“After decades of piecemeal progress, the science of cryogenically storing human organs is warming up”
Category: cryonics – Page 30
The legal death of Marvin Minsky was publicly reported on Monday, January 25, 2016. There has been speculation on the part of numerous individuals and publications that he may have been cryopreserved by Alcor. This notice is Alcor’s formal response to inquiries on this issue.
In a public ceremony at the Extro-3 conference in 1997, nanotechnology pioneer Eric Drexler presented Prof. Minsky with a bracelet given to all new Alcor members. This bracelet provides emergency contact information and basic instructions. Minsky has spoken publicy many times about his advocacy of overcoming aging and the inevitability of death and about cryonics (human cryopreservation) as a last resort. He was also among the 67 signatories of the Scientists Open Letter on Cryonics and a member of Alcor’s Scientific Advisory Board. This much is public knowledge. None of this necessarily means that Prof. Minsky had cryopreservation arrangements at the time of legal death. Alcor neither confirms nor denies whether Prof. Minsky had such arrangements.
Alcor’s official response may puzzle some readers, so we would like to point out the privacy options that have been and currently are available to our members. When a member signs up for cryopreservation by Alcor, they have four options:
Cryogenics are an old science fiction dream, but today we still struggle to store large tissues without harming them. Now a breakthrough could lead to a safer, more reliable approach.
” This could be an important step toward the preservation of more complex tissues and structures”
Overcoming past challenges
Cryopreservation of biological material is commonplace, but there are remaining challenges. The initial problem with freezing any cell is crystallization, in which ice crystals form and rupture cells. This was overcome by using molecules like ethylene glycol, which essentially act like anti-freeze and prevent crystallization from happening. These are very effective, but they’re also often toxic; damaging or killing some cells in the process. This has made storage of larger tissues very challenging.
Humai, a Los Angeles-based tech company, is hoping to bring back the dead within 30 years. A Los Angeles-based technology company has a goal of bringing dead people back to life within the next 30 years. Humai’s official website states that artificial intelligence and nanotechnology are being used to analyze human processes, and the creation of “an artificial body” is in the works. Once the artificial body has been perfected, the member’s brain, which will have been preserved through cryonics after death, will be implanted to direct movement and function. Helping the integration will be the extensive information the company gained while tracking each person for years during his or her life, according to the company’s founder and CEO Josh Bocanegra. An artificial intelligence app will retain the voice, personality, and behavioral patterns of each person and deploy as needed. This app is expected to launch among the membership by 2017. Aiding in this pursuit is the nanotechnology Humai is assisting in developing, which “will repair the cells destroyed in the brain after death.” The company, which employs five people total, is thus far self-funded but may be open to investments in the near future.
Most science starts off at the fringe and slowly makes it way to the mainstream. Cryopreservation is commonly achieved in a laboratory setting, but for many years serious applications remained confined to science fiction. Is it time to change how we see cryonics?
The science of freezing things
Scientific research requires great storage, and huge amounts of material including cells are frozen every day to be used at the later date. If you follow the correct protocols, many forms of life can be re-awakened after their cryogenic sleep. DMSO, propylene glycol and glycerol help abolish problems like ice crystals which can rupture cells, and storage temperatures can drop to below −120 oC. At these levels biological reactions are essentially halted.
To whom it may concern,
Cryonics is a legitimate science-based endeavor that seeks to preserve human beings, especially the human brain, by the best technology available. Future technologies for resuscitation can be envisioned that involve molecular repair by nanomedicine, highly advanced computation, detailed control of cell growth, and tissue regeneration.
With a view toward these developments, there is a credible possibility that cryonics performed under the best conditions achievable today can preserve sufficient neurological information to permit eventual restoration of a person to full health.
What the nervous system of the roundworm, frozen embryos, and extreme hypothermia tell us about preserving the mind.
Aristotle is frequently regarded as one of the greatest thinkers of antiquity. So why didn’t he think much of his brain?
In this brief history of the brain, the GPA explores what the great minds of the past thought about thought. And we discover that questions that seem to have obvious answers today were anything but self-evident for the individuals that first tackled them. And that conversely, sometimes the facts which we simply accept to be true can be blinding, preventing us from making deeper discoveries about our our world and ourselves.
“I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.” — Winston Churchill
Death still enjoys a steady paycheck, but being the Grim Reaper isn’t the cushy job that it used to be.
At an industrial park in San Leandro, a small group of artists, scientists and tech enthusiasts are trying to sell an alternative to death: cryonic suspension. The company, Transtime, preserves the recently deceased in liquid nitrogen under the assumption that one day the frozen cadavers can be revived.