Category Archives: Cryonics History

Cryonics: Failure Analysis: Lecture 1: Preface and Initialization Failure, Part 1

  By Mike Darwin This series of lectures had its origin in a presentation entitled Cryonics: Why it has failed, and possible ways to fix it, which was delivered at an ExtroBritannia meeting on Saturday August 2, 2008 at Birkberk College … Continue reading

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Your Picture Won’t Be Hanging Here?

  Reception area of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Riverside, CA in April of 1987. The photos above the refreshments cart were of some of the patients in Alcor’s care at that time. Sometimes we get defeated by technology, … Continue reading

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Bon Voyage, Fred Chamberlain

By Mike Darwin Me and Mei Lei, settling down after dinner and a peek at the heart of the time machine, which was then kept in a shed in back of the the Chamberlains’ home in La Crescenta, in 1973. … Continue reading

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i Birth of a NeoInsurgent Cryonicst

By CryoX Illustrations by Mike Darwin This is a work of fiction  {or is it?} We Froze the First Fly. Great title. I could have written it. I should have written it. I’m an insect endocrinologist. This futon in the … Continue reading

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Inheritance and Disinheritance Are Not For Us

by Mike Darwin Michael B. Federowicz and Ella A. Rorhman circa 1954 Yesterday, I learned my parents, both of them, had died a little over 4 months ago. The call came from a staffer at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation. … Continue reading

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Three Strikes and You’re Out!

By Mike Darwin Left: Science Fiction writer Fred Pohl, with friend. Predicting the future is a tough business. It is an especially tough business when it is proposed  that the prediction be highly specific and technically accurate. Say, akin to … Continue reading

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Through A Glass Darkly: Obstacles to Envisioning the Future of Cryonics

  By Mike Darwin I think every cryonicist carries in his head his own unique model of the “future of cryonics.” Furthermore, I think that each individual cryonicist carries around a largely arbitrary and unique set of standards, rules and … Continue reading

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THE EFFECTS OF CRYOPRESERVATION ON THE CAT, Part 3

IV. EFFECTS OF CRYOPRESERVATION ON THE HISTOLOGY OF SELECTED TISSUES (Left Ventricle and Cerebral Cortex) Left Ventricle Figure 43: The myofibrils of each cardiac muscle cell are branched and contain a single nucleus. The branches interlock with those of adjacent … Continue reading

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THE EFFECTS OF CRYOPRESERVATION ON THE CAT, Part 2

IV. EFFECTS OF CRYOPRESERVATION ON THE HISTOLOGY OF SELECTED TISSUES (Liver and Kidneys) Histology was evaluated in two animals each from the FIG and FIGP groups, and in one control animal.  Only brain histology was evaluated in the straight-frozen control … Continue reading

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THE EFFECTS OF CRYOPRESERVATION ON THE CAT, Part 1

by Michael Darwin, Jerry Leaf, Hugh L. Hixon I.    Introduction                                   II.   Materials and Methods III   Effects of Glycerolization IV.  Gross Effects of Cooling to and Rewarming From -196°C I. INTRODUCTION The  immediate  goal  of human cryopreservation  is  to  use  current … Continue reading

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