We are a young nonprofit, doing our little part on a big task: incentivizing the development of technologies and procedures that verifiably preserve the features of the human brain that neuroscientists currently consider critical to our long-term memories and identity, and working to make those technologies and procedures both affordable and available to scientists and to the general public earlier than would otherwise occur.

We do this in the hope that humanity may gain not only much greater understanding of the human brain, and the ability to build better and more biologically-inspired computers, but also to develop a reliable alternative, for our memories and identities, to biological death. Death is a great source of existential suffering for humanity. Perhaps even the greatest source. Roughly 57 million precious human beings die every year, 155,000 every day, numbers that are expected to rise until 2040. Even when we ignore the suffering and grief for individuals and families, we know this is a monumental loss of mental and cultural insight and experience for our species.

Fortunately, this loss is a problem, yet unrecognized by many, that now seems on the verge of solution. There have never been more people alive on Earth who might benefit from having the option of a regulated, medically-performed brain preservation procedure, available in hospitals around the world, for all who might want the freedom to choose that option, or not, at death. Our science and technology have never been closer to a developing a high-fidelity brain preservation technology that is validated to preserve all the molecular features of memories and identity in human brains, to high-resolution scanning of the 3D structure, connectivity, and molecular detail of small animal brains, and perhaps soon, to the emulation of memories in those brains with ever-increasing fidelity in computers. After 10,000 years of civilization, we can now see a path ahead to defeating individual death, for that growing fraction of human beings who might desire to live on, and to reunite with their loved ones in a more technically advanced–and hopefully wiser–future world.

In our view, death itself will never die–think of the useful death of outdated views and ideas that continually occurs in healthy minds. But the nature of death, and of renewal, will change in the years ahead. If science allows it, humanity will make death and renewal into processes that happen continually, in small increments, across our individual lives, without the great loss of memory, experience, and consciousness that currently occurs at the end of each human life today. Some species (hydra, planaria, starfish) have astonishing rejuvenation ability. We will eventually get this for ourselves, if science allows it. Brain preservation, in our view, is just one of many useful technologies we will increasingly develop to improve the nature of death, and of the grieving process that presently occurs with each human death.

Let’s find out if an affordable and verifiable brain preservation option exists, and if it does, work hard to make it available to all who might wish to choose it in coming years, irrespective of their means.

There are many ways you can help. Our current volunteer categories are:

1. Scientific Website Research, Support, and Writing

2. Practitioner Identification, Outreach & Support

     Interested in helping with any of these? Contact Ken Hayworth

3. Advisor Identification, Outreach & Support

4. Fundraising – Major Gifts

5. Fundraising – General Giving

6. General Website Research, Support, and Writing

     Interested in helping with any of these? Contact John Smart

7. Multimedia Development & Design (Pictures, Video, Audio)

     Interested in helping here? Contact Jake DiMare

8. Community Management – Blog

9. Community Management – Forum

10. Press & Public Relations

     Interested in helping with any of these? Contact Oge Nnadi

11. Legal Issues (Prize contracts, legal research)

    Interested in helping here? Contact Alan S. Ziegler