X-Message-Number: 4853
Date: Thu, 7 Sep 1995 08:27:13 -0700 (PDT)
From: Doug Skrecky <>
Subject: incremental immortality
When Steve Bridge, the president of Alcor admits to believing
that if cryonics organizations remain the same size they are
currently, they are all doomed we should all take notice.
Alternatives to cryonics no matter how ridiculous or unlikely they
may seem at first glance, deserve a second look.
The following article which deals with one alternative to
cryonics was the first one I wrote for Canadian Cryonics News. It
appeared in the Autumn 1990 issue. Little did I realize it at the
time but an experiment was in progress then, which could very well
have laid the foundations for implimenting incremental immortality,
but more on this later.
INCREMENTAL IMMORTALITY: AN ALTERNATIVE TO CRYONICS
By Doug Skrecky
Faced with death we have three options: We can ignore it,
disbelieve in it, or do something about it. The religious skeptic
has had little alternative but to avoid thinking about the topic of
death as there was little profit in such thinking. Attitudes like
you live on in your children somehow gain ready acceptance and the
mind refuses to think any farther. For true believers the situation
is better. Buddists have their nirvana, Hinduists their
reincarnation, while Christians have their resurrection. Recently
alternatives for the religious skeptic have arisen. The idea of
passively accepting our biological fate is being challenged by
recent scientific advances. Now Cryonics and Incremental Immortality
both claim to offer a chance at attaining eternal life. However
while these claims are all beset with difficulties Incremental
Immortality is a much more reasonable proposition.
One problem with Cryonics is that the technology for reanimating
frozen cadavers does not yet exist and may never exist. It has been
claimed that a hypothetical future superscience based on microscopic
industrial robots in the nanometer size range will one day be
capable of effecting sufficient repairs at the molecular level such
that (our) dead bodies could be reanimated provided they were
sufficiently well preserved. Even if we are generous and grant that
this technology will one day develop Cryonics still faces the even
more serious challenge of ensuring adequate preservation. If
freezing is delayed by even one day after death brain
microstructures would likely be destroyed beyond any hope of future
repair. Unless one commits suicide or is dieing slowly of a terminal
disease it may be difficult to ensure that freezing will in fact
take place shortly after death. It may take several centuries (if
not millenia) to develop reanimating technology and it is highly
doubtful that cryonics organizations themselves could last that
long. Even with the permafrost burial option one would have to
contend with global warming as well as bacterial action. Cryonics is
an all-or-nothing proposition -most likely nothing.
Cryonics deserves credit for at least trying to prolong life.
Neither ignoring death nor disbelieving in it accomplish even this
much. However like other attitudes Cryonics still assumes that
little can be done to currently increase our life expectancy. This
proposition itself is now in doubt. Advances in medical science are
yielding immortality in installments.
Cut down on the saturated animal fats in your diet and you cut
down your risk of dying prematurely from cardiovascular disease.
Consume wheat bran products and you are less likely to die of colon
cancer. Apply a sunscreen and the risk of skin cancer is lessened.
Eat lots of fruits and vegetables and you will consume fewer
calories. Calorie restriction without malnutrition slows the aging
process and extends maximum lifespan in laboratory animals. Some
supplements can cut disease risk. Chromium and niacin cut
cardiovascular disease risk, while chlorophyllin cuts cancer risk.
Recently supplements have also slowed aging as well and radically
extended the lifespan of rats. Deprenyl treated adult rats live as
long as 2 weeks, while untreated rats are all dead by 164 weeks.
(Mechanisms of Ageing and Development 46:237-2 1988) Coenzyme Q10
has also extended survival in a recent test at the UCLA Medical
Center -the final results will be released by 1991.
If current methods for increasing life expectancy are all
utilized average life expectancy would be increased from 75 years to
around a 100 years. While this is not immortality 25 years of life
is still 25 years of life. Incremental Immortality is based on the
continuing rapid advance of medical technology. If you are currently
about 40 years of age you can expect to live to about 100 provided
you do something now. In 20 years this figure may be higher. By the
time you are 100 you might be faced with a 200 year lifespan if
certain breakthroughs occur in the next 60 years. By the time you
are 200 even the disease of aging itself might be curable. Like
Cryonics, Incremental Immortality is a long shot. Unlike Cryonics it
is not an all-or-nothing proposition. If the big win doesn't happen
the consolation prize is still an extra 25 years.
Ben Best's Editorial Comment: "It is almost certain that medical
advances will continue to lengthen the average lifespan, and it is
certainly a fact that simple measures such as controlling one's diet
can increase one's life expectancy. However there is no guarentee
that aging will be cured within the lifetime of anyone now alive.
(It will almost certainly not occur within the lifetime of older
cryonicists, given the dismal attention antiaging research currently
recieves!) Furthermore everyone is subject to some risk of death by
accident or homicide. I see these two methods of life extension as
being complementary, not conflicting."
......My present position on this issue can be summed up in a
question to cryonicists: Do you currently take melatonin, chromium
picolinate and deprenyl? One bird (or life) in hand is worth far
more than two in the bush. If you plan on spending over $100,000 on
cryonics you should be willing to spend far less than this taking
all of the top life extension supplements.
While I was writing the above article a remarkable experiment
was being conducted at North Dakota University to determine the
effect of injections of growth hormone on the lifespan of aged mice.
The results were so outstanding that I believe they may even herald
the begining of the age of immortality. How long could GH treated
mice live? We do not know. The experiment was terminated 6 weeks
after all the control mice had died. It seems the GH treated mice
were taking so long to expire that the experimenters may have lost
patience. The GH treated mice were executed en mass at the end of
the experiment. The reader is invited to read the report himself and
render his own judgement: see Mechanisms of Ageing and Development
Vol.57 87-100 1991. I get sweaty hands when I read it.
Of course the experiment needs to be replicated
sans executions, particularly with other strains of rodents before a
final judgement can be rendered. I believe this should be the first
priority for antiaging research.
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