Immortality has always been a fabled dream to those who have not come to terms the mysteries surrounding the great unknown. Many have turned to religion to cover their fear, some have turned to the pseudoscience of Cryonics.
Cryonics is the process of flash freezing a dead body so that it may be repaired in the future and the body reanimated. The idea behind flash freezing is that even though neurons of a dead person lack the electric pulses that are used to communicate, they still have the ability to produce them if they can be repaired and jump started. The problem with this idea is the brain breaks down relatively quickly, so, in response to this natural fact, cryonic enthusiasts put forth the idea that one could freeze the brain to significantly slow down this process. The only problem with this idea is that we do not posses the technology to flash freeze a brain with out destroying the tissue and we do not know how to reanimate a brain.
The Cryonic process is relatively simple. First the subjects brain is injected with chemicals that help to prevent cell crystallization, second the subject is flash frozen using liquid nitrogen, third the body is stored while science advances enough to reanimate the dead body. Some theorize that nanobots could be used to repair and jump-start the brain, but we are years of from any form of supercomputer nanobots.
World wide, only 200 people have been frozen with the hope of being reanimated in the future, and only 3 of them have any chance of having the monetary resources to pay for their own reanimation, so, currently, Cryonics is a very ineffective way of casing immortality. Maybe we should turn our hopes and funds towards bio-computational engineering instead.
Your description is informative and honest, and I belive, though I am not positive, that you think Cryonics is an ineffective way of preserving life. However, you propose another method without explanation. Have you considered that maybe immortality isn't meant to be?
ReplyDeleteAnythings possible, and personally I would rather live forever than face the uncertainty of death.
Deletetl;dr I'm scared of death
I also wrote my response on the Cryonics, simply because I found this topic very interesting. I agree that most people seem to cover up their fear of death with religious faith or faith in the unknown. I don't see this as a human fault but instead a coping method. I agree with you that there are many faults associated with Cryonics, but I do think it is a field worth pursuing. How wonderful would it be to be able to in simpler terms "revive" famous "superhumans" such as Walt Disney and other influential people. I really enjoyed your writing.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy how you open this essay sounding like an 11th century alchemist, although you don't mention a philosopher's stone or some other item or power to "augment" one's capabilities. I agree that we should move away from Cryonics for the time being, however I believe scientists should focus on quantum computaional implementation rather than bio-computaional engineering. With quantum computation the creation of "nanobots" would be possible because the system could be applied to other subsystems on a subatomic scale even. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't bio computational engineering just a way to analyze methodical and theoretical systems in the bio-sciences? I can see how that could become important in the future, but now we should focus on the mathematical and physical systems in the quantum world, becuase I believe we could achieve so much more.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting account of the process and the current unlikelihood of this becoming a common thing. I would like to questions again, as Rayna said, is this morally/ethically right? Do we want reanimated corpses walking around? Would be essentially be this same or would we have a bunch of zombies walking around?
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