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Interview: CBS Sunday Morning Primetime Special “Forever Young: Searching for the Fountain of Youth”
I was interviewed for a segment on cryonics that aired in a CBS Sunday Morning primetime special titled “Forever Young: Searching for the Fountain of Youth” in November 2021.
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h+
Richard designed, developed, and maintained the original h+ Tucson website as well as the expanded h+ website for multiple chapters and new transhumanist-related content, including a gallery of transhumanist art, links, and other resources.
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Kickstarter – The Methuselah Generation
Trailer for a documentary – filmed in 3D – about longevity. The filmmakers are raising money to finish the film via Kickstarter.
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Avatar’s Accomplishments
Avatar has accomplished more than most movies in recent memory, including the introduction of ideas long popular with transhumanists to a more mainstream audience. Is it also helping to lead to more public acceptance of transhumanism and emerging technologies?
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Avatar: Transhumanist Perspective
James Cameron’s Avatar is an astonishing and must-see movie. It is also a huge disappointment.
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Friend of Chris Heward, Friend of Your Own Life Extension
Life extension researcher Chris Heward was recently diagnosed with cancer. See how you can help.
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Top Killers Identified By World Health Organization
Cardiovascular diseases, infectious diseases and cancer remain the world’s top killers of humans according to “The Global Burden of Disease” report from the World Health Organization (WHO).
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Aging 2008
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. On Friday, June 27, 2008 from 4:00 PM through 8:00 PM PDT at UCLA, scientists and other anti-aging luminaries will discuss “Aging: the Disease, the Cure, the Implications,” [defunct link] a Methuselah Foundation co-sponsored event. The ADCI event is open to the public and…
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The 2.0 Project on Marblejars
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. [Commentary] [Defunct video and link] Mark McAllister started The 2.0 Project a couple years ago to bring attention to the plight of those who cannot secure the insurance or funding required for cryonics preservation services due to pre-existing conditions. I interviewed him for a…
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“No Graveyard”
“Alcor is no graveyard.”
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Alcor Conference – Table of Contents
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. Frontier Channel liveblogging from the 7th Alcor Conference: Day 1 Day 2
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Rumor: Artificial Life
Although the following news appears to have been confirmed by Craig Venter, it should be viewed as rumor until there is an official announcement. The Guardian is reporting that Venter and a team of scientists have created artificial life, in the form of an artificial chromosome that can make use of another organism’s cellular machinery…
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Alcor Conference – Chris Heward
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] [Recap] Chris Heward discussed his work on the “Kronos Longitudinal Aging Study (KLAS)” as a measurement of human aging. KRONOS Science Laboratory [defunct link] is a research institution in Phoenix, AZ, USA. Heward showed a graph of progress…
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Alcor Conference – Christine Peterson
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] Christine Peterson presented “Good News, Bad News, Surprising News” about life extension. She now spends about half time studying life extension as an enthusiast. She began by stating that terminology matters. Which terms are best: life extension, health…
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Alcor Conference – Calvin Mercer
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] [Recap] Calvin Mercer asked “Cryonics and Religion: Friends or Foes?” Cryonics, Mercer believes, will require support from more people than just scientists, including religious people. How should cryogenics supporters present these ideas to religious people? How the discussion…
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Alcor Conference – Morning Break
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] Popcorn, cookies, and pretzels. We talked to a couple who are musicians and Alcor members about how art can be used to promote life extension and transhumanism.
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Alcor Conference – Calvin Mercer
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] [Recap] Calvin Mercer asked “Cryonics and Religion: Friends or Foes?” Cryonics, Mercer believes, will require support from more people than just scientists, including religious people. How should cryogenics supporters present these ideas to religious people? How the discussion…
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Alcor Conference – Steven Harris
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] [Recap] Steven Harris is a researcher developing “Rapid Body Cooling for Prevention of Brain Damage.” Rapid body cooling technologies are important to both cryonics and emerging short-term treatments. Hypothermia induced by lowering the body temperature by 4 degrees…
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Alcor Conference – Morning Panel
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] Day two of the Alcor Conference. The day began with the “Human Cryopreservation and Critical Care Medicine Panel,” including Alcor’s Tanya Jones, critical care physician David Crippen and bioethicist Leslie Whetstine and moderated by Aschwin de Wolf. [Recap]…
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Alcor Conference – Alcor Board of Directors Panel
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] Stephen Van Sickle, Ralph Merkle, Michael R. Seidl, and Brian Wowk of the Alcor Board of Directors answered questions from the audience for the last session of the day. The Board addressed questions about the current state of…
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Alcor Conference – Aubrey de Grey
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] [Recap] Does Aubrey de Grey really need an introduction at this point? His public proposal for repairing and reversing the damage of aging, SENS, and his public admission of being an Alcor member were the topics he discussed…
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Alcor Conference – Afternoon Break
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] Ice cream! Networking! Being nearly run over by busy organizers!
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Alcor Conference – Michael West
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] [Recap] Another approach to recovery of cryonics patients, or patients prior to requiring cryonics, is regenerative medicine, that is, the ability to use stem cells to rebuild tissues. Michael West from Advanced Cell Technology discussed “Immortal Cells: The…
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Alcor Conference – Ralph Merkle
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] [Recap] Nanotechnology. Once only an obscure buzzword among fringe techno-progressives, nanotechnology has emerged both as a multi-billion dollar industry and a controversial technology that could lead, according to some, to a prosperous future of plenty, or, according to…
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Alcor Conference – Luncheon
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] It is time for lunch. These breaks, lunches, and dinners are includes in the conference package and sponsored and funded by organizations or wealthier Alcor members. These sponsors have been mentioned between talks.
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Alcor Conference – Tanya Jones
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] [Recap] Tanya Jones is the COO of Alcor. She has also participated in over half of the members’ cryopreservations. She talked about “Improving Cryopreservation Technology at Alcor.” The moment the heart stops and legal death begins, Alcor must…
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Alcor Conference – Stephen Van Sickle
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] [Recap] The next speaker from Alcor was Stephen Van Sickle, Executive Director, discussing the “Research Direction at Alcor.” There was a time when Alcor did not conduct much research, focusing instead on their services and gaining new members.…
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Alcor Conference – First Break
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] [Commentary] Break time! Time to mingle, network, eat snacks, or catchup on liveblogging… The accommodations are very nice here at the Hilton Scottsdale Resort. About 100 people are in the audience, with water, gum drops, and notepads on…
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Alcor Conference – Brian Wowk
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] [Recap] Brian Wowk discussed cryobiology, the field of cold tolerance in nature and cryopreservation of biological material. In nature, organism survive freezing temperatures by ice avoidance and ice tolerance, using cellular “antifreeze” or cryoprotectants. By studying these organism,…
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Alcor Conference – Steve Bridges
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] [Recap] A former Alcor president, Steve Bridges opened up the conference with a question: “Why are we here?” His answer: “Alive = Good. Dead = Bad.” Over the past 100 years, technology and medicine have improved our ability…
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Alcor Conference – Introduction
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] When people die, some of them are buried in a plot in a graveyard. Others choose cremation their remains kept in an urn (perhaps after some of their remains are sprinkled in favorite locations around the Earth.) For…
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Frontier Channel at 7th Alcor Conference
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] Frontier Channel will be liveblogging this weekend from Scottsdale, AZ, USA for the 7th Alcor Conference [defunct link]. The three day event will bring together experts in cryobiology, life extension research, and nanotechnology to present the latest information…
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Bionic Woman (2007)
NBC’s Bionic Woman is both a disaster and an insult in a long history of anti-technology storytelling.
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SENS3 and the Anchor Pub and Crap Documentaries
[Guest Writer] I waddled into the Anchor Pub [defunct link] and there was Aubrey with a beer. He asked what I was drinking and I said “One of those” and pointed at his beer and soon had one because he brought me one and I was very tired and very merry and surrounded by excellent…
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SENS3 – still processing
[Guest Writer] I’ve been back from SENS3 [defunct link] for five days, and my brain remains scrambled. In reporting it I can only ramble – as evidenced by last Friday’s H+ Club weekly meetup in Tucson, where I exploited the SENS3 online meeting program [defunct link] to linearize my desultory observations before a nicely crowded…
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Ending Aging
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here.
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7th Alcor Conference
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. [Frontier Channel Coverage: Alcor Conference – Table of Contents]
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Third “Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence” Conference (SENS3)
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. Please see Frontier Channel’s coverage of this event.
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The Singularity Summit 2007
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. Please see Frontier Channel’s coverage of this event.
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Able Edwards
Able Edwards, the first movie shot completely against a green screen and released the same year as Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, has something to say. Or does it?
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Homophobia, Piracy, and the Need for True Names
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. The beta of Apple OS-X Leopard provided to developers that attended WWDC has been leaked. Nicholas Deleon of CrunchGear posted [defunct link] about the upcoming operating system appearing on Oink, a private piracy site and, oh boy, are the darknet pirates angry. In their…
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Science Continues to Reduce Suffering
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. “Promising results from first gene therapy clinical trial for Parkinson’s disease reported“ While those who pray and give glory to imaginary creatures make me angry and ruin my day, the slow, tedious, but incredibly effective march of science and technology makes my day while…
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Praying for Return
Headline on CNN.com: “Girl, 5, stumbles from woods to delight rescuers” [defunct link}. “Little’s husband, Brian, said parishioners have been “praying for his whole family.””Obviously, we’re giving all the glory to God on this one,” Brian Little said.” Obviously, the glory belongs with the smart little survivor, you awful people! You might as well give…
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Praying For Rain
This appears right now (around 11:30 AM PST on Monday, June 18, 2007) on Weather.com: National Forecast Prayers answered 2:00 p.m. ET 6/18/2007 Many southern communities have had prayer vigils for rain due to the drought. Their prayers may be answered Tuesday. Weather is a science. The storm front is not an answer to prayers.…
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Atlas Shrugs, Bolivia Nationalises Energy Sector
Richard is no longer a fan of Ayn Rand and related ideals. This is a nightmare right out of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. Bolivian troops seize key smelter
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Hope in the Statistics
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. The numbers do not lie, and they are surprising: These changes are the direct result of scientific and technological breakthroughs over the past 20 years and the spread of education, especially to women. Of special note are new drugs and treatments that have extended…
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Saying Goodbye to Horse Racing
Derby winner Barbaro fighting for life – Yahoo! News [defunct link] Growing up, one of my favorite things to do around my birthday was to watch the Kentucky Derby. I continued that tradition through collegeand adulthood. Barbaro won the race this year, but it was the first I did not watch. Although I love watching…
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Imaginary Monsters and Human Beings
People use their anonymity on the Internet to safely explore who they really are. This helped me to make my homosexuality something manageable to consider long before I had sex for the first time. I am comfortable enough now to no longer need anonymity. I take ownership of who I am, labeled with my name…
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The Singularity Summit at Stanford
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. The Singularity Summit [defunct link] at Stanford is being held on Saturday, May, 13, 2006 from 9 am To 5 pm at the Stanford Memorial Auditorium (the address is 551 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305.) The event is hosted by the Symbolic Systems Program…
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Doctor Who Trashes Transhumanism
“New Earth,” the first episode of the second series of the relaunched Doctor Who, was the last place I expected to see a rant against cloning, life extension, and transhumanism.
Richard Leis
Horror Writer & Poet
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