Cryonics
Cryonics (from Greek: κρύος kryos, meaning "cold") is the low-temperature freezing (usually at −196 °C or −320.8 °F or 77.1 K) and storage of human remains in the hope that resurrection may be possible in the future.
[14] Cryonicists argue that as long as brain structure remains intact, there is no fundamental barrier, given our current understanding of physics, to recovering its information content.
Cryonicists controversially say that a human can survive even within an inactive, badly damaged brain, as long as the original encoding of memory and personality can be adequately inferred and reconstituted from what remains.
[2][28] A more recent development is Tomorrow Biostasis GmbH, a Berlin-based firm offering cryonics and standby and transportation services in Europe.
Founded in 2019 by Emil Kendziorra and Fernando Azevedo Pinheiro, it partners with the European Biostasis Foundation in Switzerland for long-term corpse storage.
[29][30] It seems extremely unlikely that any cryonics company could exist long enough to take advantage of the supposed benefits offered; historically, even the most robust corporations have only a one-in-a-thousand chance of lasting 100 years.
[36] Some cryonics organizations use vitrification without a chemical fixation step,[37] sacrificing some structural preservation quality for less damage at the molecular level.
Based on experience with organ transplants, biochemist Ken Storey argues that "even if you only wanted to preserve the brain, it has dozens of different areas which would need to be cryopreserved using different protocols".
[39] Revival would require repairing damage from lack of oxygen, cryoprotectant toxicity, thermal stress (fracturing), and freezing in tissues that do not successfully vitrify, followed by reversing the cause of death.
[27] In 2016, the English High Court ruled in favor of a mother's right to seek cryopreservation of her terminally ill 14-year-old daughter, as the girl wanted, contrary to the father's wishes.
[49][dubious – discuss] In 2016, Charles Tandy wrote in support of cryonics, arguing that honoring someone's last wishes is seen as a benevolent duty in American and many other cultures.
Alcor's Mike Darwin says Bedford's body was cryopreserved around two hours after his death by cardiorespiratory arrest (secondary to metastasized kidney cancer) on January 12, 1967.
[53] This lowered the reputation of cryonics in the U.S.[27] In 2018, a Y-Combinator startup called Nectome was recognized for developing a method of preserving brains with chemicals rather than by freezing.
Yevgeny Alexandrov, chair of the Russian Academy of Sciences commission against pseudoscience, said there was "no scientific basis" for cryonics, and that the company was based on "unfounded speculation".
[61] Scientists have expressed skepticism about cryonics in media sources,[27] and the Norwegian philosopher Ole Martin Moen has written that the topic receives a "minuscule" amount of attention in academia.
[12] While some neuroscientists contend that all the subtleties of a human mind are contained in its anatomical structure,[62] few will comment directly on cryonics due to its speculative nature.
[9] Neurobiologist Michael Hendricks has said, "Reanimation or simulation is an abjectly false hope that is beyond the promise of technology and is certainly impossible with the frozen, dead tissue offered by the 'cryonics' industry".
[64] William T. Jarvis has written, "Cryonics might be a suitable subject for scientific research, but marketing an unproven method to the public is quackery".
James Hughes, the executive director of the pro-life-extension Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, has not personally signed up for cryonics, calling it a worthy experiment but saying, "I value my relationship with my wife.
"[56] Cryobiologist Dayong Gao has said, "People can always have hope that things will change in the future, but there is no scientific foundation supporting cryonics at this time.
[65] The town of Nederland, Colorado, hosts an annual Frozen Dead Guy Days festival to commemorate a substandard attempt at cryopreservation.
The urban legend that Walt Disney's remains were cryopreserved is false; it was cremated and interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.
