Alcor, the cryonics non-profit, isn’t dead or dying, but it’s seen livelier days. Like McDonald’s, it’s seeing surprising market resistance. Immortality by this method is still viewed by most as dubious or creepy or a luxury item, though even the 1% haven’t really embraced the deep freeze. Dr. Max More, the outfit’s CEO, spoke to Daniel Oberhaus of Vice about trying to overcome psychological, financial and technological barriers. The opening:

Question:

So, how’s Alcor doing?

Max More:

It’s growing, but much too slowly. I think it’s just baffling that we’re not massively larger because we’ve been around for 42 years. We’ve had periods of higher growth, so in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s we had a growth rate of 25-30 percent. It’s just dropped after that and gotten into the low single figures. We actually stopped growing a year or two ago and I think it’s because the dues were raised too high and the economy was doing badly. The [Alcor] board wanted to reduce dependence on donations by having higher membership dues, but they went too far. We’ve brought them down since then, we’ve made two reductions and now there are student discounts and discounts for long time members.

Question:

How much does it cost to get frozen indefinitely? 

Max More:

There are the main membership dues which are $530 per year and $180 per year on top of that for the Comprehensive Member Standby plan, which basically means that’s money that you pay into this fund and in turn we guarantee that wherever you are, we’ll be there. We just introduced a new policy which says if you provide $20,000 in addition to the $80,000 or $200,000 [that it takes to cryopreserve your head and body, respectively], then we’ll waive the CMS fee. This really helps younger members because an extra $20,000 in life insurance is really very little for them, whereas $180 per year actually feels a lot worse.

I gave a talk a few years ago called ‘Join the .00004%’ (because that’s how small we are) and that’s ludicrous to me. There are plenty of crazy ideas out there with much less backing that get much more support, and we have actual evidence for what we’re doing! We’ve been around for almost 43 years and only have 1008 members—that’s not very many. So why is that? Obviously, there is some expense to it, but I don’t think that’s the main thing.

Question:

What’s the main hurdle?

Max More:

There are major cultural and psychological barriers that have to be overcome and I think eventually they will be.•