Tag Archives | cryonics

Founder Of Cryogenics Movement Dies (For The Time Being)

By on July 27, 2011 in News 7

Robert-EttingerAct One of Robert Ettinger’s existence has drawn to a close. I plan on watching Weekend at Bernie’s in tribute. Associated Press reports:

Robert Ettinger, pioneer of the cryonics movement that advocates freezing the dead in the hope that medical technology will enable them to live again someday, has died. He was 92. His body became the 106th to be stored at the Cryonics Institute, which he founded in 1976.

The Cryonics Institute charges $28,000 to prepare a body and store it long-term in a tank of liquid nitrogen at minus 321 degrees Fahrenheit. The first person frozen there was Ettinger’s mother, Rhea Ettinger, who died in 1977. His two wives, Elaine and Mae, also are patients at the Institute. Similar facilities for preserving dead bodies operate in Arizona, California and Russia.

Ettinger also established the Immortalist Society, a research and education group devoted to cryonics and extending the human life span.

… Read the rest

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Does Your Spouse Hate That You Want To Be Cryogenically Frozen?

By on July 14, 2010 in News 0

11cryonics-t_CA2-popupThe New York Times has an intriguing article on the tension that often arises between people that want to be cryogenically preserved after death and those people’s loved ones. Is it a selfish act to hope for the revival of your frozen brain centuries into the future? Or are the rest of us just jealous of cryogenics enthusiasts’ cheery refusal to accept death as inevitable?

Robert Ettinger is the father of cryonics, his 1964 book, “The Prospect of Immortality,” its founding text. “This is not a hobby or conversation piece,” he wrote in 1968, adding, “it is the struggle for survival. Drive a used car if the cost of a new one interferes. Divorce your wife if she will not cooperate.” Today, with just fewer than200 patients preserved within the two major cryonics facilities, the Michigan-based Cryonics Institute and the Arizona-based Alcor, and with 10 times as many signed up to be stored upon their legal deaths, cryonicists have created support networks with which to tackle marital strife.

… Read the rest

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Wake From Cryonics

By on November 16, 2009 in News 2

Here’s an interesting idea. Finance your cryogenic preservation using life insurance — and then leave a huge death benefit to your future thawed self!

“Most in the middle class, if they seriously want it, can afford it now. So by taking the right steps, you can look forward to waking up one bright future morning from cryopreservation the proud owner of a bank account brimming with money!”

But there’s one important caveat. Some insist that money “will have no meaning in a future dominated by advanced molecular manufacturing or other engines of mega-abundance.

“In this case waking from cryonics rich or poor would be exactly the
same…” (This article first appeared in the fall issue of H+ magazine…)… Read the rest

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