X-Message-Number: 16164
From: "Bryan Hall" <>
Subject: NY Times Article on TimeShip
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 22:26:45 -0700

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http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/22/magazine/22DESIGN.html (requires free 
registration)


"Today about 90 people are "suspended" nationwide. Not strung up with wires or 
making do without driver's licenses, but frozen in the hope that molecular 
nanotechnology will soon allow bodies suspended cryonically post mortem to be 
reanimated. Four organizations offer such services. But another is in the works,
and its plans are a bit more ambitious. If things go as planned, Timeship will 
be a six-acre, $180 million "Noah's Ark" for 10,000 people and plants and 
animals, as well as stem cells of near-extinct species and human organs for 
transplant. "This is historic, biblical in nature," says the project's 
architect, Stephen Valentine. Valentine ultimately hopes to create a sort of 
"cryoworld" with a hotel, conference center, hospital and hospice for those 
"traveling" to the future. So what exactly goes into making such an ark, given 
that hickory bark doesn't cut it in the silicon age?"


"It has to be the Fort Knox of friendly biological material," says Valentine, 
who was commissioned by life-extension groups, including the Stasis Foundation, 
a nonprofit group. This means energy self-reliance (solar or geothermal), as 
well as resistance to natural and man-made disasters like earthquakes and 
terrorist bombings. For inspiration, Valentine researched long-lived buildings 
like fortresses and castles and ended up with plans for a building of steel, 
concrete and stone; now he has to find a site -- possibly in the American 
Southwest or Florida. Valentine hopes to pick a spot this summer and break 
ground in 2002."


"Most cryonics devotees tend not to be deeply religious, so Valentine, who was 
also a senior design architect on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 
wove what he regards as universal symbols of life into his design: mandalas, 
cones and the phoenix. Inside at ground level, an open courtyard will be 
bordered by a mirrored arcade angled skyward, "thus connecting the Timeship with
the heavens," according to Valentine. The second floor will include lab space, 
administrative offices and a glass-enclosed plaza surrounded by four gardens 
representing the seasons. Suspended organisms will be housed in 12 separate 
"communities" in protected bunkers; enough liquid nitrogen will be in the system
to keep things cool for six months in the event of a power failure." 


"Forthose who can't wait for Timeship to land, there are the other operations 
already extant: the Cryonics Institute (38 frozen "patients," 10 cats and 7 
dogs) in Clinton Township, Mich.; Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale,
Ariz.; American Cryonics Society in Cupertino, Calif.; and Trans Time Inc. in 
San Leandro, Calif. (The CryoCare Foundation, though it has a few bodies in 
storage, is not accepting new ones.) Average suspension fees range from $28,000 
to $150,000, which include body preparation (infusing a cryoprotectant, or 
antifreeze, solution into the body and storing it at 320 degrees below zero). 
People involved in cryonics swear they are in it not to make money but for "the 
love of the idea," according to Saul Kent, a principal of the Stasis Foundation 
who is prominent in the life-extension movement. "Some young people may never 
die." Happily, most life-insurance policies cover cryonics; name the cryonics 
organization your beneficiary -- $50,000 policies are the norm -- and the rest 
is taken care of."

-Bryan Hall


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