How did the cryonics movement begin ?
In 1962 Ev Cooper privately published a book entitled IMMORTALITY: PHYSICALLY, SCIENTIFICALLY, NOW, which outlined the cryonics idea. In the same year a college physics teacher named Robert Ettinger privately published the book THE PROSPECT OF IMMORTALITY. Two years later Cooper established the Life Extension Society and actively sought to make cryonics a practical reality. That same year (1964) Isaac Asimov certified to Doubleday that Ettinger’s book had scientific merit and Frederick Pohl recommended that Doubleday accept the book for public publication. It was Ettinger’s book which was the main treatise of cryonics for many years thereafter. Cooper became cynical about cryonics toward the late 1960s and was later lost at sea in his sailboat. But Robert Ettinger founded the Cryonics Institute in 1976 and remained President of the organization until 2003. For more on the history of cryonics, see my essay A Short History of Cryonics.
In 1962 Ev Cooper privately published a book entitled IMMORTALITY: PHYSICALLY, SCIENTIFICALLY, NOW, which outlined the cryonics idea. In the same year a college physics teacher named Robert Ettinger privately published the book THE PROSPECT OF IMMORTALITY. Two years later Cooper established the Life Extension Society and actively sought to make cryonics a practical reality. That same year (1964) Isaac Asimov certified to Doubleday that Ettinger’s book had scientific merit and Frederick Pohl recommended that Doubleday accept the book for public publication. It was Ettinger’s book which was the main treatise of cryonics for many years thereafter. Cooper became cynical about cryonics toward the late 1960s and was later lost at sea in his sailboat. But Robert Ettinger co-founded the Cryonics Institute in 1976 and remained President of the organization until 2003. For more on the history of cryonics, see my essay A History of Cryonics.
