Peter Houghton died on December 2, 2007, at the age of 68.
Peter was a strong supporter of the British Labour Party, the World Transhumanist Association, and the IEET. He lived well past the projected life expectancy that had been predicted for him after he received his heart assist device, and worked tirelessly on behalf of Britons with heart disease and those needing artificial organs, through the Heart Failure Foundation and Extra Life Foundation.
From the BBC website: The first man in the world to be fitted with a permanent artificial heart has died at the age of 68. Peter Houghton, from Edgbaston, Birmingham, was fitted with the artificial pump in June 2000. Before the operation he had been given only weeks to live as his own heart was working at 10% of normal capacity. The revolutionary pump which was given to Mr Houghton, the Jarvik 2000, used a turbine to increase the power of each heartbeat. He called the last seven years his ‘extra time’ and really made the most of it by showing people what a difference it had made to him and what the treatment could do for others.
I extracted the pictures above, where Peter is smiling, from a video that I took on April 16-18 2004 in Oxford, where Peter had organized and funded a very productive weekend of brainstorming of the Board of Directors of the World Transhumanist Association. I have now placed the video on blip.tv, where it can be watched online in streaming mode and also downloaded in the original format. Peter had to leave a few times during the meeting to go back to his room to “recharge his heart”!. I have never met Peter again in person after 2004, but we exchanged frequent emails.
Peter was a transhumanist who believed that with science and technology we can achieve extra time, extra life, extra health, and extra hope, and supported the development of new, advanced technologies to achieve even more extras. He was also a socially and politically engaged citizen, and a profoundly religious person. Searching in my email archives for the last message from Peter, I have found this text: ““As we partake of the body and blood the lamb of God a sense of the pesence of God somehow comes to us. We become one with the infinite. What that does or means I am not sure, but something changes most times”.
Holy Sausages (one of Peter’s favorite expressions) Peter, you have been a complex, unusual and wonderful person. We will miss you.
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