Nice post on the idea of freezing yourself ala Walt Disney and possibly Ted Williams.
What does it stand for Alcor believes nanotechnology will advance to a point at which repair at a cellular level will become possible. Life expectancy will then jump to hundreds if not thousands of years. The primary cause of death in the future will be accidents that destroy the brain structure. The difficulty Alcor sees is most of us will be dead long before this becomes possible. Their premise is to just "bite the bullet" now and use the best techniques we have at hand in an attempt to bridge the gap.
Some experiments have shown excellent long term tissue preservation in LN2; in one experiment a dog was taken down to freezing and brought back. It lived out a normal doggy life afterwards. Many in the cryogenics field have a political dislike for the whole concept so few have actually been doing the experiments. None expect it to be easy; none give the current techniques any more than an outside chance of working. Alcor people will tell you that up front. It's in their paperwork and disclaimers.
Why would someone have themselves frozen???? "All things considered, I'd rather be in Philadelphia". If you are cremated, you ain't comin' back. If you're buried to rot, you ain't comin' back. If you're cut up for medicine, you ain't comin' back. If you are frozen in liquid nitrogen for a century or two... well you might not be coming back. But... If you love life why not take a shot? You can't take the money with you anyway; Alcor isn't a big profit corporation, it's a member run organization and all funds go to the purpose.
What does it stand for Alcor believes nanotechnology will advance to a point at which repair at a cellular level will become possible. Life expectancy will then jump to hundreds if not thousands of years. The primary cause of death in the future will be accidents that destroy the brain structure. The difficulty Alcor sees is most of us will be dead long before this becomes possible. Their premise is to just "bite the bullet" now and use the best techniques we have at hand in an attempt to bridge the gap.
Some experiments have shown excellent long term tissue preservation in LN2; in one experiment a dog was taken down to freezing and brought back. It lived out a normal doggy life afterwards. Many in the cryogenics field have a political dislike for the whole concept so few have actually been doing the experiments. None expect it to be easy; none give the current techniques any more than an outside chance of working. Alcor people will tell you that up front. It's in their paperwork and disclaimers.
Why would someone have themselves frozen???? "All things considered, I'd rather be in Philadelphia". If you are cremated, you ain't comin' back. If you're buried to rot, you ain't comin' back. If you're cut up for medicine, you ain't comin' back. If you are frozen in liquid nitrogen for a century or two... well you might not be coming back. But... If you love life why not take a shot? You can't take the money with you anyway; Alcor isn't a big profit corporation, it's a member run organization and all funds go to the purpose.
posted by Champion at 11:32 PM
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