X-Message-Number: 31981
From: Mark Plus <>
Subject: Another article about "Timeship" book
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2009 07:31:51 -0700



http://www.hamptons.com/Out-And-About/Within-The-City/8979/Holocaust-Museum-Design-Architect-Stephen.html

Updated: September 17, 2009, 9:16 am


Holocaust Museum Design Team Architect Stephen Valentine Releases New Book 
"Timeship: The Architecture of Immortality" Explains His Plans For The Fort Knox
Of Cryogenics

By Douglas Harrington


New York City - We all imagine a future that we believe we will never see come 
to fruition. Perhaps we envision peace everywhere on earth, passenger travel to 
other galaxies, a vaccine that prevents all cancer. We envision such things, but
we do not believe we will live long enough to see them actually happen. Well, 
as that certainly may be true today, a new book proposes that we may indeed one 
day in the future "re-live" to see them happen.


Architect Stephen Valentine has written a book that not only speaks to the 
science of cryogenics, life extension and nanotechnology, but has presented the 
detailed architectural plan for the structure that will facilitate that science 
and store our bodies until the future we imagine comes to pass.


The book is called "Timeship: The Architecture of Immortality"(Image Publishing 
Group). Following an August Hamptons pre-launch at the Pink Elephant in 
Southampton, Hamptons.com attended the book launch and signing at Rizzoli 
Bookstore and the after-party on Sept. 9 in Manhattan. Hmmm, 09-09-09 - 
interesting!


On the second floor of the seminal NYC book shop, a packed audience made up of a
significant number of architects, scientists, professors and students listened 
to Valentine first defend the science of cryogenics and then explain the project
he was commissioned to develop by Life Extension Foundation founder Saul Kent 
and Bill Fallon in 1997. After being introduced by Thomas F. Schutte, the 
president of his alma mater Pratt Institute, Valentine quoted his client Kent 
from a 2004 New Yorker article in saying, "Timeship is part of a comprehensive 
plan to conquer aging and death."


Admitting that the project is based on future technologies that Valentine 
conceded could be viewed as a "utopia or 'udopeia' and just a mad, impossible 
dream." He went on to say, "Let's take the year 1900 - since that decade whom 
among us could have imagined then that so many human advancements and scientific
achievements could have been realized over such a brief period of time? It can 
be summarized in just a few words; we went from the man in the moon to men on 
the moon."


Valentine went on to note that a seminal moment in science occurred in the year 
2000 with the mapping of the human gene pool and the advancements in longevity 
that are direct results of that discovery. "Now prominent scientists are 
predicting that by the end of the 21st century, it will be remembered as the 
century of immortality. That those children born today will most likely pass 
their hundreds and their children may never die as death is defined today."


A definition of death offered by Valentine included the destruction of the 
brain, organs, intelligence and memories. His contention is that the 
preservation of such aspects of human anatomy and behavioral cognition can and 
will be successfully achieved at 'Timeship' for regeneration at a time when 
science has conquered the debilitating causes of aging and disease and solved 
the riddle of immortality. Valentine then jokingly noted, "In other words, the 
last thing you want to do is get cremated."


Although some may view this science as fantasy, Valentine noted that over 
250,000 cases of human birth have occurred from frozen sperm that have been 
implanted in embryos and brought to term in the form of humans who have come to 
be known as Snowflake Children. In experimentation on animals, whole organs have
been removed, cryogenically frozen and transplanted with full function. 
Recently, a human brain was preserved and then warmed, exhibiting no 
deterioration to the cell structure and potential functionality. Along with its 
role as a cryogenic storehouse for up to 10,000 human bodies, 'Timeship' will 
serve as a life extension, stem cell/DNA and cloning research facility and a 
donor bank for preserved human organs, tissues and endangered species.


The moral questions regarding life extension and immortally abound, but as 
Valentine noted, "When Christian Barnard successfully performed the first human 
heart transplant in 1967 it was decried as an abomination to God, nature and 
morality. Since then an average of 2,000 heart transplants are performed each 
year." He also suggested to the bookstore audience, "The question you may want 
to ask is, 'Do you design the future or does the future design you?'" Quoting 
the man considered by many to be the father of cryonics, Robert Ettinger, 
Valentine stated, "Being born isn't a crime and it doesn't deserve the penalty 
of death."


Although not a trained expert in the area of life preservation, Valentine is 
clearly well versed in the subject and its history. That being said, in an 
attempt to not over-arch his expertise he has included essays in the forward of 
his book by three renowned experts that includes Dr. Michael D. West, a founder 
of the field of regenerative medicine and stem cell research who played a 
pioneering role in the collaborative effort that led to the first isolation of 
human embryonic stem cells, Robert A. Freitas, Jr., author of "Nanomedicine" the
first book-length technical discussion of medical nanotechnology, and Arthur 
Caplan, PhD., one of the most prominent bio-ethicists in the U.S., who serves as
the Chair of the School of Medical Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania.


Admittedly not a scientist, Valentine is, however, an architect of considerable 
note. Among the many projects since his graduation from Pratt in 1977, he has 
been on the architectural teams that designed the Jacob Javitts Center in NYC 
and the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, when he worked as senior design 
architect for James Ingo Freed at Pei, Cobb, Freed and Partners.


I asked Valentine to comment on the challenge and responsibly of designing a 
building of such profound importance as the Holocaust Museum, "There was no 
question about the seriousness and importance of that building. One had to take 
every issue at a profound level because basically what we where going to do was 
interpret the entire horror of humanity and incorporate it into that building. 
It was architecture at its very best by sending a message to the world. That is 
what the building does, it speaks to the world."


Valentine took exception to my comment that the Holocaust Museum and 'Timeship' 
represent opposing challenges in design, as one was historic and the other 
futuristic, "In actuality I took references from the past and created a building
that is absolutely timeless. I tried to link history from the beginning of time
that overlaps cultures and religion without picking any one belief system. I 
tried to do that without compromising on the architecture, the engineering or 
the science. It is totally integrated."


That integration of design and science is stunningly illustrated in Valentine's 
book, whose breathtaking images were flashed on huge screens throughout the 
after party at the appropriately named Manhattan venue, Providence, where the 
party was held. Eloquently described in Valentine's writing, aided and edited by
Pratt professor John Lobell, 'Timeship' represents a departure from any 
architectural style and design that came before it, yet incorporates an 
iconology in design concept that symbolically represents humanity since the dawn
of time. All achieved while at the same time fulfilling the criteria of 
creating a massive structure that must sustain state-of-the-art scientific 
technology and be impervious to natural disasters and human sabotage. Coined the
Fort Knox of cryogenics, the six acre 'Timeship' structure is designed to last 
at least 100 years and, after almost a decade of site searching, will be built 
in the lower 48 states. The actual 100 acre location will be revealed in the 
coming months.


The question of immortality is one steeped in moral, social and political 
controversy - 20 years ago it was the dream of a few - it is now the hope of 
many and in another 20 years may manifest into a movement of monumental 
proportions. It will undoubtedly be a battle of opinions expressed by our 
greatest scientific, religious and political minds on both sides of the 
argument. A singular point that must be specifically addressed is who will have 
immortality, those that can afford it or those that deserve it? Presently, the 
cost of cryogenic preservation is $120,000 and there are 200 people 
cryogenically preserved with approximately 1,000 others waiting in the wings.


Very real, privileged class fears aside, 'Timeship' is an architectural reality 
that is about to begin construction, as perhaps it should be, for its 
realization is both an intellectual and scientific inevitable next step in human
evolution. The question is not will it happen, but will we be prepared when it 
happens? Knowledge is power and on this subject there is powerful knowledge 
derived from a reading of Stephen Valentine's brilliant, beautiful and 
controversial book, "Timeship: The Architecture of Immortality."

For more information go to: www.timeship.org. 

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