Censored documents now publicly available

Last year, I uploaded a series of documents, concerning the censorship being practiced by the Cryonics Institute (CI), to the Files Page of the CI Yahoo Group. These Documents, available only to CI members, were deleted. 

Just prior to the 2011 CI Board of Director's Election, a libelous statement, "Opposition to the candidacy of David Stodolsky for Director of CI," was distributed to all voting members of CI. I immediately issued a document listing the errors in that Statement. However, the Statement was reprinted without correction in the magazine Long Life (Jan.-Feb. 2012, Vol. 44, No. 1-2, pp. 12-14). Comments on the libelous statement and myself appeared in next issue of Long Life (March - April 2012, Vol. 44, No. 3-4, p. 23). On page 11 of Long Life, Vol. 44, No. 5-6 (May-June 2012) a paragraph mentioning me appears on the lower right hand side of the page. It says, in case Members feel I should have received more votes in the Election, "we're printing a series of letters that was sent to CI voting members." This all suggests a continuing pattern of defamation, part of what I have termed a "coverup."

Due to the continuing censorship and libel, I am now making public all related Documents. This appears to be the only option left, if I am to protect my reputation and if CI Members are going to understand what is happening at CI. 

A summary of events preceding the 2011 Election is presented in Breakdown of Democracy v2. Details appear in Censorship and Democracy?, Unfair "Election Coverage" by Long Life Magazine, The Customer as Enemy, and Our Path to Destruction. Libelous statement distributed by the Cryonics Institute and Libelous statement distributed .... - Correction were prepared around the time of that Election. A zip archive containing all Resolutions and a mailing list Guidelines document are also available. Documents are in the PDF format.


Direct link to the Google+ CI page mentioned in the first comment below

Human Biopreservation Institute launches social networking site

(This beta test has been suspended. Persons wishing to participate should contact the Secretary, the author of this Blog.)

The social networking site Human Biopreservation is now accepting users. The Site facilitates mutual support among cryonauts in case of a life threatening emergency. The smartphone application Vital Signs connects to the Site in order to provide real-time alerts. The Human Biopreservation Institute will accept 150 users for beta testing at this time.

The Site is unmoderated. However, you can permanently block information from any User. You will see more information from someone you indicate is a "friend" than from others, if you restrict access. Privacy controls allow you to accept or reject different types of information. You can also approve comments on your blog, profile, photos, or videos

Since emergency response requires real-world data, Users must provide access to their contact information. Provided information can be made visible to Users or only to Administrators. Different information can be provided in the public and private data entry fields. For example, a business telephone number could be provided in a publicly visible field and a home telephone number could be provided in a private field visible only to Administrators. You can also restrict access to your public information just to your friends. So, you have almost complete control over distribution of your information, since you can restrict sharing to any degree.

Users must have finalized their arrangements for biopreservation or be willing to assist in an emergency. Assistance could be as simple as noticing that an alert has been transmitted to the Site and then attempting to call the alerting telephone in order to determine whether the alert was a false alarm.

Testing of real-time support requires an Android cellphone with accelerometers. However, the Site doesn't require a cellphone for social networking functions. It is advisable to start using the Site immediately, even if you don't have a suitable cellphone. You will then be familiar with the Site and be able to start using the real-time capabilities immediately when you do obtain a cellphone. You will also be able to assist other cryonauts.

Blog posts featured on the social networking site Human Biopreservation as of September 14, 2011:

:Cryonics catacomb

:Majority would like their body frozen after death

:Photographic insight into the practice of cryonics

:The Social Climate at the Cryonics Institute

Information Security

During a beta test, there is a risk of inappropriate release of information. However, the most common source of problems is a weak password. Do not use a password that has been previously used, a name, a telephone number, etc. Compromise of your password could result in you being banned from the Site. We will be testing passwords with penetration tools. Users with weak passwords will be suspended. These pages explain how to choose a strong password:

How to Create a Password You Can Remember

Generate strong yet memorable passwords

Information transmitted to and from the Site is unencrypted. Therefore, it could be captured in transit. This is a minor risk, since sensitive information is only accessible during transmission. It is much more likely that information stored on the Site is compromised. If you are not comfortable entering sensitive information, even in the private fields available only to the Administrators, you should enter, "Contact the Secretary." However, such a restriction could delay an emergency response. Even restricting data access to Administrators could cause a delay, since that reduces the number of persons that could potentially respond to an alert. Additional security information is provided in the Terms of Service on the Site. Please review that information before deciding what information you will provide. If you do not wish to enter information in a required field, just type "Withheld" instead.

About the Human Biopreservation Institute

The Human Biopreservation Institute (HBI) is the proposed Cryonics Industry trade association. The Steering Committee includes:

:Dr. Robert R. Newport, M.D., Chairman

:Prof. David S. Stodolsky, PhD, Acting Secretary and Site Administrator

:Dennis T. Nut, Software Developer and Site Administrator

:Ronald G. Havelock, PhD, OD

:Eugene Leitl

:Danila Medvedev

:Michael Perry

:David Pizer

:Alexei Potapov

:Shannon Vyff

Please use this link to register.

Individuals Tending to Savagery

MEXICO CITY -- An anti-technology group calling itself "Individuals Tending to Savagery" was responsible for a package bomb that injured two university professors just outside Mexico City, a prosecutor said Tuesday.The explosion at the Monterrey Technological Institute's campus in the State of Mexico on the outskirts of the capital Monday injured two professors, one of whom was involved in robotics research. Neither suffered life-threatening injuries.

"The ITS is a movement that, in accordance with its ideals, opposes any development of neo- or nanotechnology anywhere in the world, and they are linked to attacks in several different countries of Europe, including Spain and France," Castillo said.

The Artificial Ape

Memes provably don't exist. Technological development is too complex to be explained by Darwinian like evolution.

Member Communications

Communications among members of human biopreservation organizations and others interested in life-extension technologies has been deficient for a large number of reasons. This page is made available as a supplementary communication channel for discussion of these issues.

I will attempt to respond to any questions or comments posted here in a timely manner. Off topic comments will be deleted.

Users should be aware that this is a publicly accessible page. Names of persons should not be used and names of organizations should be avoided, unless essential for understanding. Private communications should be transmitted by email, Skype, or instant messaging client.


Added April 18, 2011:

I have suggested the elimination of arbitrary censorship on a List. It is clear that my suggestion was not clearly understood. The first feedback I have received argues that the principle I wish to apply is that a committee should have decision authority over publication to that List. This misses both the idea of Rule of Law and the principle of Freedom of Speech.

There has been no opportunity for me to clear up these misunderstandings. Since I am not directly involved in the discussion among the Board Members, nor am I posting to the List in question.

My view is that arbitrary censorship has no role in a democratic organization. Members can email me for a copy of the censored message (Please examine my Candidate Statement on the Files page first.)


Added April 26, 2011:

The Moderator of the List in question has mischaracterized my objection as not wanting to be moderated. What I objected to was surreptitious censorship. The censorship not only deleted text, but also included replacing text without attribution. This is, perhaps, the worst form of mutilation of a text as defined under the Copyright Law. Mutilation of text is characterized as a violation of the author's Moral Rights under that Law. Moderation would have resulted in the message being returned as being inappropriate for the List in some way. These violations were concealed, since I was not informed that they had taken place.

THREE RECENT CRYONICS-RELATED NOVELS

There is a quote from the book, “Such as a whole society of people who become so wrapped up in avoiding death, they forgot to be alive?”

The author is not familiar with terror management theory, because it would then be obvious to her that this describes all current societies.

Another Patient Dies From Arizona’s Medicaid Cuts As Gov. Brewer Ignores Possible Solutions

“I refuse to believe that any person or state will spend $1.25 million to save 5 squirrels a year, but not 98 human beings. It can’t be true. That just doesn’t make any sense," Daglas told ThinkProgress.

Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science

MUCH OF WHAT MEDICAL RESEARCHERS CONCLUDE IN THEIR STUDIES IS MISLEADING, EXAGGERATED, OR FLAT-OUT WRONG. SO WHY ARE DOCTORS—TO A STRIKING EXTENT—STILL DRAWING UPON MISINFORMATION IN THEIR EVERYDAY PRACTICE? DR. JOHN IOANNIDIS HAS SPENT HIS CAREER CHALLENGING HIS PEERS BY EXPOSING THEIR BAD SCIENCE.

Patients to be frozen into state of suspended animation for surgery

The body is essentially in real life suspended animation with no pulse, no blood pressure, no electrical waves in the brain. We didn't find any evidence of functional impairment after the surgery.

Researchers engineer adult stem cells that do not age

Biomedical researchers at the University at Buffalo have engineered adult stem cells that scientists can grow continuously in culture, a discovery that could speed development of cost-effective treatments for diseases including heart disease, diabetes, immune disorders and neurodegenerative diseases.

How can we reduce the risk of human extinction?

The history of life on Earth is the history of extinction events, and human expansion into the Solar System is, in the end, fundamentally about the survival of the species.

The facts of an improving world jar with the doom-mongering

So why do we find it so difficult to celebrate these facts? Ridley points out that developed societies seem to live in constant fear of things coming to an end: what he calls ‘turning-point-itis’. From fears of nuclear armageddon, an epidemic of pesticide-induced cancers and global starvation in the Sixties and Seventies, to panics about pandemics and climate change today, the defining worldview is of things getting worse and worse with the root cause of the impending disaster being humanity itself. The collapse of the old left and the rise of the greens is built on the assumption that the world is going to hell. Indeed, there are distinct echoes of apocalyptic religion in environmentalist discourse today. The facts of an improving world jar with such a sense of doom, which helps to explain the vitriolic reaction to Lomborg and Ridley from many commentators.

Why biology should inform social policy

LEFT-LEANING politicians have traditionally blamed the structure of western society for the feckless and antisocial behaviour of its "underclass". Now biologists are chiming in.

Animals that live shorter, riskier lives tend to reproduce early, and that applies to humans living in tough circumstances, too. So teenaged mothers and wayward fathers may be an evolutionary response to deprivation, and many of the problem behaviours that plague western societies could be put down to a biological "die young, live fast" strategy.

The solution is to improve the health and wellbeing of the poorest in society and give all young people the prospect of a good job and a stake in their future. But that looks unlikely, given the economic downturn.

In recent years, though, we have gained considerable insights into the prerequisites for human fulfilment. Health and security may be top of the list, but we also thrive on community, fairness, bonding, altruism, playfulness and celebration. Hard-pressed politicians seeking inspiration would do well to look to these biological principles.

Television viewing time independently predicts all-cause and cardiovascular mortality

Television viewing (TV), a highly prevalent behaviour, is associated with higher cardiovascular risk independently of physical activity

How Wall Street Starved Millions and Got Away With It

The Food Bubble: How Wall Street Starved Millions and Got Away With It

While Goldman Sachs agreed to pay $550 million to resolve a civil fraud
lawsuit filed by the SEC, Goldman has not been held accountable for many
of its other questionable investment practices. A new article in
Harper’s Magazine examines the role Goldman played in the food crisis of
2008 when the ranks of the world’s hungry increased by 250 million.


See also:

Goldman Sachs Settles Civil Fraud Case for $550M—Less Than It Reportedly
Expected, and With No Admission of Criminal Wrongdoing

Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay $550 million to resolve a civil fraud
lawsuit over selling a mortgage investment that was established to fail.
While the SEC hailed the $550 million settlement as the largest in Wall
Street history, many outside analysts questioned why the government
didn’t demand more. Investors responded favorably as Goldman Sachs
shares jumped by five percent in late trading, adding far more to the
firm’s market value than the amount it will have to pay in the
settlement.

The Architecture of Immortality

To conquer aging and eventually death. We have long been fascinated by the possibility of immortality even as we accepted death as inevitable. However, recent scientific advances suggest that aging and death are genetically programmed and might, someday, be slowed or even eliminated. We are now entering an era in which the exponential growth of technology will soon create a world that we, at the beginning of the 21st century, will hardly recognize. Practical immortality may be a significant part of this world to which Timeship will take us. Created by architect Stephen Valentine, Timeship's six-acre structure will be a center for pioneering research to indefinitely extend the healthy human lifespan, as well as the world's most secure and technologically advanced facility for the storage of cryopreserved biological materials, including DNA, organs for transplant, and whole mammalian organisms.

Eat less, live longer?

Dreams of eternal youth feature in many cultures throughout history, but it was only in the 20th century that research into longevity really began. Much about ageing is still mysterious - we don't even know the underlying reasons why we journey into old age. There are many lines of enquiry into how to live longer, though, with one of the most intriguing being calorie restriction: in effect, going on a lifelong diet.

Pfizer's payments to censured doctors

THEY are billed as "healthcare professionals who spend years building expertise in their fields". Using materials grounded in science, they educate their peers in the risks and benefits of drugs.

This is how Pfizer, the pharmaceuticals giant, describes the experts it hires to lead forums in which doctors are lectured on the use of its products.

Yet New Scientist has found that some of Pfizer's experts have been disciplined for deficiencies in patient care, while others have been reprimanded for how they conducted drug research trials.

The shock of the old: Welcome to the elderly age

Of all the people in human history who ever reached the age of 65, half are alive now. Meanwhile, women around the world have half as many children as their mothers.

The longevity revolution affects every country, every community and almost every household. It promises to restructure the economy, reshape the family, redefine politics and even rearrange the geopolitical order over the coming century.

In most of Europe and much of east Asia, fertility is closer to one child per woman than two, way below long-term replacement levels. The notion that the populations of places such as Brazil and India will go on expanding looks misplaced: in fact, they could soon be contracting.

Tina Turner took to the stage in London, dancing in heels and a microskirt in her 70th year.

Millions of the middle-class retired continue working at everything from lucrative consultancies to teaching literacy or finally finishing that PhD. They are often more valuable than the young workers the demographers imagine are supporting them: in fact, the growing number of society's most qualified, most experienced individuals is potentially a huge demographic dividend.

This is sometimes called the Horndal effect, after a Swedish steel mill where productivity rose by 15 per cent as the workforce got older.

all the evidence is that "mass longevity facilitates affluence".

A Cyborg Space Race

Transhumanists believe that the development of such technology will lead one day to “Human version 2.0” – an upgrade of the human body that not only eliminates many of the problems that plague us, but improves upon the basic human design. For instance, some transhumanists envision a day when the human brain will be re-wired with computer chips, allowing us to think, learn and communicate with unprecedented speed and accuracy.