[ExI] chemo-preservation and fund raising

[Max More]

On Sun, Jun 15, 2014 at 1:10 AM, Rafal Smigrodzki <
rafal.smigrodzki at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> ### I agree that chemical preservation is not really that much cheaper
> than cryonics but it does have one attractive feature: Storage does not
> depend on the existence of a cryonics organization, which itself requires a
> well-functioning economy. Well-fixed brains could be forgotten, buried, and
> re-discovered by 34th century archeologists, and still give you a ticket
> into the future. The hope of cryonics could be dashed by 2 months of
> economic turmoil, just enough to evaporate the nitrogen. This is a big
> difference in resilience to Black Swan events.
>
>
True to a point. Still, even chemically-preserved brains would need some
kind of protection. Even if they don't need active maintenance, I wouldn't
feel happy knowing that my brain was completely unprotected for decades.
Nor would I be especially optimistic that someone would upload and revive
me in the absence of the organizational, legal, and financial structures
built into cryonics organizations.

It would take much more than two months of economic turmoil to endanger
Alcor's patients. First of all, that is not enough to "evaporate the liquid
nitrogen". We have run a test and found that a Bigfoot dewar (empty of
patients, obviously) did not run dry for something like five months.
Because the aluminum pods that house patients are conductive, so long as
there are even a few inches of LN2 at the bottom, the temperature even near
the top is within something like 30 degC of LN2 temperature -- plenty cold
enough. The boil-off rates vary, but I think the minimum would be 3 or 4
months.

That doesn't count contributions from the bulk tank, which we would use to
refill the dewars.

Considering that there are at least 7 liquid nitrogen vendors in the
Scottsdale/Phoenix area, it would take far more than "economic turmoil" to
terminate all deliveries of LN2. It would take at least WWIII. In the
meantime, we already know that we could go out and acquire a small liquid
nitrogen plant and make our own. (We have a powerful backup generator,
which I had installed this year, that could power it.) That would cost
about twice as much, which is why we haven't already bought one.

Other cryonics organizations probably would not be as resilient, since they
lack Alcor's resources. (And no other organization has a dedicated Patient
Care Trust Fund whose finances are governed separately and cannot be raided
for non-patient care purposes.)


>
> Ideally, if our stupid laws against assisted suicide could be changed,
> fixation would be done electively on anesthetized patients, under ideal
> conditions to assure prompt fixation, followed by monomer perfusion, water
> replacement and polymerization (I know that these challenges have not yet
> been adequately addressed). Well, one can dream.
>

Removal of the stupid laws (which also violate the right of self-ownership)
were removed, cryonauts would also benefit enormously -- especially those
with degenerative brain conditions.

It saddens me that some transhumanists are avoiding making cryopreservation
arrangements on the basis that cryonics is imperfect, whereas as an
imaginary and completely unproven (and certainly unavailable)
chemopreservation method might have some advantages.

--Max


>
> Rafal
>
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>
>


-- 
Max More, PhD
Strategic Philosopher
Co-editor, *The Transhumanist Reader*
http://www.amazon.com/Transhumanist-Reader-Contemporary-Technology-Philosophy/dp/1118334310/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372225570&sr=1-1&keywords=the+transhumanist+reader
President & CEO, Alcor Life Extension Foundation
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20140615/aec12c2f/attachment.html>