Comments for CHRONOSPHERE http://chronopause.com A revolution in time. Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:38:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Comment on THE EFFECTS OF CRYOPRESERVATION ON THE CAT, Part 2 by chronopause http://chronopause.com/index.php/2012/02/14/the-effects-of-cryopreservation-on-the-cat-part-2/#comment-3863 chronopause Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:38:40 +0000 http://chronopause.com/?p=1345#comment-3863 I'm not sure that fixation isn't a viable approach. It <em>is</em> certainly true that the technology to implement it has not been developed to a marketable state. This may be because there really are very difficult technical and theoretical problems to be overcome, or it may be simply because no one has done the bench work. You can certainly lock up structure homogeneously throughout the brain by perfusing the right fixatives. You need to fix the lipids as well the proteins - unless you can solidify reasonably promptly. However, the REAL issue for stable ambient temperature storage is to find a way to <strong>solidify</strong> the system in a timely fashion. This can certainly be done with things like paraffin wax and epoxies - and it can even be done to whole brains and indeed to whole humans, as was demonstrated by the Spanish pathologist Pedro Ara in the 1940s. http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm55/mikedarwin1967/Arasheadofapeasant1.png http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm55/mikedarwin1967/Arasheadofapeasant2.png The photos above are of the head of Spanish peasant that Ara prepared in the first half of the last century. They have resided for decades in the hot, stuffy <a href="http://www.museoanatomicoara.fcm.unc.edu.ar/" rel="nofollow">Museo de Anatomí Pedro Ara</a> in Cordoba, Argentina. Also in the museum are others of Ara's preparations, including this striking one of a human head with exposed brain: http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm55/mikedarwin1967/Arabrain.png Ara is most famous for his postmortem preservation of Eva Peron, the charismatic wife of the Argentine dictator Juan Peron. http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm55/mikedarwin1967/PedroArawithAvaPeron.jpg http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm55/mikedarwin1967/PedroArawithAvaPeron.jpg http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm55/mikedarwin1967/EvaPeronAPSkullFilm002.jpg There has been a great deal of press and commentary that Ara did not, in fact, preserve Eva Peron, but rather, substituted a wax dummy. Or that he gutted her, as was done to Lenin. This is not the case and the evidence that Peron was preserved intact has special relevance to the issue of ambient temperature preservation, because it shows that the the brain, within the head, can be indefinitely preserved, at least in bulk. The evidence is this anterior posterior skull film made of Eva's head many years after her preservation: http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm55/mikedarwin1967/EvaPeronSkullNormalSkullFilmcopy.jpg When I saw this for the first time in the early 1980s, my reaction wa,s "Aha! He really did do it!" The reason for this is because very, very few people (outside of cryonics) would know what the AP X-ray of a human head/brain would like that had been perfused with a ~15% v/v glycerol solution. The use of a glycerol-based initial flush of the vasculature is unique to Ara's method (as far as I know) and it is ideally suited to overcome the no-reflow phenomenon in the brain and achieve adequate blood washout and recruitment of closed capillaries in ischemic subjects. In Eva Peron's case, there was very little ischemia since Ara began perfusion within minutes of her death. Again, these outstanding results are consistent with little or postmortem delay (ischemia). The truly impressive thing is that he was apparently able to achieve paraffin-impregnation of the brain within the skull. Or, he was otherwise able to achieve stable, long term preservation. It is possible to see more detail in Eva Peron's brain decades after her death on a plain film X-ray than it is in a 24-hour old corpse with MRI (as an example, gray/white matter differences disappear within hours of death)! By contrast, Lenin, who was not solidified, and was eviscerated, looks in dreadful condition during one of his recent (and regular) "tune-ups.": http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm55/mikedarwin1967/Lenin02.png http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm55/mikedarwin1967/Lenin07.png http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm55/mikedarwin1967/Lenin04.png Yes, Lenin looks impressively preserved when on display: http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm55/mikedarwin1967/Lenin09.png However, the biological reality is quite different. As an aside and in fairness, I should note that Lenin's brain, or at least much of it, is indeed in the solid state, since it was sectioned and prepared as standard light microscopy slides using H&E staining. When I visited Lenin's tomb several years ago, I was surprised at the pungent and all-permeating odor of of formalin and phenol which the savvy visitor can smell as soon as he enters the structure. And it is one incredibly impressive structure - I would rank it with the most impressive of those religious structures I've visited: The Vatican is impressive in one way, Lenin's tomb in quite another... http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm55/mikedarwin1967/Lenin10.png http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm55/mikedarwin1967/Lenin08.png So, the real work to validate ambient temperature preservation techniques, with or without "chemical fixation," will be by recourse to the bench - by doing lots of careful experiments. The result will likely be something that could properly be described as "art" as much as science. And this might well be worth pursuing, if for no other reason than that such preparations should be stable indefinitely - indeed done well, for tens of millions of years - and without refrigeration. Both Eva Peron and Comrade Lenin have long outlasted the then seemingly more durable regimes, institutions, and people who preserved them. That's quite a lesson, and one we cryonicists would do well to pay attention to. -- Mike Darwin I’m not sure that fixation isn’t a viable approach. It is certainly true that the technology to implement it has not been developed to a marketable state. This may be because there really are very difficult technical and theoretical problems to be overcome, or it may be simply because no one has done the bench work. You can certainly lock up structure homogeneously throughout the brain by perfusing the right fixatives. You need to fix the lipids as well the proteins – unless you can solidify reasonably promptly. However, the REAL issue for stable ambient temperature storage is to find a way to solidify the system in a timely fashion. This can certainly be done with things like paraffin wax and epoxies – and it can even be done to whole brains and indeed to whole humans, as was demonstrated by the Spanish pathologist Pedro Ara in the 1940s.

http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm55/mikedarwin1967/Arasheadofapeasant1.png

http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm55/mikedarwin1967/Arasheadofapeasant2.png

The photos above are of the head of Spanish peasant that Ara prepared in the first half of the last century. They have resided for decades in the hot, stuffy Museo de Anatomí Pedro Ara in Cordoba, Argentina. Also in the museum are others of Ara’s preparations, including this striking one of a human head with exposed brain:

http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm55/mikedarwin1967/Arabrain.png

Ara is most famous for his postmortem preservation of Eva Peron, the charismatic wife of the Argentine dictator Juan Peron.

http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm55/mikedarwin1967/PedroArawithAvaPeron.jpg

http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm55/mikedarwin1967/PedroArawithAvaPeron.jpg

http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm55/mikedarwin1967/EvaPeronAPSkullFilm002.jpg

There has been a great deal of press and commentary that Ara did not, in fact, preserve Eva Peron, but rather, substituted a wax dummy. Or that he gutted her, as was done to Lenin. This is not the case and the evidence that Peron was preserved intact has special relevance to the issue of ambient temperature preservation, because it shows that the the brain, within the head, can be indefinitely preserved, at least in bulk. The evidence is this anterior posterior skull film made of Eva’s head many years after her preservation:

http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm55/mikedarwin1967/EvaPeronSkullNormalSkullFilmcopy.jpg

When I saw this for the first time in the early 1980s, my reaction wa,s “Aha! He really did do it!” The reason for this is because very, very few people (outside of cryonics) would know what the AP X-ray of a human head/brain would like that had been perfused with a ~15% v/v glycerol solution. The use of a glycerol-based initial flush of the vasculature is unique to Ara’s method (as far as I know) and it is ideally suited to overcome the no-reflow phenomenon in the brain and achieve adequate blood washout and recruitment of closed capillaries in ischemic subjects. In Eva Peron’s case, there was very little ischemia since Ara began perfusion within minutes of her death. Again, these outstanding results are consistent with little or postmortem delay (ischemia).

The truly impressive thing is that he was apparently able to achieve paraffin-impregnation of the brain within the skull. Or, he was otherwise able to achieve stable, long term preservation. It is possible to see more detail in Eva Peron’s brain decades after her death on a plain film X-ray than it is in a 24-hour old corpse with MRI (as an example, gray/white matter differences disappear within hours of death)!

By contrast, Lenin, who was not solidified, and was eviscerated, looks in dreadful condition during one of his recent (and regular) “tune-ups.”:

http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm55/mikedarwin1967/Lenin02.png

http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm55/mikedarwin1967/Lenin07.png

http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm55/mikedarwin1967/Lenin04.png

Yes, Lenin looks impressively preserved when on display:

http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm55/mikedarwin1967/Lenin09.png

However, the biological reality is quite different. As an aside and in fairness, I should note that Lenin’s brain, or at least much of it, is indeed in the solid state, since it was sectioned and prepared as standard light microscopy slides using H&E staining. When I visited Lenin’s tomb several years ago, I was surprised at the pungent and all-permeating odor of of formalin and phenol which the savvy visitor can smell as soon as he enters the structure. And it is one incredibly impressive structure – I would rank it with the most impressive of those religious structures I’ve visited: The Vatican is impressive in one way, Lenin’s tomb in quite another…

http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm55/mikedarwin1967/Lenin10.png

http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm55/mikedarwin1967/Lenin08.png

So, the real work to validate ambient temperature preservation techniques, with or without “chemical fixation,” will be by recourse to the bench – by doing lots of careful experiments. The result will likely be something that could properly be described as “art” as much as science.

And this might well be worth pursuing, if for no other reason than that such preparations should be stable indefinitely – indeed done well, for tens of millions of years – and without refrigeration. Both Eva Peron and Comrade Lenin have long outlasted the then seemingly more durable regimes, institutions, and people who preserved them. That’s quite a lesson, and one we cryonicists would do well to pay attention to. — Mike Darwin

]]> Comment on A Personal Update by chronopause http://chronopause.com/index.php/2012/02/15/a-personal-update/#comment-3862 chronopause Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:48:28 +0000 http://chronopause.com/?p=1359#comment-3862 No, most people don't think about cryonics - and I never said, or implied, that they do. Most people don't think about anything. They don't need to. The heavy lifting of novel thinking in culture or a civilization are carried out by a small number of people. There are no popular uprisings or insurgencies that are a result of "mass thought," or a consequence of some distributed thinking on the part of "the people." Indeed, if such novel, mass thought were possible, the masses might well find cryonics a rational undertaking and embrace it since they are doomed to death without it. Culture is made by ideas fostered, incubated and articulated by perhaps 10% of the population and then pinged out to the other 90%. The signal that comes back from the "masses" gets reshaped, reworked and is pinged out again...and again...and again... And from those masses also arise the replacements for the 10% of truly original thinkers and articulators. Public opinion is a measure of the state of the masses opinions and emotions. It is like measuring the temperature of water in a boiler. The water doesn't boil itself - the flame does. And conversely, the flame cannot produce the steam required for motive energy without water. If you want to change the world, you have to be concerned about, and capable of influencing, not just the temperature of the water and the intensity of the flame, but about the whole system - including the plumbing, the turbines, the generators and the use to which the power is put... That is precisely what I am trying to do -- Mike Darwin No, most people don’t think about cryonics – and I never said, or implied, that they do. Most people don’t think about anything. They don’t need to. The heavy lifting of novel thinking in culture or a civilization are carried out by a small number of people. There are no popular uprisings or insurgencies that are a result of “mass thought,” or a consequence of some distributed thinking on the part of “the people.” Indeed, if such novel, mass thought were possible, the masses might well find cryonics a rational undertaking and embrace it since they are doomed to death without it.

Culture is made by ideas fostered, incubated and articulated by perhaps 10% of the population and then pinged out to the other 90%. The signal that comes back from the “masses” gets reshaped, reworked and is pinged out again…and again…and again… And from those masses also arise the replacements for the 10% of truly original thinkers and articulators. Public opinion is a measure of the state of the masses opinions and emotions. It is like measuring the temperature of water in a boiler. The water doesn’t boil itself – the flame does. And conversely, the flame cannot produce the steam required for motive energy without water.

If you want to change the world, you have to be concerned about, and capable of influencing, not just the temperature of the water and the intensity of the flame, but about the whole system – including the plumbing, the turbines, the generators and the use to which the power is put… That is precisely what I am trying to do — Mike Darwin

]]> Comment on Through A Glass Darkly: Obstacles to Envisioning the Future of Cryonics by Mark Plus http://chronopause.com/index.php/2012/02/21/through-a-glass-darkly-obstacles-to-envisioning-the-future-of-cryonics/#comment-3859 Mark Plus Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:48:56 +0000 http://chronopause.com/?p=1380#comment-3859 I've said for a few months now that cryonics organizations need to rewrite their expository literature to bring it up to the 21st Century because much of it sounds increasingly paleofuturistic and out of touch with the experiences of people who grew up admiring, say, Steve Jobs instead of "Wernher von who?" Ettinger's book belongs on the fictional Don Draper's bookshelf, perhaps, but not in our ebook readers in 2012 unless you need to refer to it for historical reasons. People born after 1970 or so can't relate to the idea of "the space age" or understand what the moon landings meant to us, when manned space travel stopped with no follow up before their births. (If we had a moon base, like a certain presidential candidate has advocated, then those foolish moon landing denialists would shut up and go away.) Yet these experiences provide the context for the world views of many older cryonicists, as we can see from the current issue of <em>Long Life</em> magazine: http://www.cryonics.org/immortalist/january12/meet.pdf I could say the same for our tastes in science fiction literature and movies. Give a young person a copy of Heinlein's <em>Door Into Summer</em> to experience Heinlein's vision of life in those far-future years of 1970 and 2000, and he might laugh at it. I would also have to put "nanotechnology" into the paleofuture box, which makes me unpopular with some cryonicists. Consider that 30 years ago, two ideas would have sounded like science fiction: The "nanoassembler," and getting your genome sequenced in exchange for less than a month's income, at at time when you couldn't have gotten that done for any amount of money. Fast forward to 2012. We still don't have "nanoassemblers," yet the price of having a lab sequence your genome shows signs of breaking through $1000 and heading downwards, if it hasn't already. Why do we see the latter as a reality, but not the former? As for problems with the culture of cryonics, I suspect that they derive in part from cognitive limits to our ability to process time. I have to laugh at conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones who claim that secret societies have existed for generations to carry out plans for world domination formulated centuries ago, when we can see in the here and now that even intelligent people don't function that way. Cryonics organizations have articulated goals which will require centuries of continuous commitment and effort to accomplish, yet the people who have run Alcor recently seem to lack the attention span to stick to a course of action for more than a few months. I don't know what we can do about this, however. Can we find prostheses to keep our minds from wandering from the cryonics movement's mission? I’ve said for a few months now that cryonics organizations need to rewrite their expository literature to bring it up to the 21st Century because much of it sounds increasingly paleofuturistic and out of touch with the experiences of people who grew up admiring, say, Steve Jobs instead of “Wernher von who?” Ettinger’s book belongs on the fictional Don Draper’s bookshelf, perhaps, but not in our ebook readers in 2012 unless you need to refer to it for historical reasons. People born after 1970 or so can’t relate to the idea of “the space age” or understand what the moon landings meant to us, when manned space travel stopped with no follow up before their births. (If we had a moon base, like a certain presidential candidate has advocated, then those foolish moon landing denialists would shut up and go away.)

Yet these experiences provide the context for the world views of many older cryonicists, as we can see from the current issue of Long Life magazine:

http://www.cryonics.org/immortalist/january12/meet.pdf

I could say the same for our tastes in science fiction literature and movies. Give a young person a copy of Heinlein’s Door Into Summer to experience Heinlein’s vision of life in those far-future years of 1970 and 2000, and he might laugh at it.

I would also have to put “nanotechnology” into the paleofuture box, which makes me unpopular with some cryonicists. Consider that 30 years ago, two ideas would have sounded like science fiction: The “nanoassembler,” and getting your genome sequenced in exchange for less than a month’s income, at at time when you couldn’t have gotten that done for any amount of money.

Fast forward to 2012. We still don’t have “nanoassemblers,” yet the price of having a lab sequence your genome shows signs of breaking through $1000 and heading downwards, if it hasn’t already. Why do we see the latter as a reality, but not the former?

As for problems with the culture of cryonics, I suspect that they derive in part from cognitive limits to our ability to process time. I have to laugh at conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones who claim that secret societies have existed for generations to carry out plans for world domination formulated centuries ago, when we can see in the here and now that even intelligent people don’t function that way. Cryonics organizations have articulated goals which will require centuries of continuous commitment and effort to accomplish, yet the people who have run Alcor recently seem to lack the attention span to stick to a course of action for more than a few months. I don’t know what we can do about this, however. Can we find prostheses to keep our minds from wandering from the cryonics movement’s mission?

]]> Comment on THE EFFECTS OF CRYOPRESERVATION ON THE CAT, Part 2 by Alexander McLin http://chronopause.com/index.php/2012/02/14/the-effects-of-cryopreservation-on-the-cat-part-2/#comment-3858 Alexander McLin Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:42:25 +0000 http://chronopause.com/?p=1345#comment-3858 Er did I really just typed cryogenics instead of cryonics? Sorry, my fingers were faster than my cerebral cortex. Er did I really just typed cryogenics instead of cryonics?

Sorry, my fingers were faster than my cerebral cortex.

]]> Comment on THE EFFECTS OF CRYOPRESERVATION ON THE CAT, Part 2 by Alexander McLin http://chronopause.com/index.php/2012/02/14/the-effects-of-cryopreservation-on-the-cat-part-2/#comment-3857 Alexander McLin Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:37:40 +0000 http://chronopause.com/?p=1345#comment-3857 Thank you for your analysis. I hadn't understood that fixation still isn't adequate for human brains. It's scary to contemplate the interior of a brain going up in flames! I'm studying the papers you referred to, and am thinking a lot about planning cryogenics arrangements and my personal hurdles. The Dora Kent case is a disturbing read, it reminds me that unfortunately that cryogenics still have a long way to go before more widespread public acceptance. Thank you for your analysis. I hadn’t understood that fixation still isn’t adequate for human brains. It’s scary to contemplate the interior of a brain going up in flames!

I’m studying the papers you referred to, and am thinking a lot about planning cryogenics arrangements and my personal hurdles.

The Dora Kent case is a disturbing read, it reminds me that unfortunately that cryogenics still have a long way to go before more widespread public acceptance.

]]> Comment on A Personal Update by unperson http://chronopause.com/index.php/2012/02/15/a-personal-update/#comment-3855 unperson Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:39:49 +0000 http://chronopause.com/?p=1359#comment-3855 once again you make the mistake of thinking that most people 'think' about cryonics. I think the evidence shows that they do not 'think' about cryonics, at least not in the sense that they balance, rationalize, weigh, etc. Instead, people "feel" about cryonics and similar concepts, such as life after death. Cryonics just feels wrong to them. This is not a state of mind that arises from any so-called rational process. That is not how homo sapiens works. once again you make the mistake of thinking that most people ‘think’ about cryonics. I think the evidence shows that they do not ‘think’ about cryonics, at least not in the sense that they balance, rationalize, weigh, etc. Instead, people “feel” about cryonics and similar concepts, such as life after death. Cryonics just feels wrong to them. This is not a state of mind that arises from any so-called rational process. That is not how homo sapiens works.

]]> Comment on A Personal Update by cath http://chronopause.com/index.php/2012/02/15/a-personal-update/#comment-3854 cath Wed, 22 Feb 2012 05:08:21 +0000 http://chronopause.com/?p=1359#comment-3854 Thanks Mike....The last stages of Thomas's first life cycle and his trip to Arizona knocked me about terribly, apart from guilt and my own illness, I had the lingering delusion he was still alive, but my bipolar illness did not settle for some time, and even reading his writings and dealing with his possessions caused havoc, so I did what I could, but I have been delusion free for a couple of years and am making headway on all his writings, biography and so on. Yes, his was, and will be again, a unique and rational mind. I am fortunate in having ten years of weekly letters and drawings from him, giving an account of his thoughts and undertakings whilst we were separated. I surely appreciate the handwritten as opposed to the e-item! I own 1500 acres of well-watered medium fertile cattle and sheep breeding country, currently running a hundred head of cattle and a few hundred sheep, with an angora rabbitry I have run for 15 years, harvesting, spinning and dyeing the fibre and designing garments I sell in local galleries. The house is at 950 m above sea level, and it can get very cold, and angora rabbit is about seven times warmer per weight than merino wool. Stephen is not for cryonics himself, but is mildly pro and will defend the idea if anyone attacks it. He is a stockman and farmer, so you can add to the mental picture my riding my horse Billie mustering sheep and cattle with my Australian kelpie dog I have trained. Also add in ten farm cats (the FANG Club) that control rats, mice and wild rabbits brilliantly, five more working dogs, two more horses and a bunch of chickens and you may guess the peacefulness is accompanied by a lot of animal activity, not including the abundant wildlife, deafening frogs, crickets and cicadas. We have koalas, roos, wallabies, echidnas, snakes, lizards...the lot. This phase of my life satisfies the outdoor girl who studied zoology, and finds in breeding sheep and cattle a satisfying ongoing scientific interest. I have also had two art exhibitions, with a third planned for August, the theme, of course, the humanistic side of science, and of course, immortalism. A feature painting will be titled "The Cryonic Suspension of Thomas Donaldson, PhD" in the tradition of the medical paintings e.g. by Thomas Eakins. These exhibitions continue my lifelong subject matter, the basis of my Masters thesis in art, and the "cultural manifesto" I am currently writing about art, literature and immortalism...I do think the relative lack of cryonicist-directed culture contributes to a lack of acceptance of cryonics... there should be more than the occasional novel or outsider-generated film or TV episode. As for others commenting you are a "survivalist" I will comment more later. But for now I consider the earth is overpopulated, and accompanying this are limitations on personal freedom. Eric Kaufman in "Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth" makes a sound demographic case that people who are of fundamentalist or extreme religious views are outbreeding those with moderate religiosity, agnostics and atheists, and in my life the lobbying of right wing religious people have restricted MY freedoms, because they seem to want to interfere in other peoples lives. I support cryonicists and nonhuman biomass. The farm's location was chosen because of favourable climatic modelling with respect to climate change and the crest of a range running through the place (little runoff from neighbours). I grow my own meat and vegetables. Another concern is the potential for serious world-wide epidemics....Since moving here I have not suffered from colds, flu or gi diseases. I admire what you are doing.....Long Life, Cath Thanks Mike….The last stages of Thomas’s first life cycle and his trip to Arizona knocked me about terribly, apart from guilt and my own illness, I had the lingering delusion he was still alive, but my bipolar illness did not settle for some time, and even reading his writings and dealing with his possessions caused havoc, so I did what I could, but I have been delusion free for a couple of years and am making headway on all his writings, biography and so on. Yes, his was, and will be again, a unique and rational mind. I am fortunate in having ten years of weekly letters and drawings from him, giving an account of his thoughts and undertakings whilst we were separated. I surely appreciate the handwritten as opposed to the e-item!
I own 1500 acres of well-watered medium fertile cattle and sheep breeding country, currently running a hundred head of cattle and a few hundred sheep, with an angora rabbitry I have run for 15 years, harvesting, spinning and dyeing the fibre and designing garments I sell in local galleries. The house is at 950 m above sea level, and it can get very cold, and angora rabbit is about seven times warmer per weight than merino wool. Stephen is not for cryonics himself, but is mildly pro and will defend the idea if anyone attacks it. He is a stockman and farmer, so you can add to the mental picture my riding my horse Billie mustering sheep and cattle with my Australian kelpie dog I have trained. Also add in ten farm cats (the FANG Club) that control rats, mice and wild rabbits brilliantly, five more working dogs, two more horses and a bunch of chickens and you may guess the peacefulness is accompanied by a lot of animal activity, not including the abundant wildlife, deafening frogs, crickets and cicadas. We have koalas, roos, wallabies, echidnas, snakes, lizards…the lot.
This phase of my life satisfies the outdoor girl who studied zoology, and finds in breeding sheep and cattle a satisfying ongoing scientific interest. I have also had
two art exhibitions, with a third planned for August, the theme, of course, the humanistic side of science, and of course, immortalism. A feature painting will be titled “The Cryonic Suspension of Thomas Donaldson, PhD” in the tradition of the medical paintings e.g. by Thomas Eakins. These exhibitions continue my lifelong
subject matter, the basis of my Masters thesis in art, and the “cultural manifesto” I am currently writing about art, literature and immortalism…I do think the relative
lack of cryonicist-directed culture contributes to a lack of acceptance of cryonics… there should be more than the occasional novel or outsider-generated film or TV episode.
As for others commenting you are a “survivalist” I will comment more later. But for now I consider the earth is overpopulated, and accompanying this are limitations on personal freedom. Eric Kaufman in “Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth” makes a sound demographic case that people who are of fundamentalist or extreme religious views are outbreeding those with moderate religiosity, agnostics and atheists, and in my life the lobbying of right wing religious people have restricted MY freedoms, because they seem to want to interfere in other peoples lives. I support cryonicists and nonhuman biomass. The farm’s location was chosen because of favourable climatic modelling with respect to climate change and the crest of a range running through the place (little runoff from neighbours). I grow my own meat and vegetables. Another concern is the potential for serious world-wide epidemics….Since moving here I have not suffered from colds, flu or gi diseases. I admire what you are doing…..Long Life,
Cath

]]> Comment on A Personal Update by chronopause http://chronopause.com/index.php/2012/02/15/a-personal-update/#comment-3852 chronopause Tue, 21 Feb 2012 17:26:11 +0000 http://chronopause.com/?p=1359#comment-3852 I'm glad you enjoy it. Coming from you, that is high praise, indeed! As I finished up editing the micrographs for the 1980s cat study, memories of Thomas came flooding back. I think of him often and I miss him terribly. His departure left a gaping hole in cryonics which has not been filled these many years later. His was a first class mind - no - a paradigm changing mind, and one that served as a rudder to keep us all on course. As I labeled the micrographs of the brain, I wondered how he would have responded to the (now) emerging tyranny of the "connectome" as the be all and end all of personal identity? [Shades of the tyranny of Nanotechnology!] Thomas was something very rare in a speculative scientist and thinker; he always considered the system as a whole and he was loathe to latch onto "simplifications" to explain evolutionarily ancient and complex phenomena, such as memory. While I am skeptical of his particular ideas about the neuronal (e.g., non- or extra-synaptic) basis of memory, I think he was very likely on point on including that we be both cautious and thoughtful in speculating about how and where memory and personality are encoded in the brain. A few weeks ago, I scanned the photos of the training session that you and Thomas hosted at your home in Northern California. Many good memories and a few raucous laughs came back to me. Thank you both for those - and especially thanks to you - since most of the burden of hosting that gathering fell on you. Your brief email gives the impression of a someone who is in a peaceful place - and who is content. When I think of you, which is more often than you might imagine, I always see you looking out on a stand of gum trees after a rain - the tree trunks and bases coasted in foam from the sap and the rain and the air fresh with promise of another sunny day to follow. Be well and be happy. -- Mike Darwin I’m glad you enjoy it. Coming from you, that is high praise, indeed!

As I finished up editing the micrographs for the 1980s cat study, memories of Thomas came flooding back. I think of him often and I miss him terribly. His departure left a gaping hole in cryonics which has not been filled these many years later. His was a first class mind – no – a paradigm changing mind, and one that served as a rudder to keep us all on course. As I labeled the micrographs of the brain, I wondered how he would have responded to the (now) emerging tyranny of the “connectome” as the be all and end all of personal identity? [Shades of the tyranny of Nanotechnology!] Thomas was something very rare in a speculative scientist and thinker; he always considered the system as a whole and he was loathe to latch onto “simplifications” to explain evolutionarily ancient and complex phenomena, such as memory. While I am skeptical of his particular ideas about the neuronal (e.g., non- or extra-synaptic) basis of memory, I think he was very likely on point on including that we be both cautious and thoughtful in speculating about how and where memory and personality are encoded in the brain.

A few weeks ago, I scanned the photos of the training session that you and Thomas hosted at your home in Northern California. Many good memories and a few raucous laughs came back to me. Thank you both for those – and especially thanks to you – since most of the burden of hosting that gathering fell on you.

Your brief email gives the impression of a someone who is in a peaceful place – and who is content. When I think of you, which is more often than you might imagine, I always see you looking out on a stand of gum trees after a rain – the tree trunks and bases coasted in foam from the sap and the rain and the air fresh with promise of another sunny day to follow.

Be well and be happy. — Mike Darwin

]]> Comment on A Personal Update by Fundie http://chronopause.com/index.php/2012/02/15/a-personal-update/#comment-3851 Fundie Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:38:53 +0000 http://chronopause.com/?p=1359#comment-3851 Hello, Cath. It is good to see you posting. Hello, Cath. It is good to see you posting.

]]> Comment on A Personal Update by cath http://chronopause.com/index.php/2012/02/15/a-personal-update/#comment-3850 cath Tue, 21 Feb 2012 01:52:32 +0000 http://chronopause.com/?p=1359#comment-3850 Hi Mike...I enjoy Chronosphere....here on the farm in Australia I have a wireless connection to my computer, and by climbing the hill with a thermos of coffee can have an internet cafe. Interested to see how you are travelling, and enjoy your thoughts...looking forward to more postings....Cath Hi Mike…I enjoy Chronosphere….here on the farm in Australia I have a wireless connection to my computer, and by climbing the hill with a thermos of coffee can have an internet cafe. Interested to see how you are travelling, and enjoy your thoughts…looking forward to more postings….Cath

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