---
born: 1964
category: AI & Effective Altruism
created: 2026-06-19
location: Scottsdale, Arizona
summary: Max More is a British-born philosopher who coined the term extropy, founded
  the Extropy Institute and the libertarian-transhumanist movement of the 1990s, and
  later ran the Alcor cryonics foundation.
tags:
- Person
- MaxMore
- Extropianism
- Transhumanism
- Cryonics
- Libertarianism
updated: 2026-06-19
---

Max More (born Max O'Connor in 1964 in Bristol, England) is a philosopher and futurist who founded [Extropianism](/concepts/extropianism/), the libertarian strand of [transhumanism](/concepts/transhumanism/) that shaped the technological optimism of Silicon Valley's elite. He coined the term "extropy" in 1988, founded the Extropy Institute, and through its 1990s mailing list helped assemble the subculture from which [Nick Bostrom](/people/nick-bostrom/)'s longtermism, the [Rationalist Community](/concepts/rationalist-community/), and parts of the cryptocurrency world emerged. He later ran the cryonics organization Alcor Life Extension Foundation.[^1][^2]

### The Extropian Project

More changed his surname from O'Connor to More to signify his commitment to perpetual self-improvement. He read philosophy, politics, and economics at St Anne's College, Oxford, graduating in 1987, then moved to the United States and completed a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Southern California in 1995, with a dissertation examining the nature of death and personal identity through change. With the lawyer Tom W. Bell he launched *Extropy* magazine in 1988 and the Extropy Institute in the early 1990s. He authored the movement's founding documents, including the "Principles of Extropy" and the "Proactionary Principle," a pro-technology rule of conduct framed against the precautionary principle, and his 1999 "Letter to Mother Nature" declared an intention to redesign the human organism. His program fused radical life extension, mind uploading, artificial intelligence, and anarcho-capitalist politics into a single futurist creed.[^1][^3]

Through the Extropy Institute's 1990s mailing list More convened the network of nanotechnology theorists, cryptographers, and AI researchers from which the later transhumanist and AI-risk institutions drew, and he hosted the EXTRO conference series from 1994 to 1999. His "Principles of Extropy," revised across several versions, set out the tenets of perpetual progress, self-transformation, practical optimism, intelligent technology, open society, self-direction, and rational thinking, defining "extropy" itself as the extent of a system's intelligence, functional order, vitality, and capacity for improvement. He married the transhumanist artist and theorist Natasha Vita-More in 1996, and the two became the movement's most visible couple.[^2][^3]

### Cryonics and Later Career

More became chief executive of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, the Scottsdale, Arizona cryonics company that preserves human bodies and brains at low temperature in the expectation of future revival, effective January 1, 2011, and held the post until 2020. His advocacy for cryonics and life extension prefigured the longevity and anti-aging interests later funded across the [Peter Thiel](/people/peter-thiel/) network.[^2][^4]

Under More, Alcor's roster of cryopreserved "patients" grew to include the futurist FM-2030, the science-fiction figure who had inspired parts of the transhumanist movement, and the Bitcoin pioneer [Hal Finney](/people/hal-finney/), who died of ALS in 2014 and was preserved at the facility shortly after his death. Alcor charged on the order of 200,000 dollars for whole-body preservation and 80,000 dollars for neuropreservation of the head alone, funded through life-insurance policies taken out by members, and held roughly 150 patients in cryostasis by the time More stepped down. After leaving the chief-executive role he continued as an ambassador and advisor for the organization.[^4]

[^1]: "Transhumanism," *Encyclopædia Britannica,* on Max More, the coining of "extropy," and the Extropy Institute. https://www.britannica.com/topic/transhumanism
[^2]: Evans, Jules. "How did transhumanism become the religion of the super-rich?" on Max More, the extropians, and the movement's reach into Silicon Valley. https://julesevans.medium.com/how-did-transhumanism-become-the-religion-of-the-super-rich-d670a410b01a
[^3]: More, Max. "The Principles of Extropy," "The Proactionary Principle," and "A Letter to Mother Nature," Extropy Institute, 1990 to 1999; and "About," maxmore.com, on the 1987 Oxford PPE degree from St Anne's College, the 1995 USC philosophy doctorate, and the 1996 marriage to Natasha Vita-More. https://www.maxmore.com/about/
[^4]: "Alcor Life Extension Foundation Names Max More, PhD, as Chief Executive Officer," Alcor, on the January 1, 2011 appointment; and "200 Frozen Heads and Bodies Await Revival at This Arizona Cryonics Facility," *Smithsonian,* on the patient roster (including FM-2030 and Hal Finney), the roughly 200,000 dollar whole-body and 80,000 dollar neuropreservation fees, and the patient count. https://www.alcor.org/resources/blog/alcor-life-extension-foundation-names-max-more-phd-as-chief-executive-officer/