Comments on: The Middleman: Cryonics-a-go-go

By: Adam Selene

Adam Selene — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 18:18:35 +0000

I look at cryonics like a lifeboat on a sinking ship in the middle of the ocean in the 19th century. The odds of surviving aren’t great, but they’re a whole lot better than the alternative. I see it as a last-ditch experimental medical procedure to save my life when all else has failed.

For me, it’s a simple choice: have a chance at life in the future in a rejuvinated body, or be totally anihiliated, rot in the ground and become worm food.

By: Ben Best

Ben Best — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 03:46:49 +0000

Yes, Stephen, you are right that the head cools more quickly, although the
significance of that fact for cryopreservation is minor. More relevant is the
fact that ice can be eliminated by vitrification from the brain far more
efficiently than other organs or the rest of the body. The head is far more
economical to preserve. The main objection to heads is the “yuck factor”:
cryopreservation of heads without bodies strikes too many people as being
grotesque and macabre. Public relations is the main reason that the Cryonics
Institute does not offer a “neuro” option.

By: Stephen Cass

Stephen Cass — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 02:47:39 +0000

Ben — oops — you’re right, I read the wrong graph, less than a 100 hundred in preservation at Alcor it is. I’ve edited to correct. Also, I’m curious: wouldn’t preserving just the head be a better option, as all else being equal, wouldn’t a head, being smaller than an entire body, reach the target temperature faster?

By: James Bedford

James Bedford — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 02:04:23 +0000

Is the cost of your morning cup of coffee a fictional sum of money for you to stump up? That’s all it costs many folks, who fund their cryonics services via life insurance, making the cryonics company the owner/beneficiary of the policy. Also there is another company, Cryonics Institute, where the prices start at $28K. Stephen Cass, sign in and sign up!

By: Ben Best

Ben Best — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:45:41 +0000

Less than 200 people in the world are currently in
cryostasis, about 90 of them at the Cryonics Institute
and about 85 of them at Alcor. The number 1,000 more
accurately represents the number of people in the
world who have made contracts to be cryopreserved
(most at Alcor and the Cryonics Institute). See:

http://www.cryonics.org/comparisons.html#Size

Alcor charges $150,000 to cryopreserve a whole body
and $80,000 for just the head (on the assumption
that future science can regenerate bodies with
stem cells, etc.) — but the Cryonics Institute
charges as little as $28,000 for a whole body
(and does not accepts heads):

http://www.cryonics.org/comparisons.html#Prices

The majority of these people with contracts
for cryopreservation have arranged their funding
by buying life insurance policies that name the
cryonics organization as beneficiary. For a person
who is in good health and not very old, an
insurance policy for $50,000 or $100,000 is not
very expensive.

To learn more about the science behind
cryonics see:

http://www.cryonics.org/reports/Scientific_Justification.pdf

And for general information about all aspects
of cryonics see:

http://www.benbest.com/cryonics/CryoFAQ.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryonics

— Ben Best

By: megapolisomancy

megapolisomancy — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 23:04:42 +0000

Current cryonics technologies do not involve freezing of the patient, but a procedure called vitrification in which a water/cryoprotectant solution solidifies without ice formation. Although it is true that we do not know if people in cryopreservation today will ever be resuscitated, researchers at the cryobiology company 21st Century Medicine have demonstrated that electrical activity can be maintained in brain slices that were vitrified with similar solutions as Alcor uses.

The most important obstacle to cryonics today is that it is not practiced as an elective medical procedure:

http://www.depressedmetabolism.com/2008/07/24/cryonics-as-an-elective-medical-procedure/