Cryonics, anybody interested?

[Darzin]

So I had long thought of cryonics as a total pseudoscience mainly because when water freezes it expands and breaks cells irreparably and the idea of paying a fair bit of money for dubious future services does seem rather like a scam. However, I recently read this  article on wait but why which really got me thinking. First cryonics doesn't involve freezing they pump the bod full of a kind of antifreeze which should prevent ice formation and thus the damage to cells. And while it might not work, as an agnostic who has little hope of an afterlife any hope seems worht holding on to. So despite my better judgement I'm actually seriously considering signing up for this. What about you guys any takers? 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

No.  I've seen horror stories about what happened to the people cryonicaly frozen in the 70's when there was a dispute about who was responsible for care of the corpses and numerous other issues:

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/alcor-employee-makes-harsh-allegations-cryonics-foundation/story?id=8764331

[Arch-MaesterPhilip]

It is intriguing but I'm not sure if it is for me. There was an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that dealt with this. It is called "The Neutral Zone". 

[Theda Baratheon]

When I die just throw me in the trash 

[Spring Bass]

You'd have to be really confident in future generations' willingness to preserve your cryogenically frozen corpse. I wouldn't consider doing it unless it's at the point where they can freeze and unfreeze living people in and out of hibernation (like in the Alien films). 

 

[Altherion]

I read the Wait But Why article before and I'm not quite convinced. The problem is that this involves paying real money now for something that would only be useful if several conditions are met the probabilities of which are impossible to estimate.

• Most obviously, the cryopreserved individuals must be revivable. This is not true today and it's not obvious that it will ever be true. We think of technology as progressing inexorably forward, but it's entirely possible that certain things will never be technologically achievable. Furthermore, even if it is theoretically possible, we might never get there in practice -- read the Wait But Why articles on extinction events and the Fermi Paradox.
• Less obviously, the non-cryopreserved individuals must not be revivable. Remember, physical information is conserved. If it wasn't, then the sum of probabilities for all probable outcomes for certain quantum mechanical systems would not add up to 1 (there was some debate about black holes seemingly destroying information, but it seems to be mostly over and conservation won). If technology truly moves into the realm of the godlike, it should be possible to reconstruct even decayed individuals.
• The revived individuals must be the same as the ones that were cryopreserved. Wait But Why also has an article on this (what makes you you?).
• The universe must be essentially materialist in nature. It makes no sense to waste resources on this if God is going to resurrect everyone anyway or something of the sort.

[Jo498]

There are of course also outlandish Sci-Fi variants of the 3rd point: What it some kind of revival is possible but the revenants are "zombies" or other aberrations that have not much in common with the original person and their personality. One can combine that with point 4: What if God/Karma/... punishes those striving for such a sick kind of "immortality" with a horrific zombie state after thawing...?

[Astromech]

Not necessarily cryonics, but I wouldn't mind having a burial at space a la Star Trek.

[Swordfish]

I just don't think the science is there.

But if you want to undertake it in a Pasquals Wager sort of way and you can afford it, there's really very little downside.

[Theda Baratheon]

When i die just throw me in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

35 minutes ago, Theda Baratheon said:

When i die just throw me in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

Wouldn't that break the LHC? Dumping anyone's body in its beam I mean.

[Theda Baratheon]

Just to clarify Scot; I don't ACTUALLY want anyone to throw me body into the Large Hadron Collider 

*cough*

[A Horse Named Stranger]

It's good meat, feed me to the tigers in the Copenhagen zoo. Post mortem!

[Jo498]

Some animal got into the LHC a few days ago and caused a short circuit (it was electrocuted) and downtime. (Maybe the weasel or whatever hoped for immortality by getting really close to the speed of light and experience corresponding time dilatation...)

[Theda Baratheon]

11 hours ago, Jo498 said:

Some animal got into the LHC a few days ago and caused a short circuit (it was electrocuted) and downtime. (Maybe the weasel or whatever hoped for immortality by getting really close to the speed of light and experience corresponding time dilatation...)

that's what i was referencing LMAO what a fine way to go usually im very sad by animal deaths but that little bugger knew what he was doing HAHA brilliant 

[Swordfish]

13 minutes ago, Theda Baratheon said:

that's what i was referencing LMAO what a fine way to go usually im very sad by animal deaths but that little bigger knew what he was doing HAHA brilliant 

One can only imagine what kind of awesome adventure it's on now.....

[Astromech]

Damn no more photos

[DireWolfSpirit]

10 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Wouldn't that break the LHC? Dumping anyone's body in its beam I mean.

Am pasting this into the silly questions thread Scott....jk.

I'd have to see this cryo stuff actually work on a lab specimen before I could pay it any mind. If they could bring back a rabbit or chimp or something first, then I think people would really get interested.

My big concern with this is that people (potentially) would actually elect to get preserved before they are clinically dead. In effect suicideing themselves to the procedure, believing they can be saved with no real evidence. Its not happening now, but what if this ability lands to a group of people that would market and use it in a unregulated area of the world?

[Theda Baratheon]

10 hours ago, Swordfish said:

One can only imagine what kind of awesome adventure it's on now.....

LMAO that little weasel only ever wanted to know the secrets of the universe 

[Pebble thats Stubby]

2 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

Am pasting this into the silly questions thread Scott....jk.

I'd have to see this cryo stuff actually work on a lab specimen before I could pay it any mind. If they could bring back a rabbit or chimp or something first, then I think people would really get interested.

My big concern with this is that people (potentially) would actually elect to get preserved before they are clinically dead. In effect suicideing themselves to the procedure, believing they can be saved with no real evidence. Its not happening now, but what if this ability lands to a group of people that would market and use it in a unregulated area of the world?

But would it be so wrong?  What if your living with something with no hope for a cure now and extremely low quality of life?   

What about if your Terminally ill, but choose to be frozen before you die.  Maybe you need to actually be alive when they freeze you to be able to revive you later?  

 

What about those with some form or dementure?  maybe they would like to be frozen before the disease progresses too far, so they have a better chance of having a working brain if they are revived?  - What if they can't repair the damage but can stop anymore occurring?   I get this one is a much more grey area, 1) They would have to be competent enough to make an informed decision.  2) If they are able to make the decision then I guess the dementure is not yet so bad....