X-Message-Number: 24995 From: Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 08:52:47 EST Subject: Letter to Charles Pellegrino Dear Cryoneters: Some of you may be familiar with the writings of Pellegrino. He is an outstanding author and adventurer, a polymath with multiple interests. I recommend his website and books. This guy would make a great cryonics signup, although he does not have the following that Clarke and Sagan did/does. Letter follows. Webmaster: Please Forward to Dr. Charles Pellegrino Dear Dr. Pellegrino: This may be one of the most important emails you have ever received. You sir, are one of the geniuses of our age. Along with Arthur C. Clarke, Eric Drexler, Carl Sagan, Ray Kurzweil, Gene Roddenberry, and a few other visionary thinkers who have and are changing our world and the realm of the possible for human potential. I state this not to flatter you, but to give you a true indication of the respect I have for you, having researched your writings extensively. I have just spent a most magical afternoon reading "Unearthing Atlantis." I also have several of your other books, and have studied in detail your fascinating website. Here is the problem. You were born in 1953. Despite remarkable progress being made in life extension there is every chance you may not make the largest demarcation line in the history of humanity and the planet. This, of course, is the line in which aging and death become voluntary. We are advancing on this line rapidly. But not rapidly enough, possibly, for you and me to experience the scientific conquest of aging. With your technical and scientific expertise, I do not need to or presume to tell you that this line will eventually be crossed (if we pay attention, in your phrase, and do not destroy ourselves or our planet first). Just as you have summarized much technical discussion of a practical interstellar engine in your "Valkyrie Project" explanation, I would like to summarize an important scientific adventure and experiment in this posting. Cryonics is the developing science of preserving your brain pattern to have at least some realistic chance to see the astonishing and exciting near term future you write about. While presaged and predicted by science fiction, cryonic suspension of humans is actually a currently ongoing process. While no human, or even experimental animal, has been revived from cryonic temperatures yet, the concept and application of low temperature preservation of humans is more than thirty years old. I personally have been signed up for cryonic suspension, to take place immediately at my "deanimation" since 1994. This is with ALCOR, currently one of two extant cryonics laboratories operating today. Carl Sagan, a real hero, has died of cancer. Tragic. The breathtaking scope of his vision, his ability to simplify and explain the excitement of reality and science, his incredible story telling ability and imagination, are irretrievably lost to us forever. I wrote Sagan a letter such as you are reading now, Dr. Pellegrino. Without response. Your friend Arthur C. Clarke, of course, has cryonic suspension as an integral part of many of his hard edged fiction books. But, curiously, seems unwilling to explore this legitimate science for himself. I wrote him a letter, so far to no avail. But he lives mostly in Sri Lanka, and the logistics are most challenging for this procedure to have the best chance of "working." I wrote a similar letter to another scientific thought leader of our age, Dr. Francis Crick. As well as the codiscover of DNA, you of course are aware, Dr. Pellegrino, that Crick was a leading researcher in the field of consciousness. And an unabashed and straightforward atheist and reductionist, aware that our consciousness is not some ephemeral superstitious "spirit" but is instead a function of our brain pattern. But Crick, also, is dead of cancer, and his future unique insights are lost to humanity. You are a world class scientist, author, researcher, and adventurer. I would like to propose to you, Dr. Pellegrino, the ultimate adventure in scientific time travel to the future. A future few can imagine, although you come as close as anyone I have ever read. I would like you to consider signing up for cryonic suspension. The process is simple, and affordable. While full body suspension with ALCOR is currently $120,000, the cost of this is born by life insurance. Currently, we must wait until people have a "technical" pronouncement of "death" to begin the immediate cool down and biostasis procedures and protocols. While this may change in the future, this is currently where society and the technology finds itself. I read your biography. I know of the disease you have apparently overcome, and I still believe you would be insurable with one of my carriers. (I happen to know the head underwriter, and he is well read and likes celebrity authors.) However, from a financial perspective this is a huge boon. It enables the use of life insurance to fund the cost. I personally, as a 47 year old male, have some 2 million of life insurance proceeds upon my "death." While most of this goes to my wife, the necessary amount goes to ALCOR, and another half million or so is funding several different cryonics trusts which may or may not allow my resuscitation to be one of substantial prosperity and choices. The purpose of this letter, sir, is to intrigue you with this scientific possibility and experiment enough for you to research this, for your own life, and the lives of the world class researchers and scientists you care about. My simple request is this. Would you simply Google for ALCOR, Cryonics, Rudi Hoffman, suspended animation, etc., and simply provide your opinion? Cryonics is admittedly a "leading, bleeding edge" alternative. But it is the most rational choice we have to be a part of a fantastic future. A fantastic future that I would like to see Dr. Charles Pellegrino be a part of. I look forward to meeting you in person one day. Your ability to convey the concept of "deep time" is remarkable. Even more remarkable would be the chance for you, Dr. Pellegrino, of being a part Of deep time. Respectfully Yours, for Centuries, Rudi Rudi Hoffman CFP CLU Certified Financial Planner Chartered Life Underwriter "Planning Tomorrow, Today" Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=24995