Members Introductions and Hellos
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Blake
May 25, 2016, 10:13:26 PM5/25/16
to CryoLink - Cryonics and Life Extension
Hello,
In another thread, I was asked to give an introduction for myself, and an introduction for the second initial moderator. I would also like to know who you all are! :)
In another thread, I was asked to give an introduction for myself, and an introduction for the second initial moderator. I would also like to know who you all are! :)
Any members who wish to introduce themselves, please feel welcomed to add your introductions to this thread. (And to greet those who introduce themselves).
> Blake, whoever you are, thank you for taking the initiative to create a moderated cryonics forum. <snip> can we have an inkling of who you are? Can you for instance tell us about you and your co-moderator's educational and professional backgrounds, and any links you may have with cryonics organizations?
My name is Blake. I worked most of my life as a computer programmer and I have a few years of more recent schooling in biochemistry and life sciences. I've always loved all kinds of science. I'm a member of the Cryonics Institute, and in the past I've been an associate member of Alcor. I am not an employee of either organization, and I support both organizations. Spare time hobbies include some volunteer programming projects, reading up on medical research, reading in general, hiking, and maybe cheese or chocolate. If food can be a hobby.
The other initial moderator is my partner Lisa, and she's a scientist. I believe she plans to introduce herself soon, so I'll avoid sharing more about her here. Hello all!
Warm regards,
Blake
Blake
Lisa DH
May 25, 2016, 10:36:08 PM5/25/16
to CryoLink - Cryonics and Life Extension
Hello,
My name is Lisa, and I'm one of the moderators. I'm an industry scientist working in the biotechnology sector. My educational background is in the physical sciences. I am a member of the Cryonics Institute and am not a employee of either CI or Alcor. I enjoy hiking, reading, and making things. Welcome everyone to the group, and please feel free to add your own introduction to this thread!
Lisa
Paul Wakfer
May 26, 2016, 11:31:13 AM5/26/16
to Cryo...@googlegroups.com
A big Hi to everyone in this Group,
I am a very open person and most everything about me can be found on the Internet by searching: "Paul Wakfer" or my earlier used aka "Tom Matthews".
A few cryonics related things are:
1. I became a life extensionist after reading Robert Heinlein's "Time Enough for Love" in 1980-81, reading John Mann's "Secrets of Life Extension" and joining Life Extension Foundation. At that time, with an Engineering Physics background and having seen what LN2 could do to biological tissues, I thought cryonics was as irrational as "flat earth".
2. First learned about the logic and scientific reasonableness of cryonics in 1986 from Charles Olson and the writings of Mike Darwin in the Alcor magazine, introduced to me by Charles, but did not join immediately because of living in Toronto.
3. Joined Alcor in 1989, just before selling my business, training myself more deeply in biological sciences and deciding on what cryonics related areas to spend my time (and accumulated financial resources) on.
4. In 1991, I Investigated the work of Greg Fahy at the Red Cross in Bethesda, Maryland and of Alcor in Southern California, before deciding to work with Mike Darwin at Alcor.
5. In January 1992, I moved to California to work with Alcor and Mike Darwin, but by that time Mike had already left Alcor and I ended up forming a research company with him in a facility separate to Alcor and, at the same time, starting to work with Alcor and becoming the CEO of Cryovita Labs (having invested a reasonable sum of cash).
6. Next, I was one of the 3 founders of 21st Century Medicine (and its first business manager), a major instigator and participant in the split of members from Alcor to form the CryoCare set of unbundled organizations and creator/operator of the long term care part of that set, CryoSpan. I will not go into the highly involved and unpleasant story of how CryoCare and all of its unbundled set of organizations came to no longer exist.
7. Some highlights of my years involved with cryonics (which I prefer to call cryopreservation) are:
a) Built a LN2 container and used it to move the 3 whole body ACS patients from TransTime in San Francisco to the CryoSpan dewar in Rancho Cucamonga, Southern California.
b) Designed and built (with Mark Connaughton) reinforced concrete underground silos to house the patient dewars
c) Invented and verified the current extended neck dewar design used by Alcor, which reduces LN2 boiloff rate by about 10-20%.
d) Started the Prometheus Project to perfect human cryopreservation and got up to about $400K of pledges before the project bogged down for various reasons. However, one major side benefit of the effort was that Greg Fahy moved to California from the East coast and joined 21st Century Medicine.
8. For several years in the 2000s, I was no longer enrolled with any cryonics org (although I fully continued my desire to be cryopreserved if and when necessary), and had little contact with cryonics related matters. Since Dec 2005, I have again been enrolled with Alcor, and was a little more involved at the start of that, but have not commented on cryonics groups/lists for many years now. The reasons for this lack of comment and activity relative to cryonics is that my ideas find little receptivity with most other people and it is better use of my time to spend it working on direct life extension, particularly of myself and my wife, Kitty. Some of this effort has also gone into the Live120Plus project and since at 78 (me) and 71 (Kitty) and having no life-threatening health problems, our methods appear to be working well. My plan, my hope and my first goal is to continue to live so that I do not need cryopreservation, which I have always regarded as a very low chance last ditch option only taken if all others have been exhausted.
If you want to know anything more, just ask, but please only after searching the Internet, so that you are not unnecessarily requesting my scarce time.
I am a very open person and most everything about me can be found on the Internet by searching: "Paul Wakfer" or my earlier used aka "Tom Matthews".
A few cryonics related things are:
1. I became a life extensionist after reading Robert Heinlein's "Time Enough for Love" in 1980-81, reading John Mann's "Secrets of Life Extension" and joining Life Extension Foundation. At that time, with an Engineering Physics background and having seen what LN2 could do to biological tissues, I thought cryonics was as irrational as "flat earth".
2. First learned about the logic and scientific reasonableness of cryonics in 1986 from Charles Olson and the writings of Mike Darwin in the Alcor magazine, introduced to me by Charles, but did not join immediately because of living in Toronto.
3. Joined Alcor in 1989, just before selling my business, training myself more deeply in biological sciences and deciding on what cryonics related areas to spend my time (and accumulated financial resources) on.
4. In 1991, I Investigated the work of Greg Fahy at the Red Cross in Bethesda, Maryland and of Alcor in Southern California, before deciding to work with Mike Darwin at Alcor.
5. In January 1992, I moved to California to work with Alcor and Mike Darwin, but by that time Mike had already left Alcor and I ended up forming a research company with him in a facility separate to Alcor and, at the same time, starting to work with Alcor and becoming the CEO of Cryovita Labs (having invested a reasonable sum of cash).
6. Next, I was one of the 3 founders of 21st Century Medicine (and its first business manager), a major instigator and participant in the split of members from Alcor to form the CryoCare set of unbundled organizations and creator/operator of the long term care part of that set, CryoSpan. I will not go into the highly involved and unpleasant story of how CryoCare and all of its unbundled set of organizations came to no longer exist.
7. Some highlights of my years involved with cryonics (which I prefer to call cryopreservation) are:
a) Built a LN2 container and used it to move the 3 whole body ACS patients from TransTime in San Francisco to the CryoSpan dewar in Rancho Cucamonga, Southern California.
b) Designed and built (with Mark Connaughton) reinforced concrete underground silos to house the patient dewars
c) Invented and verified the current extended neck dewar design used by Alcor, which reduces LN2 boiloff rate by about 10-20%.
d) Started the Prometheus Project to perfect human cryopreservation and got up to about $400K of pledges before the project bogged down for various reasons. However, one major side benefit of the effort was that Greg Fahy moved to California from the East coast and joined 21st Century Medicine.
8. For several years in the 2000s, I was no longer enrolled with any cryonics org (although I fully continued my desire to be cryopreserved if and when necessary), and had little contact with cryonics related matters. Since Dec 2005, I have again been enrolled with Alcor, and was a little more involved at the start of that, but have not commented on cryonics groups/lists for many years now. The reasons for this lack of comment and activity relative to cryonics is that my ideas find little receptivity with most other people and it is better use of my time to spend it working on direct life extension, particularly of myself and my wife, Kitty. Some of this effort has also gone into the Live120Plus project and since at 78 (me) and 71 (Kitty) and having no life-threatening health problems, our methods appear to be working well. My plan, my hope and my first goal is to continue to live so that I do not need cryopreservation, which I have always regarded as a very low chance last ditch option only taken if all others have been exhausted.
If you want to know anything more, just ask, but please only after searching the Internet, so that you are not unnecessarily requesting my scarce time.
--Paul Wakfer MoreLife for the rational - http://morelife.org Reality based tools for more life in quantity and quality The Self-Sovereign Individual Project - http://selfsip.org Self-sovereignty, rational pursuit of optimal lifetime happiness, individual responsibility, social preferencing & social contracting
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