Meet the Cryonics Company Preserving Bitcoin Legend Hal Finney’s Body
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When computer scientist and Bitcoin pioneer Hal Finney died in 2014 from complications from ALS, his body was cryopreserved by the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Alcor Life Extension Foundation. For many in the life extension and transhumanist community, the idea of cryopreserving one’s body offers the hope of a kind of immortality, with the possibility of being revived in the future when a cure for their cause of death is found. Also known as cryo-freezing, the service has several practical applications, including preserving whole bodies, body parts, organs, and cells—as well as studying future resurrection. “We’re seeing what was a science fiction application of preserving people at the time of death or for long-distance space travel,” Alcor President and CEO James Arrowood told Decrypt. “We’re seeing that it has a number of other applications to medicine, for instance, and all kinds of science.” Arrowood noted that Finney is one of the persons believed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, and said losing his brain would be be unfair to humanity. “I think just on the cosmic sense, how unfair it all is to lose somebody like that and their brain,” he said. Founded in 1972 by Fred and Linda Chamberlain, The Alcor Life Extension Foundation is a nonprofit organization that researches and develops cryonics technology. Cryonics refers to the practice of preserving individuals at extremely low temperatures after death, with the hope that future technology can revive them and cure their ailments. The concept of cryonics is attributed to American physicist and U.S. Army officer Robert Ettinger, also known as the “father of cryonics.” Ettinger is the author of “The Prospect of Immortality,” “Man into Superman,” and “Youniverse.” “Alcor started out as a crazy idea, a moonshot, or what we call an aspirational technology,” Arrowood said. “It’s finally—with some complimentary…
Filed under: News - @ August 10, 2024 9:04 pm