A Reasonable Perspective on Cryonics

In this article, one of the scientists involved in our rejuvenation research community outlines a very reasonable view on cryonics and cryopreservation. Cryonics is the low-temperature preservation of at least the brain following death, done these days with the use of cryoprotectants and vitrifiction to minimize ice crystal formation. It offers an unknown chance at a future restoration to life: technology marches onwards year after year, and for so long as the structures that encode the data of the mind are preserved, there is the possibility of living again in a future age that has mastered the technologies needed for restoration. This would include, at a minimum, comprehensive control over cellular biology and some form of advanced molecular nanotechnology. Even in our present era, there is considerable interest in developing reversible vitrification for organ storage, to ease the logistics of tissue engineering and organ donation and transplantation, and early proof of concept experiments have taken place in that field. The types of technology that would be needed to restore a preserved cryonics patient can be envisaged by extrapolation from present efforts in that field and in the work being carried out on rejuvenation therapies. A teenager who tragically died of cancer recently has become the latest among a tiny but growing number of people to be cryogenically frozen after death. These individuals were hoping that advances in science will one day allow them to b...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs