typed and computer-typed letters also went out in packages from Alcor in Riverside to re-mailers, who then re-posted them to local papers, TV, stations, and the like so they would have local postmarks and local credibility. This is how its done in the real world. There’s this thing called “The Cryonics Society.” It’s supposed to be a PR machine for cryonics. Danila Medvedev tells me its run by a real nice, pleasant and “rational” guy. You’re supposed to send them money and they will help make cryonics mainstream, or more mainstream. The guy who run it is a PR expert. Right.
      
      Effective PR is NOT PR, that’s rule number one. Goebbels had it right, it is PROPAGANDA. And it is guerrilla warfare – trench warfare. It is carried out with excitement and sweat and enormous bursts of effort when the opportunities presents themselves and in-between those moments it is unrelenting slogging and hard work to change the tide in your favor. I chuckle with glee at the hurt being done to Rupert Murdoch – he is an evil cur who deserves all he gets, and more. But I have grudging admiration for Newscorp, because they were mostly neither lazy nor incompetent and they worked the news and political worlds like masters of the universe. In fact, it was only a truly mad an excessive arrogance and sense of invulnerability that brought them low. When they had the nerve to actually tell Hugh Grant how they operated, how they got the scoops they did, it was all over. The point is, that that kind of energy and guerrilla mentality is how the propaganda war is fought -and won. And all the winners, every last one of them to a man, fought it that way. And, no, that doesn’t mean you hack the phones of dead kids or soldiers, but almost everything else that doesn’t break the law, or compromise moral decenc, is absolutely on the table .– Mike Darwin
      
      Reply
      - Fundie says:
        
        July 28, 2011 at 7:15 pm
        
        No, I don’t mind being used as an example. I am as fascinated by it as you.
        
        If I remember right the story I saw about Donaldson was actually negatively slanted, but I think that just goes to show how the media reacted.
        
        I know that I slanted negatively on the subject for a decade after.
Abelard Lindsey says:

July 28, 2011 at 1:49 pm

One of the most common misunderstandings of cryonics by the general public is represented by the question “Who will reanimate you in the future?”. My stock answer to this is “It will be the future members of the cryonics organizations who will do the reanimating, if it is at all possible.”. In other worlds, it will be cryonics people who will reanimate cryonics people.

I think the failure of much of the general public to grasp this point tells you a lot about the inability of most people to understand the nature of self-interested groups. perseverance, and long term commitments. I think the reason for this is that these values are alien to most people.

Reply
- Fundie says:
  
  July 28, 2011 at 2:07 pm
  
  I found this question to be very well answered by James Halperin’s novel, The First Immortal.
  
  My desire would be for my great-grandchildren to revive my grandchildren, my grandchildren to revive my children, and my children to revive me. Wouldn’t that be a stunningly beautiful way to reenter life? :) Hopefully we are all forming attachments now with people who would want us around enough to bring us back. Family, friends, loved ones, of course including attachments made in the cryonics community. Robert Ettinger and Mike Darwin didn’t see eye to eye about a lot of things, but can you see either one of them hesitating to revive the other if it was in his grasp?
  
  Reply
  - Abelard Lindsey says:
    
    July 28, 2011 at 3:47 pm
    
    Its actually worse than that. The same people who cannot grasp the idea of a self-sustaining organization comprised of self-interested people with a common objective seem to be the first people who talk about the need to make people be a part of a “larger cause”, either socialism for the liberal-left or religion for the social conservative. The idea that a small group of self-interested individuals can implement such as a self-interested group on a decentralized scale seems foreign to such people. I think these kind of people are really quite pathetic.
    
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  - admin says:
    
    July 28, 2011 at 4:16 pm
    
    Let’s hope not, in the sense that familial succession in organizations is invariably disastrous. Today everyone is clueless about the primary (real) reason for celibacy in the Roman Catholic Church. The real reason is that it discouraged nepotism and encouraged a meritocracy. Nepotism is unbelievably potent. I was very slow to come to understand this, because I never wanted kids, never had any, and don’t particularly like children. (They’re great for other people, just not for me.) I’ve worked all kinds of jobs including what are considered lowly ones; dishwasher, Mc Donald’s, motel room cleaner, gas station attendant, shrimp boat worker, short order cook, care home attendant… I couldn’t believe the power of nepotism when I first saw it. It defied all reason. It made otherwise good businessmen make terrible decisions and sometimes wreck a lifetime of work. IMHO it has to have deep genetic roots – and anything that powerful and that destructive to organizations, is to be avoided like the plague. I know of a cryonicist who is creating an entire (and very costly) cryonics operation to be run by his kid! Good corporations and competently run religions eschew any family succession and create a structure that is a meritocracy. That is what the RC Church did; they would look over the young males and females in every hamlet and every district and pick the best and brightest. That was a fundamentally new idea at the time – revolutionary, in fact. And it worked brilliantly.
    
    Abelard is absolutely right, it will the INSTITUTIONS we create (or some analogue) who will revive us. Our kids may help, but they can’t be counted upon; and they should not be specially enabled to do so. That would be a disaster. — Mike Darwin
    
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- admin says:
  
  July 28, 2011 at 4:01 pm
  
  The masses don’t need to understand nature of self-interested groups. perseverance, and long term commitments. That’s what cathedrals were for, or the Vatican. Walk into Westminster Abbey or St. Peter’s Square and thence into the Basilica, and you’ll get it – you’ll really get it. The Soviets did a pretty good ‘decentralized’ job of it with the whole concept of the “the People’s”: and it is the possessive of People because EVERYTHING was stamped property of the People. Also, they did an absolutely over the top minimalist job of St. Peters or Westminster Abbey with Lenin’s Tomb. That is one bloody impressive piece of intimidating showmanship fused exquisite minimalist architecture. Typically Russian tour de force: maximum bang for the buck; impressive even when you haven’t got a pot to piss in. — Mike Darwin
  
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  - Abelard Lindsey says:
    
    July 28, 2011 at 5:31 pm
    
    I would not consider the Soviet Union a good model. It did not last long, only about 70 years, and it was pretty messed up during at least half of that time.
    
    My understanding is that it would have collapsed during the early 70′s had it not been for two key events. One was the discovery of new oil reserves and the other was the 4 times increase in global oil prices during the 1973-1974 time period. It was these two events that gave the Soviet Union another 20 years of life before final collapse.
    
    I think the Vatican, Westminster Abby, and some of the long time banks in the Isle of Man and Switzerland are useful models of multi-century institutions. There are manufacturing companies in Europe and Japan that are 150 to 200 years old.
    
    I view cryonics as a 200 year enterprise. If reanimation is possible, the technology should be available by the middle of the next century, unless there is some kind of global collapse (which I think highly unlikely). What I think is likely is that the location of reanimation will be either in some ocean city-state or space colony. The reason I think this is because it will be the more enterprising pioneering types that will go to the oceans and space. The existing nation-state will be more conservative stay-at-home types. It is the more enterprising pioneering types that will develop the kind of technology necessary for reanimation.
    
    In the meantime, we get to find out if the Italians develop cold fusion and if the Woodward-Mach effect is for real.
    
    Reply
    - admin says:
      
      July 28, 2011 at 9:23 pm
      
      I wasn’t using it as an example of longevity, but rather as an example of an alternative mechanism to conventional religion in terms of communicating the idea of the persistent endurance of an organization or ideology. — MD
      
      Reply
      - Abelard Lindsey says:
        
        July 30, 2011 at 9:48 pm
        
        Yeah, well it didn’t work out so well at that either. I think its time to bury this Marxist-Leninist crap once and for all, as the foolishness of the mid 20th century batcrap.
  - Abelard Lindsey says:
    
    July 30, 2011 at 9:50 pm
    
    Of course the masses do not understand the nature of self-interested groups. I got into an ding-dong with one such bone-head on the internet, in response to a piece written by Rand Simberg about Robert Ettinger.
    
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Abelard Lindsey says:

July 28, 2011 at 5:33 pm

Speaking of institutional longevity, Pilkington Glass is nearly 200 years old.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilkington

Pilkington was founded in 1826.

Reply
- Mark Plus says:
  
  July 28, 2011 at 5:40 pm
  
  Hudson’s Bay Company apparently dates from 1670:
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson's_Bay_Company
  
  Reply
  - Fundie says:
    
    July 28, 2011 at 5:41 pm
    
    Kikkoman Corporation dates from 1603, but not necessarily as a single institution. It is a combination of 8 family-owned businesses going back that far:
    
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kikkoman
    
    Reply
Mark Plus says:

July 28, 2011 at 8:07 pm

Un:

Regarding christians and cryonics, Joe Waynick didn’t draw in any new members from his church (Adventists, as I recall) that I know of. Jews, by contrast, seem to have more affinity to cryonics than any other religious identity, and not just secular ones like Ettinger, Saul Kent and Dave Pizer. Dani Kollin identifies himself as an Orthodox Jew:

http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/dsp.cgi?msg=13925

And as I pointed out in response to your post on The Atlantic Monthly’s article about Ettinger, invoking the stories about Jesus’ alleged healings and resurrections has a big, obvious problem: We don’t see any of these people around now. Apparently Jesus would cure someone of, say, leprosy, but not proactively of aging and other diseases. Therefore the patient died later like everyone else. As for the resurrectees like Lazarus, they all must have died again. Otherwise we would have to postulate that Lazarus in his deathless body walks the earth in 2011 like a character from Highlander. Given that track record, Jesus as a cryonics role model doesn’t inspire much confidence.

Reply
- unperson says:
  
  July 28, 2011 at 9:37 pm
  
  “The Logical Song” by Supertramp
  
  When i was young
  It seemed that life was so wonderful
  A miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical
  And all the birds in the trees
  Well theyīd be singing so happily
  Oh joyfully, oh playfully watching me
  But then they sent me away
  To teach me how to be sensible
  Logical, oh responsible ,practical
  
  Silly bird. Humans d0n’t run on logic. Haven’t you seen all the crowds at the churches on Sunday? There are well tended churches on practically every street corner in america. How many cryonics facilities in all of america? Hmm? Try that logic on fer size, Logical Boy. Religion is kicking yer motherfuckin’ ass. Big Time.
  
  Res ipsa loquitur. The thing speaks for itself. Can you see your hand in front of fucking face? Religion works. It fucking kills. Drive around. See those plush churches on every damn corner. Smell the coffee, logical boy: humans don’t run on logic.
  
  And culture is an organism, at least a pseudo-organism. And thus it defends itself from foreign bodies, like cryonics. If we are going to enter the corpus of the american culture, we must disguise ourselves and thus get past the defenses of the american culture.
  
  Reply
Mark Plus says:

July 29, 2011 at 9:00 am

http://boingboing.net/2011/07/27/rip-robert-ettinger-founder-of-cryonics-1918.html

Reply
Rick Potvin says:

July 30, 2011 at 6:49 am

Mike’s theme for his original post here was media coverage of Ettinger’s new status. Similiarly, I’ve been watching the discussion forums for talk of Ettinger. In terms of online discussion forums, do we agree that this site happens to be the favorite of the moment? Notice how CI itself doesn’t even have a public discussion forum, nor do any CI members run a forum. Their forum now requires membership. Note how ColdFilter is not being attended. Cryonet is shut down. It’s really unfortunate that after posting to Cryonet for so many years, that Ettinger’s final remarks could not be on Cryonet’s archive. Is anyone else surprised, as I am, that more cryonicists are not finding their way here to Chronosphere to comment, despite this site being a new center of cryonics gravitas? Or is it just me?

Reply
unperson says:

July 30, 2011 at 7:53 am

ABC News is covering Ettinger. I just posted a comment here:

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/life-ice-world-crazy-cryogenics/comments?type=story&id=14167348

Reply
- admin says:
  
  July 30, 2011 at 3:53 pm
  
  I just watched the ABC News segment: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/life-ice-world-crazy-cryogenics/comments?type=story&id=14167348 and it is EXCELLENT. David Ettinger comports himself well, seems credible and uses the right language when describes cryonics as “an ambulance to the future.” The humor is just about right and there absolutely no cruel mockery. Even the neuro-option is treated with surprising respect. This is pretty much straight-up coverage of a controversial topic. It could have been barbed and nasty and it wasn’t. I was personally gratified to see some of my media-issued still photos used in the piece. Very good! — Mike Darwin
  
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unperson says:

July 30, 2011 at 10:22 am

Wow. The reporter on this rather detailed story really cut Ben Best a new one! A quote from the story:
////////
To this reporter, Best looked to be Ettinger’s Igor. He is short, mostly bald (with wisps of remaining hair) and pale. Standing next to the freezers, he can be mistaken for a recently revived “patient.” He displays few facial expressions. He talks slowly; his speech programmed like a robot.
////

Start taking some charisma supplements, Ben!

Reply
- unperson says:
  
  July 30, 2011 at 10:22 am
  
  here is the link:
  
  http://thesouthend.wayne.edu/index.php/article/2011/07/father_of_cryonics_robert_ettinger_dies_at_92/?message=Comment%2Badded&type=notice#comment1085
  
  Reply
  - admin says:
    
    July 30, 2011 at 3:41 pm
    
    I thought the Wayne State article was good. Sure, it had some strong negatives, but they were far outweighed by the fundamental humanity and decency of the piece. It end with a very moving and surprisingly intelligent and literate sentence. This is the comment I left, and I would urge others to leave comments as well:
    “Thank you for this beautifully written article. Of the countless media accounts of Ettinger’s passing into cryopreservation, yours was the most humane and one of the most technically accurate. Cryonics is small, appears bizarre, and undoubtedly makes no sense to most people. Nevertheless, it is the only rational and the only moral course of action for people who value their lives, and the lives of those they love, above all. I knew Bob Ettinger well, and I did not find him particularly likeable. That wasn’t important. What was important was that he was right and that he gave us cryonics. For that, I am (I hope) eternally grateful. He was, indeed, the Gilgamesh of our time.” — Mike Darwin
    
    Reply
Mark Plus says:

July 31, 2011 at 7:35 pm

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-robert-ettinger-20110801,0,6175424.story?track=rss

Reply
Mark Plus says:

August 1, 2011 at 3:43 pm

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/28730691/detail.html

Reply
- admin says:
  
  August 1, 2011 at 5:59 pm
  
  Man oh man, I dreamed about coverage that positive and that accurate for 30+ years. I would point out, however, contrary what David Ettiger says, people started being cryopreserved in in 1967 and the first man so treated is in LN2 – albeit not at CI. — Mike Darwin
  
  Reply
Mark Plus says:

August 2, 2011 at 8:56 pm

Frederik Pohl reminisces about Ettinger:

http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2011/07/the-cryonic-institutes-106th-patient-robert-cw-ettinger/

Reply
- admin says:
  
  August 2, 2011 at 9:49 pm
  
  Mark, thank you VERY much for this URL. I have posted this response to Fred Pohl there:
  
  Hello, Fred, this is from Mike Darwin, the guy who made you the offer of a “free freeze” after dinner that night in Louisville, KY in our suite in the Galt House hotel. You were the Guest of Honor at the American Science Fiction Convention in 1978, and we took you to dinner and made you an offer that, as it turned out, you easily could refuse! If you want to read an account of that meeting from the perspective of the cryonics people present at that time, it’s up on line, here: http://www.alcor.org/cryonics/cryonics8301.txt and is entitled, “When You Can’t Even Give it Away – Cryonics and Fred Pohl.
  
  When you write about Bob Ettinger, “He wrote me one more letter, good-naturedly urging me to change my mind. That was the end,” I would say in response, “Uh, uh, it is much more likely, on the basis of probability alone, that was the end not for Bob, but for *you.*
  
  Bob and I talked and corresponded about you a number of times over the years. Unlike you, I was not close to Bob, and we were often at odds. Interestingly, one of the few things that ever resulted in a genuine emotional connection between us was the offer we made to cryopreserve you for free. While he was too reserved and diplomatic to say so, your given reason for turning cryonics down, well, to be frank, I think it pissed him off a little. It was apparent that he genuinely liked and admired you and that, maybe just as importantly, he shared a common past with you. You and he grew up in the Golden Age of Science Fiction and you both shared the common narrative and heritage of what is now being called “The Greatest Generation.” The last time I saw Bob, was over dinner a few years ago in Michigan. He was quite frail, but wickedly lucid. I asked him if you were still compos mente and if he was still in touch with you. He sighed, “Yes,” and a “Yes.” And then he momentarily lost his temper, which is something I almost never saw him do. I don’t remember his exact words, but they were pretty to close to this: “I guess he doesn’t think that much of me or of the rest us, because he’s so worried about being alone and displaced from the people he knows and loves now. Doesn’t he think I’ll be there? Doesn’t he think any of the hundred or so others from our generation will be there? And if he does, and he is so worried about loneliness and social isolation, then dammit why doesn’t he come along to keep us company?”
  
  I thought that was an extraordinarily good question. But logical and emotional arguments aside, it was painfully clear to me that HE WANTED YOU ALONG FOP THE RIDE. I had a hard time holding back the tears, and I had to excuse myself to the men’s room.
  
  When most men die, their probability for any future goes to zero; in effect, their event horizon collapses. That’s about to happen to you (and to me, and to everyone else). Say what you will, Bob Ettinger now confronts two possibilities – oblivion, or one hell of a really interesting future. A future far more fantastic than anything you or he ever dreamed of, or wrote about. If nothing else, just to have come that far and to be in that position, well, it’s a hell of an accomplishment. And I am very grateful to Bob Ettinger for achieving it, because it opens that possibility to me, as well.
  
  So, Fred, here’s the deal. Your friend is waiting for you: he damn sure wanted you to embark on the adventure (good or bad) that he has now begun. In fact, he kept at you to go until, literally, almost his last breath for this life cycle. He can’t do it anymore, so I guess it is my turn, once again, to ask you to reconsider and to join your friend and colleague on his journey into the land you both dreamed of when you were young, and in your salad days. Please, reconsider your arguments. It is now for sure you won’t be without a friend and cohort, and I can pretty much guarantee you that your revival won’t take place unless you have a use.
  Finally, I can tell you for a fact that the best use you have is continue living and growing and telling stories. At our core, we humans are ‘store creatures,’ and we will remain so as long we *are* human. It goes without saying that story creatures need storytellers; your job is thus secure.
  
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