Category Archives: Cryonics Philosophy

Ray Bradbury: When the Writer Mistakes His Books for Himself

By Mike Darwin On 5 June 2012, the master storyteller and science fiction writer Ray Bradbury died at the age of 91. Some Bradbury’s work, and very nearly Bradbury himself became an iconic part of the culture. His novel Fahrenheit … Continue reading

Posted in Cryonics Philosophy, Culture & Propaganda | 5 Comments

Semantics and Cryonics Propaganda

By Mike Darwin One of the things I hear from time to time is the assertion by some cryonicists that recent advances in mammalian brain vitrification technology have resulted in the brains of cryonics patients being “alive.” While the error … Continue reading

Posted in Cryobiology, Cryonics Philosophy, Culture & Propaganda | 4 Comments

In Thy Orisons Be All My Sins Remembered*

By Daichi Sasaki EDITOR’S NOTE: The following text has been edited from a machine translation. I have tried to be as faithful to the original as possible. The title is mine – MD I came to visit the United States, … Continue reading

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Myth and Memory in Cryonics

By Mike Darwin Steven B. Harris, M.D. In September of 1988, Steve Harris, M.D., published an essay entitled The Day the Earth Stood Still: Cryonics and the Resurrection of the Mythic Hero. It was one of his best in a … Continue reading

Posted in Cryonics History, Cryonics Philosophy, Culture & Propaganda, Philosophy, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Cryonics: An Historical Failure Analysis, Lecture 2: Inherent Failure Mechanisms and Risks, Part 3

THE CONSEQUENCES OF FAILURE SLIDE 137 Alcor had achieved an exponential rate of membership growth by the time Jerry Leaf was cryopreserved. Since that time, there has been only modest growth of membership and in fact, in the years since … Continue reading

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Cryonics: An Historical Failure Analysis, Lecture 2: Inherent Failure Mechanisms and Risks, Part 2

By Mike Darwin CRYONICS’ THIRD ERA: 1981-1991 EVIDENCE-BASED, MEDICALLY- MODELED, RESEARCH- DRIVEN SLIDE 119 In January of 1980 I had the good fortune to perform two human cryopreservations back-to-back with Jerry Leaf (then associated with Trans Time) in Southern California. … Continue reading

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Cryonics: An Historical Failure Analysis, Lecture 2: Inherent Failure Mechanisms and Risks, Part 1

By Mike Darwin 1972-1991 AWAKENING TO REALITY SLIDE 96 As I said in the previous lecture, the literature produced by CSNY created an impression of competence and of the presence of a solid organization. After I had been involved in … Continue reading

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Cryonics: Failure Analysis, Lecture 1, Initialization Failure, Part 3

By Mike Darwin FRAUDS & FAKIRS SLIDE 57 While this small corps of serious and honest people was hard at work trying to re-launch cryonics on a solid footing, the legacy of the first era of careless and irresponsible cryonics … Continue reading

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Cryonics: Failure Analysis: Lecture 1: Initialization Failure, Part 2

By Mike Darwin FAILURE OF HUSBANDRY SLIDE 34 The core ideas of cryonics, that death is a function of remaining biological structure (information), technological sophistication, and that deep cooling can arrest decay and preserve structure indefinitely to await resurrection by … Continue reading

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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

Posted in Cryonics Biography, Cryonics History, Cryonics Philosophy | 6 Comments