Extropians had a lot of ties (and significant crossover) with the people driving the idea of molecular nanotechnology around this time. I think Ralph Merkle and Robert Freitas, both pioneers in nanotech, were advisors for the Alcor cryonics organization, which is referred to in the article.

These days, it’s a little sad to look at where those dreams went. Around the time this article was written, people thought they were making significant headway into making molecular nanotechnology a thing. And brain preservation is even more niche than it was then.

A few years ago, I got really interested in nanotech and took a bunch of notes about what happened to the field and where it is now. I should write a post about that sometime...