Scenario: Bruce J Klein



Interview with Bruce J. Klein

by Jonathan Despres. Go to the Interviews.

Tell us about yourself and your projects?

Currently, I chair the Immortality Institute, a non-profit educational organization with the mission to overcome involuntary death. Also, I'm co-founder of a software company located in Bethesda, MD.

My current project is to complete a science documentary called, Exploring Life Extension, which has its first screening at the Immortality Institute’s Nov 5 Life Extension Conference in Atlanta.

More information about me here: http://www.imminst.org/bjklein

What are your goals for the next decade?

I believe I can leverage my efforts most effectively by mobilizing society into a death-free future by highlighting the concept of oblivion after death. More concretely, within the next few years, I plan to create another science documentary, similar to Exploring Life Extension, that aims to reach a larger audience with greater production value and marketing.

When do you think will we achieve real life extension?

With concerted effort, fueled more by the realization that death equals oblivion, there's a good chance that we'll have technologies capable of reversing the effect of biological aging in humans by 2030.

When will cryonics succeed?

Incrementally, cryonics has continued to improve since the first patient, Dr. James Bedford, was suspended in 1967. I think we're now at a point where, under ideal circumstances, an adequate percentage of a persons brain information is preserved so that identity and continuity are maintained. Storage can go on for as long as necessary, until technology is developed to bring about successful reanimation.

Which path should we take for immortalism, nanomedicine or biogerontology or something else?

Both.. in fact, with more than 100,000 people dying each day from the effect of aging, all avenues should be encouraged to overcome the problem of involuntary death.

What first attracted you to the idea of physical immortality?

Since I was young, I've always felt discontent with answers given about what happens after death. As there looks to be no evidence of an afterlife, my focus is to remain alive forever in order to overcome obliteration, and, in the process, save as many lives as possible.

What can a company can do to support life extension?

Individuals and organization can help advance life extension by donating money to the Methuselah Foundations M-Prize http://www.mprize.org and by joining non-profit membership organizations like the Immortality Institute http://www.imminst.org/join