I'm buildng a support network of cryonicists.

My interest in life extension cryonics shortly before my mother succumbed to liver cancer a week before Thanksgiving.

We who have signed up or are in the process of enrolling for cryonic suspension have decided not to go quietly down shady lane.

There are those who want evolution to take its course and and for us who want long life be damned.

My heart and mind tell me that I've done the right thing by choosing cryonics.

I hope events in the near future would make this option unnecessary.

I believe cryonics will work.

Its success, which, I believe, is a matter of time, will allow us to pursue ventures about which we can only dream (long-duration space missions to the outer planets, recovery of soldiers in combat and/or civilians whose injuries would be fatal by today's standards).

I believe we, as a civilization, have a moral obligation to pursue this goal, for it is in our nature to expand our horizon, and it is also in our nature to improve our condition.

Unfortunately, it's also our nature to hold ourselves back as a civilization, be it through war, material greed, and/or inertia.

As much as I may look forward to seeing my fellow cryonauts, I would feel better if my friends from today would be come with me.

By the way, I could use as much support as I can get.

Thanks.

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Permalink Reply by Lucia (Jedi Master Lucia) on March 6, 2008 at 10:35pm: I am not signed up yet, but I am interested in cryonics.
My mother is death also. She died of lung cancer.
But If I knew about cryonics that time, I'd have let her cryopreserved instead of buried....; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Bill Teeter on March 7, 2008 at 2:20am: Call Alcor at 1-877-GO-ALCOR (www.alcor.org).

Ask for Diane Cremeens, and she will help you .

She will send information on Alcor to you and help you if you choose to join.

Most people fund their cryonics with life insurance.

E-mail rudi hoffman (www.rudihoffman.com, e-mail: rudihoffman@aol.com).

He is a financial planner and will help you with insurance arrangements.

Keep in touch.

Bill; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lucia (Jedi Master Lucia) on March 8, 2008 at 11:51pm: Hi, I have already info from Alcor, but I am thinking to sign up with CI
How does your family and friends react on the fact that you're signed up for cryonics?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Bill Teeter on March 9, 2008 at 12:42am: Lucia:

My father and youngest brother are of the view that death is a part of life, and you have to accept it.

My brother and sister-in-law respect my wishes.

My older sister understands, but her boyfriend suggested that I not pay a cent toward insurance unless or
until someone is brought out of cyrosuspension.

It's like someone telling you not to invest in a particular stock.

No one knows how well that stock will perform.

I have had a couple of friends disassociate themselves from me, because of my interest.

They share my father's view that you can't do anything about death.

I believe that, based on related experiments with animals on smaller scales and through work
with sperm and egg cells, and transplanted organs, that human cryopreservation will eventually work.

It's a matter of not if, but when people will be revived.

I signed with Alcor in January, and am now waiting for my insurance underwriting to be completed.

I should get word within a week whether or not I am accepted.

Thanks for e-mailing, and keep in touch.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lucia (Jedi Master Lucia) on March 9, 2008 at 10:03pm: It's sad that you lost some friends.

I hope for you that you'll be accepted by Alcor/

I don't know if cryonics will work, or not, but we'll only know that in the future ;-); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Bill Teeter on March 9, 2008 at 6:26pm: Lucia:

How have your family, co-workers and friends responded to your interest in cryonics?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lucia (Jedi Master Lucia) on March 9, 2008 at 9:49pm: I didn't tell them about this yet
They are Christians and I don't know how they'll react when I tell them about cryonics.
I looking for a good way to explain cryonics to them.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kennita Watson on March 14, 2008 at 4:04am: Try explaining cryonics as the next step in emergency medicine. Today, in the hospital, if someone's heart stops and they're dead, you have a few minutes to shock their heart with paddles to bring them back to life. If someone falls in an icy lake and they're dead, you have a few hours to fish them out and bring them back to life. Cryonics is for if today's medicine can't save them; as soon as they're dead, you make them *really* cold, so you can wait years and years until medicine can fix what's wrong with them, and _then_ bring them back to life. We can't do it now, but we're pretty sure we'll be able to do it someday. A century ago, there were no heart transplants, so someone whose heart gave out was dead forever, but now they're only dead until the new heart is put in. Sometimes it doesn't work, but we have to try, because it _might_ work, and giving up is what would kill them for sure.

HTH,
Kennita; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Shannon Vyff on March 14, 2008 at 4:37am: I edited a short story that Lucia wrote, to explain her wishes to her family--through a science fiction stand point--it covers all those issues wonderfully and from a religious standpoint, I hope she shares it.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lucia (Jedi Master Lucia) on March 18, 2008 at 11:20pm: Wow, thanks for the compliments.
I hope my story will be good enough to let my husband understand cryonics....; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lucia (Jedi Master Lucia) on March 20, 2008 at 11:12pm: I have posted my story here on transhumanists.org.
You can find it here : my story
You can read it if you like.
It's for me the first time I post a story of mine on the Internet; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Shannon Vyff on March 10, 2008 at 5:00pm: As a cryonicst I've come to realize over the past decade, that one makes their own decision to sign--cryonicists at some point do not care what their friends and family say, they are taking the chance for themselves--wether or not their parents, spouses, loved ones, or children do it too.

I'm fully prepared for any of my three children to decide not to do cryonics someday after they are grown, possibly because they will marry people who would not want to do it. I've experienced both my parents saying they'd do it, then saying they would not--I'm still waiting, have many years I hope before they die, to see if they change their minds again.

Till then I keep addressing the environmental benefits, how one can give back more to society some day--and all the ways it is not 'selfish', if we were to not be selfish, we'd all off ourselves right now, because humans are detrimental to the Earth...

At this point, with the billions alive, and the extreme inequality of the top 2% owning 50% of resources, and the bottom 50% owning 1%-- as a transhumanist it is my hope that the advance of technology will help alleviate these problems.; ▶ Reply to This

I'm buildng a support network of cryonicists.

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