Insights from Robert Ettinger, "The Father of Cryonics"
In 1962, a physics lecturer at Wayne State University named Robert C. Ettinger founded the cryonics movement with the publication of his book The Prospect of Immortality and introduced the world to a groundbreaking concept he termed "Cryonics."
Ettinger always looked at the concept of cryonics and particularly cryonic revival not as an impossibility, but rather as a complex problem that science would eventually find ways to solve. Considering the current state of technology in 1962, he correctly predicted that science would continue to advance at an explosive rate over the next several decades, ultimately creating the sophisticated tools which would be needed to revive cryonics patients.
Over the course of his first lifetime, Ettinger had the unique pleasure of seeing many of the scientific advances he had predicted decades earlier become reality, further convincing him that the tools and techniques needed to realize his theory were only a matter of time. Ettinger was in the unique position of actually watching his theory coming to life in his own lifetime, and he wrote extensively on the subject of cryonics, clarifying the theory with each new scientific leap forward. Nanotechnology, in particular, has always been a key theoretical revival technique, and Ettinger was fortunate enough to see the first applications of its amazing potential.
Robert Ettinger was placed in cryostasis July 28, 2011 at the Cryonics Institute facility in Michigan at the age of 92. As a scientist, futurist and most of all, "The Original Cryonicist," Robert Ettinger and his works are the foundation and in many ways the soul of the cryonics movement.
To truly understand cryonics, Robert C. Ettinger's works are essential reading.
Resource link to Robert Ettinger's works
Complete list of all documents currently available on the CI web site.
The Prospect of Immortality
Essential reading - the book that launched the cryonics movement in 1962.
Man Into Superman
Ettinger's 1972 follow up to The Prospect of Immortality
Nanotechnology
A prescient essay discussing the potential of nanotechnology for cryonics applications
Signatories encompass all disciplines relevant to cryonics, including Biology, Cryobiology, Neuroscience, Physical Science, Nanotechnology and Computing, Ethics and Theology.
The signatories, speaking for themselves, include leading scientists from institutes such as MIT, Harvard, NASA and Cambridge University to name a few.
To whom it may concern,
Cryonics is a legitimate science-based endeavor that seeks to preserve human beings, especially the human brain, by the best technology available. Future technologies for resuscitation can be envisioned that involve molecular repair by nanomedicine, highly advanced computation, detailed control of cell growth, and tissue regeneration.
With a view toward these developments, there is a credible possibility that cryonics performed under the best conditions achievable today can preserve sufficient neurological information to permit eventual restoration of a person to full health.
The rights of people who choose cryonics are important, and should be respected.
Sincerely (68 Signatories)
[Signature date in brackets]
Gregory Benford, Ph.D.(Physics, UC San Diego) Professor of Physics; University of California; Irvine, CA [3/24/04]
Alex Bokov, Ph.D.(Physiology, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio) [6/02/2014]
Alaxander Bolonkin, Ph.D.(Leningrad Politechnic University) Professor, Moscow Aviation Institute; Senior Research Associate NASA Dryden Flight Research Center; Lecturer, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ [3/24/04]
Nick Bostrom, Ph.D.Research Fellow; University of Oxford; Oxford, United Kingdom [3/25/04]
Kevin Q. Brown, Ph.D.(Computer Science, Carnegie-Mellon) Member of Technical Staff; Lucent Bell Laboratories (retired); Stanhope, NJ [3/23/04]
Professor Manfred Clynes, Ph.D.Lombardi Cancer Center; Department of Oncology and Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Georgetown University; Washington, DC [3/28/04]
L. Stephen Coles, M.D., PhD(RPI, Columbia, Carnegie Mellon University) Director, Supercentenarian Research Foundation Inglewood, California [10/7/06]
Jose Luis Cordeiro, MBA, PhDThe Millennium Project, Venezuelan Director; World Academy of Art and Science, Fellow [02/07/06]
Daniel Crevier, Ph.D.(MIT) President, Ophthalmos Systems Inc., Longueuil, Qc, Canada; Professor of Electrical Engineering (ret.), McGill University & cole de Technologie Suprieure, Montreal, Canada. [4/7/05]
Antonei B. Csoka, Ph.D.Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Pittsburgh Development Center, Magee-Womens Research Institute [9/14/05]
Aubrey D.N.J. de Grey, Ph.D.Research Associate; University of Cambridge;Cambridge, United Kingdom [3/19/04]
Wesley M. Du Charme, Ph.D.(Experimental Psychology, University of Michigan) author of Becoming Immortal, Rathdrum, Idaho [11/23/05]
Joo Pedro de Magalhes, Ph.D.University of Namur; Namur, Belgium [3/22/04]
Thomas Donaldson, Ph.D.Editor, Periastron; Founder, Institute for Neural Cryobiology; Canberra, Australia [3/22/04]
Christopher J. Dougherty, Ph.D.Chief Scientist; Suspended Animation Inc; Boca Raton, FL [3/19/04]
K. Eric Drexler, Ph.D.Chairman of Foresight Institute; Palo Alto, CA [3/19/04]
Llus Estrada, MD., Ph.D.
Ex Head of the Clinical Neurophysiology Section (retired) at the University Hospital Joan XXIII of Tarragona, Spain. [11/21/2015]
Robert A. Freitas Jr., J.D.Author, Nanomedicine Vols. I & II; Research Fellow, Institute for Molecular Manufacturing, Palo Alto, CA [3/27/04]
Mark Galecki, Ph.D.(Mathematics, Univ of Tennessee), M.S. (Computer Science, Rutgers Univ), Senior System Software Engineer, SBS Technologies [11/23/05]
D. B. Ghare, Ph.D.Principal Research Scientist, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India [5/24/04]
Ben Goertzel, Ph.D.(Mathematics, Temple) Chief Scientific Officer, Biomind LLC; Columbia, MD [3/19/04]
Peter Gouras, M.D.Professor of Ophthalmology, Columbia University; New York City, NY [3/19/04]
Rodolfo G. Goya, PhDSenior Scientist, Institute for Biochemical Research (INIBIOLP), School of Medicine,, National University of La Plata, La Plata city, Argentina. [11/22/2015]
Amara L. Graps, Ph.D.Researcher, Astrophysics; Adjunct Professor of Astronomy; Institute of Physics of the Interplanetary Space; American University of Rome (Italy) [3/22/04]
Raphael Haftka, Ph.D.(UC San Diego) Distinguished Prof. U. of Florida; Dept. of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Gainesville, FL [3/22/04]
David A. Hall, M.D.Dean of Education, World Health Medical School [11/23/05]
J. Storrs Hall, Ph.D.Research Fellow, Institute for Molecular Manufacturing, Los Altos, CAFellow, Molecular Engineering Research Institute, Laporte, PA [3/26/04]
Robin Hanson, Ph.D.(Social Science, Caltech) Assistant Professor (of Economics); George Mason University; Fairfax, VA [3/19/04]
Steven B. Harris, M.D.President and Director of Research; Critical Care Research, Inc; Rancho Cucamonga, CA [3/19/04]
Michael D. Hartl, Ph.D.(Physics, Harvard & Caltech) Visitor in Theoretical Astrophysics; California Institute of Technology; Pasadena, CA [3/19/04]
Kenneth J. Hayworth, Ph.D. (Neuroscience, University of Southern California) Research Fellow; Harvard University; Cambridge, MA [10/22/10]
Henry R. Hirsch, Ph. D.(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1960) Professor Emeritus, University of Kentucky College of Medicine [11/29/05]
Tad Hogg, Ph.D.(Physics, Caltech and Stanford) research staff, HP Labs, Palo Alto, CA [10/10/05]
James J. Hughes, Ph.D.Public Policy Studies Trinity College; Hartford, CT [3/25/04]
James R. Hughes, M.D., Ph.D.ER Director of Meadows Regoinal Medical Center; Director of Medical Research & Development, Hilton Head Longevity Center, Savanah, GA [4/05/04]
Ravin Jain, M.D.(Medicine, Baylor) Assistant Clinical Professor of Neurology, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA [3/31/04]
Subhash C. Kak, Ph.D.Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA [3/24/04]
Professor Bart Kosko, Ph.D.Electrical Engineering Department; University of Southern California [3/19/04]
Jaime Lagnez, PhDNGS and Systems biologist for INSP (National Institutes of Health of Mexico) and CONACYT (National Science and Technology Council). [11/21/2015]
James B. Lewis, Ph.D.(Chemistry, Harvard) Senior Research Investigator (retired); Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute; Seattle, WA [3/19/04]
Marc S. Lewis, Ph.D.Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati in Clinical Psychology. Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin of Clinical Psychology. [6/12/05]
Brad F. Mellon, STM, Ph.D.Chair of the Ethics Committee; Frederick Mennonite Community; Frederick, PA [3/25/04]
Ralph C. Merkle, Ph.D.Distinguished Professor of Computing; Georgia Tech College of Computing; Director, GTISC (GA Tech Information Security Center); VP, Technology Assessment, Foresight Institute [3/19/04]
Marvin Minsky, Ph.D.(Mathematics, Harvard & Princeton) MIT Media Lab and MIT AI Lab; Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences; Professor of E.E. and C.S., M.I.T [3/19/04]
John Warwick Montgomery, Ph.D.(Chicago) D.Thol. (Strasbourg), LL.D. (Cardiff) Professor Emeritus of Law and Humanities, University of Luton, England [3/28/04]
Max More, Ph.D.Chairman, Extropy Institute, Austin, TX [3/31/04]
Steve Omohundro, Ph.D.(Physics, University of California at Berkeley) Computer science professor at the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana [6/08/04]
Mike ONeal, Ph.D.(Computer Science) Assoc. Professor and Computer Science Program Chair; Louisiana Tech Univ.; Ruston, LA [3/19/04]
R. Michael Perry, Ph.D. Computer SciencePatient care and technical services, Alcor Life Extension Foundation [9/30/09]
Yuri Pichugin, Ph.D.Former Senior Researcher, Institute for Problems of Cryobiology and Cryomedicine; Kharkov, Ukraine [3/19/04]
Peter H. Proctor, M.D., Ph.D.Independent Physician & Pharmacologist; Houston, Texas [5/02/04]
Martine Rothblatt, Ph.D., J.D., M.B.A.Responsible for launching several satellite communications companies including Sirius and WorldSpace. Founder and CEO of United Therapeutics. [5/02/04]
Klaus H. Sames, M.D.University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Center of Experimental Medicine (CEM) Institute of Anatomy II: Experimental Morphology; Hamburg, Germany [3/25/04]
Anders Sandberg, Ph.D.(Computational Neuroscience) Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm University; Stockholm, Sweden [3/19/04]
Sergey V. Sheleg, M.D., Ph.D.Senior Research Scientist, Alcor Life Extension Foundation; Scottsdale, AZ [8/11/05]
Stanley Shostak, Ph.D.Associate Professor of Biological Sciences; University of Pittsburgh; Pittsburgh, PA [3/19/04]
Rafal Smigrodzki, M.D., Ph.D.Chief Clinical Officer, Gencia Company; Charlottesville VA [3/19/04]
David S. Stodolsky, Ph.D.(Univ. of Cal., Irvine) Senior Scientist, Institute for Social Informatics [11/24/05]
Gregory Stock, Ph.D.Director, Program on Medicine, Technology, and Society UCLA School of Public Health; Los Angeles, CA [3/24/04]
Charles Tandy, Ph.D.Associate Professor of Humanities and Director Center for Interdisciplinary Philosophic Studies Fooyin University (Kaohsiung, Taiwan) [5/25/05]
Peter Toma, Ph.D.President, Cosmolingua, Inc. Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Inventor and Founder of SYSTRAN. Director of International Relations, Alcor Life Extension Foundation. Residences in Argentina, Germany, New Zealand, Switzerland and USA [5/24/05]
Natasha Vita-More, PhDProfessor, University of Advancing Technology, Tempe, Arizona, USA. [11/22/2015]
Mark A. Voelker, Ph.D.(Optical Sciences, U. Arizona) Director of Bioengineering; BioTime, Inc.; Berkeley, CA [3/19/04]
Roy L. Walford, M.D.Professor of Pathology, emeritus; UCLA School of Medicine; Los Angeles, CA [3/19/04]
Mark Walker, Ph.D.Research Associate, Philosophy; Trinity College; University of Toronto (Canada) [3/19/04]
Michael D. West, Ph.D.President, Chairman & Chief Executive Office; Advanced Cell Technology, Inc.; Worcester, MA [3/19/04]
Ronald F. White, Ph.D.Professor of Philosophy; College of Mount St. Joseph; Cincinnati, OH [3/19/04]
James Wilsdon, Ph.D.(Oxford University) Head of Strategy for Demos, an independent think-tank; London, England [5/04/04]
Brian Wowk, Ph.D.Senior Scientist 21st Century Medicine, Inc.; Rancho Cucamonga, CA [3/19/04]
Selected Journal Articles Supporting Cryonics:
First paper showing recovery of brain electrical activity after freezing to -20C. Suda I, Kito K, Adachi C, in: Nature (1966, vol. 212), Viability of long term frozen cat brain in vitro, pg. 268-270.
More:
The Case for Cryonics | Cryonics Institute
Recommendation and review posted by G. Smith
