X-Message-Number: 20466 From: "Mark Plus" <> Subject: Wired.com: "Who Wants to Live Forever?" Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 17:22:08 -0800 Who Wants to Live Forever? By Kristen Philipkoski Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,56482,00.html 02:00 AM Nov. 20, 2002 PT What kind of person believes it's possible to live forever? An Internet entrepreneur, a psychiatrist, an artificial intelligence expert, a nanotechnology expert, a science-fiction writer, a nurse and the wife of a professional wrestler, just to name a few, all very much believe in that possibility. They and about 200 others paid up to $600 to attend the fifth Alcor Extreme Life Extension Conference, held every other year. They eagerly absorbed the latest in the science and philosophy behind the quest for immortality. These folks belong to "a beleaguered millennial faith," said Gregory Benford, a professor of plasma physics and astrophysics at the University of California at Irvine who spoke at the conference. The majority of human beings believe wanting to live forever is just plain wrong for various reasons. Take, for example, Miss Alabama's argument, if you can call it that, given during the Miss America competition in 1994. The competition host asked: "If you could live forever, would you want to, and why?" Miss Alabama answered, "I would not live forever, because we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever." But extreme life extension advocates have answers for every argument -- even Miss Alabama's. They say such circular thinking stems from the innate and irrational human fear of death. Bob Newport is a psychiatrist and a member of Alcor's medical advisory board. Sporting a beret and a shirt pocket full of cigars, he argued that humans are so afraid of death it's almost impossible to think about it rationally. Exploring death irrationally is what brought us religion, he argues. Depending on cryonics for immortality is "barely rational," he said, but it's more rational than depending on Jesus to provide everlasting life. Many immortality advocates view getting old as a disease. "If you are physically old and don't want to be, then for you oldness and aging are a disease and you deserve to be cured," said Robert Freitas, a research scientist at Zyvex and a research fellow at the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing. Steven Vachani, a 27-year-old Internet entrepreneur, attended the conference and signed up for the Alcor plan: paying $400 in annual membership dues, and naming Alcor as his life insurance beneficiary to cover the cost of freezing his body in liquid nitrogen for $120,000 (it costs $50,000 to preserve just the head). When asked if he was worried that one day the company would go out of business and his body might be thawed out and abandoned, or that the technology for reanimation may never be perfected, he said no. "In doing anything like this, there's a certain leap of faith you have to take," Vachani said. "They don't have all the answers right now, but everything will fall into place. If you want all the answers immediately, you'll never do anything." Bonnie Blood, who is married to professional wrestling legend Ricky Steamboat (Richard Blood), attended the conference to support the extreme life extension effort. Brenda Linn, a neurology nurse who worked on the development of the Glasgow coma score in 1974, also attended. She came to the meeting from Houston with her boyfriend, 87-year-old Miller Quarles, who is founder and president of the Curing Old Age Disease Society. "COADS was founded by Miller Quarles who likes living and sees no reason to accept the genetic sentence to the gallows before age 100," said the organization's website. "The organization seeks to promote research to find a way to stop the aging process and to promote public education about that objective." Attendees seemed to agree that the Ted Williams saga has been good PR for their movement. But at the same time they agreed that public acceptance is a long way off. Gregory Benford, of the University of California at Irvine, believes the public should know that "cryonicists aren't crazy, they're just really great, sexy optimists." Benford and his fellow immortality seekers clearly don't approach the issue without humor. Michael Riskin, vice president of Alcor and chair of the board of directors suggested four possible reasons why they long for eternal life: 1. They're so appalled by death they'll try anything. 2. They're extreme narcissists and believe the universe has no meaning unless they're experiencing it. 3. They have no preconceived answer to death. 4. They enjoy being part of a ridiculed minority. Riskin was clearly joking. But the folks at the conference are serious about living forever. In fact, researchers like Aubrey de Grey dedicate their lives to finding scientific solutions to mortality. Speaking in a very thick British accent, the long-bearded De Grey gave a step-by-step rundown of futuristic solutions to various aspects of mortality, including metabolism problems and cell death. De Grey is a research associate in the genetics department at the University of Cambridge. "It could be you whose lives we could save," he said. _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=20466