X-Message-Number: 4701 Date: Wed, 2 Aug 1995 12:01:47 +0200 (MET DST) From: Eugen Leitl <> Subject: kraut cryonics A sample of fairly recent German cryonics media coverage. Source: "Focus" 6/1995, pp 154-156. ("Spiegel" rival, commonly considered a tabloid version of Spiegel.). Jonas Hansen interviews Klaus Reinhard, the single known German cryonist. (I apologize for poor translation quality: it was done in a hurry). modern life - interview The Man in The Ice. To achieve immortality, a certified computer scientist wants to be posthumously frozen. focus: Mr. Reinhard, for yourself you want to fulfill the ancient humankind's dream, the immortality. Do you like living that much or do you merely have a panical fear of death? Reinhard: Both. I like living, hence the fear of death. I do not believe in an almighty God to resurrect us, nor in reincarnation. Death is the absolute end. Hence I want to evade death. focus: By means of cryonics, deep freeze conservation of freshly deceased body. How is it supposed to work? Reinhard: Together with my ID I carry an emergency declaration, my wish being "my body to be frozen as soon as possible". Under cooling, a Kiel morticiary will trasport me to the US, where the company Alcor will freeze and store me in liquid nitrogen at -196 degree Celsius. I have chosen the cheaper option, where my head will be separated from body between fifth and sixth vertebra and stored. I donate my body to research. focus: When do you intend to be defrosted? Reinhard: US scientists are very optimistic. They estimate that medicine will have conquered sicknesses, age and death even in hundred years. Unrestricted life time will be common, then. focus: How will your defrosted head aquire a new, intact body? Reinhard: Even now lizards can regenerate whole parts of their bodies if they lose them. Medicine researches in this direction to make it available for man. With such future techniques not only damage stemming from sicknesses, age and freezing can be repaired. We will be able to regrow the whole body, when only the brain is left over. A method similiar to cloning. focus: Assuming, you really emerge from your cryocoffin sometime. Which life expectation do you have as a resurrected cryonist? Reinhard: The boundary will be singly the life expectancy of the universe. Which is estimated as 100 billion more years. But it could also be infinite. Humans will be not only entirely liberated from disease but will stop the aging process through perpetual molecular rejuvenation. Human life expectation would be limitless. focus: Which speaks against all natural processes. Reinhard: But no. Nature is immortal as well. The single creature being mortal is but a transient phase in the evolutionary process. The first life forms were immortal single cell organisms - they exist even now. In the course of evolution the fact emerged is that multicellular organisms do not evolve individually but via their offspring. Hence death is absolutely unnecessary. focus: What is the purpose of being immortal? Reinhard: Death ends any development at will. A brutal priniciple of random selection. Actually, human civilization has long superseded natural evolution. The survival of the fittest principle is not valid anymore. Even now, humans, unfit to live in free environment, can survive and reproduce thanks to modern medicine focus: E.g. diabetics like you? Reinhard: Correct. I too live only due to technical progress. focus: Will this be different in a future world of immortals? Reinhard: Sure. Almost anything we wish for today will be achieved. Not only all health problems will be canceled - we will have almost unlimited means at our disposal due to the utilization of material and energy resources of space. focus: If death is abolished, we will be facing overpopulation... Reinhard: In no way. Unlimited room is available in space. Technological progress can create new habitats there. focus: Will there be something like family life in the immortality? Reinhard: Family plays such a central role only in our death-oriented society. I am not sure whether this will be that important in the future. But there might be humans married for some billion years. focus: Immortals prefer to live alone? Reinhard: Yes, even because such people tend to do unconventional things. focus: Is this the reason you are a single? Reinhard: Well, my problem is naturally to find the right partner. focus: In US, currently 40 persons are kept in the eternal nitrogen-ice. Only about 500 persons are admitted cryonists world wide. In our country there are only two future customers of the American freeze service provider. Why are cryonists such a tiny minority? Reinhard: Cryonics runs contrariwise to all our traditions. Hence, a certain valor is necessary to do it. Cryonics is taking a chance without risking anything. One remains dead, in the worst case. Interview: Jonas Hansen Pictures (all colour): 1) 1/8 page picture: Klaus Reinhard facing the observer, daylight-backlit glass block wall in background. Text: The Admitted Cryonist. Klaus Reinhard, resident of Kiel, 35, software developer for a large bank and an admitted cryonist (greek kryos: cold). In case of his demise Reinhard has signed a "Neuro-Preservation" contract with the US corporation Alcor. 2) 1/8 page picture: A person in white lab coat, pushing a rollable LN2 dewar concealed by condensation fumes. A big container with the number 4369 sprayed in red paint in the background. Label: Info about the Ice-Man "Klaus Reinhard, who has contracted a severe case of diabetes, is familiar since long with the freeze method, practiced in the US since 1965. 1987 he published his book "Wie der Mensch den Tod besiegt- Technische Verfahren zur Unsterblichkeit" ("How man conquers death - technical procedures towards immortality"). Reinhard pays $324 annually during his life time. After that his life insurance pays $35000 to the company Alcor, for the Last-Help-Team to separate Reinhard's head from body, to be submersed in the ice of Alcor head quarter in Phoenix/Arizona. Klaus Reinhard's only German brother in faith is a middle-aged German army officer officer. He wished to remain anonymous." 3) 1/8 page picture: a 7-person Alcor emergency team treating a patient. Insert: Alcor BigFoot dewar with Phoenix signet. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=4701