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Although my plan is to live forever (or at least, a very long time, societal and natural disasters willing) I know many people in the life-extension community are signed up with a cryonics provider, as a plan B, in case they don’t live long enough to welcome the rejuvenation revolution.

A lot has been written to explain how the people are stored, usually accompanied by a picture of the gleaming liquid nitrogen cooled Dewar flasks, along with the ethical questions of the procedure. However, the journey to the semi-final resting place is often overlooked.

To explore how someone who has signed up to a cryonics program makes that transition, I attended one of the regular cryonics demonstration and training sessions put on by Cryonics UK. It turns out there are 4 key stages in the process – standby, initial cool down, perfusion and transportation.

Do we need a new criteria for death, that covers the technicalities around neuro preservation, issues of legal identity upon reanimation and an approach to rehabilitation? What are the misunderstandings or misinformation that surround transhumanism and endeavour to make the distinction between transhumanism and technocracy? Should we be worried about the wrong headedness of The Population Bomb, climate catastrophism and the fashionability of long termism?

Today, I speak with Max More. As some of you may already know, Max is considered to be the founder of modern transhumanism, a philosopher and futurist who writes extensively on technology and humanity. He’s also currently ambassador and President Emeritus at Alcor Life Extension Foundation, having served almost 10 years as President and CEO there, and having been its 67th member. His 1995 University of Southern California doctoral dissertation, ‘The diachronic self identity continuity and transformation’, examined several issues that concern transhumanists, including the nature of death. He is the Co-editor of Rhe Transhumanist Reader, and he’s written many articles on transhumanism and extropianism, including the 1990 essay, ‘Transhumanism: toward a futurist philosophy’, in which he introduced the term transhumanism, in its modern sense.

This episode of The Future of You covers:

The Transhumanist FAQ was developed in the mid-1990s and in 1998 became a formal FAQ through the inspirational work of transhumanists, including Alexander Chislenko, Max More, Anders Sandberg, Natasha Vita-More, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Arjen Kamphius, and many others. Greg Burch, David Pearce, and Anders Sandberg kindly offered extensive editorial comments. The presentation in the cryonics section was, and still is, directly inspired by an article by Ralph Merkle. Ideas, criticisms, questions, phrases, and sentences to the original version were contributed by (in alphabetical order): Alex (intech@intsar.com), Brent Allsop, Brian Atkins, Scott Badger, Doug Bailey, Harmony Baldwin, Damien Broderick, Greg Burch, David Cary, John K Clark, Dan Clemensen, Damon Davis, Jeff Dee, Jean-Michel Delhotel, Dylan Evans, EvMick@aol.com, Daniel Fabulich, Frank Forman, Robin Hanson, Andrew Hennessey, Tony Hollick, Joe Jenkins, William John, Michelle Jones, Arjen Kamphius, Henri Kluytmans, Eugene Leitl, Michael Lorrey, mark@unicorn.com, Peter C. McCluskey, Erik Moeller, J. R. Molloy, Max More, Bryan Moss, Harvey Newstrom, Michael Nielsen, John S. Novak III, Dalibor van den Otter, David Pearce, pilgrim@cyberdude.com, Thom Quinn, Anders Sandberg, Wesley R. Schwein, Shakehip@aol.com, Allen Smith, Geoff Smith, Randy Smith, Dennis Stevens, Derek Strong, Remi Sussan, Natasha Vita-More, Michael Wiik, Eliezer Yudkowsky, and zebo@pro-ns.net.

Over the years, this FAQ has been updated to provide a substantial account of transhumanism. Extropy Institute (ExI) was a source of information for the first version of the Transhumanist FAQ, version 1.0 in the 1990s. The Transhumanist Manifesto, conceived by Natasha Vita-More in 1983 and revised in 1998–2020 to include advances of the growing worldview, was published in the CD placed onboard the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft in its mission to Saturn.

Humanity+, also known as WTA, adopted the FAQ in 2001 and Nick Bostrom added substantial information about future scenarios. With the contributions of close to hundred people from ExI, Aleph, DeTrans, Transcedo, WTA, and the UK Transhumanist Association, new material has been added and many old sections have been substantially reworked. In the preparation of version 2.0, the following people have been especially helpful: Eliezer Yudkowsky, who provided editorial assistance with comments on particular issues of substance; Dale Carrico who proofread the first half of the text; and Michael LaTorra who did the same for the second half; and “Reason” who then went over the whole document again, as did Frank Forman, and Sarah Banks Forman. Useful comments of either substance or form have also been contributed by (in alphabetical order): Michael Anissimov, Samantha Atkins, Milan Cirkovic, José Luis Cordeiro, George Dvorsky, James Hughes, G.E.

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Free Video Series: Open Questions in AI and Neuroscience:

BI Workshop- Open Questions Ever

Show notes: https://braininspired.co/podcast/103/

Randal, Ken, and I discuss a host of topics around the future goal of uploading our minds into non-brain systems, to continue our mental lives and expand our range of experiences. The basic requirement for such a subtrate-independent mind is to implement whole brain emulation. We discuss two basic approaches to whole brain emulation. The “scan and copy” approach proposes we somehow scan the entire structure of our brains (at whatever scale is necessary) and store that scan until some future date when we have figured out how to us that information to build a substrate that can house your mind. The “gradual replacement” approach proposes we slowly replace parts of the brain with functioning alternative machines, eventually replacing the entire brain with non-biological material and yet retaining a functioning mind.
Randal and Ken are neuroscientists who understand the magnitude and challenges of a massive project like mind uploading, who also understand what we can do right now, with current technology, to advance toward that lofty goal, and who are thoughtful about what steps we need to take to enable further advancements.

Timestamps.
0:00 — Intro.
6:14 — What Ken wants.
11:22 — What Randal wants.
22:29 — Brain preservation.
27:18 — Aldehyde stabilized cryopreservation.
31:51 — Scan and copy vs. gradual replacement.
38:25 — Building a roadmap.
49:45 — Limits of current experimental paradigms.
53:51 — Our evolved brains.
1:06:58 — Counterarguments.
1:10:31 — Animal models for whole brain emulation.
1:15:01 — Understanding vs. emulating brains.
1:22:37 — Current challenges.

Ralph C. Merkle is a computer scientist. He is one of the inventors of public key cryptography, the inventor of cryptographic hashing, and more recently a researcher and speaker of cryonics.

Videos in the talk: David Eagleman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5tZtYns6kE molecular nanotechnology: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqyZ9bFl_qg.

Filmed 2017/04/30

Dr. Max More is a philosopher, writer, speaker and expert in Cryonics — the process of cryopreserving a body at the time of legal death in the hopes of reviving them in the future.

Theo talks with Dr. More about what actually happens when we die, the future of mankind, and if Theo would preserve his brain for science.

Dr. More is the Ambassador for Alcor Life Extension, a non-profit in Scottsdale, Arizona practicing cryonics. Max received a Doctorate in Philosophy in 1995 from the University of Southern California after completing a degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Oxford University.

Dr. Max More: https://www.maxmore.com/
Learn more about Alcor: https://www.alcor.org/

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Nicely done Tim!


https://www.timventura.com — Dr. Natasha Vita-More discusses transhumanism, human augmentation, life extension, and cryopreservation, and provides valuable insights into the latest medical advances empowering body augmentation & super-longevity in humans.

Our interview begins with a philosophical discussion of transhumanism, including what it is and why this emerging community is growing so rapidly — as it is driven forward by rapid advances in medical technology and an aging boomer population.

We also discuss the work of Dr. David Sinclair, Liz Parrish and Bioviva Sciences, Alcor, and a collection of notable authors, thinkers, and scientists pushing the boundaries of what it means to be human in the 21st century.

Dr. Natasha Vita-More is a pioneering leader and community organizer in transhumanism, and a proponent of human rights, morphological freedom, and ethical means for human enhancement.