Robert Ettinger, founder of the cryogenics movement, has died (at least for now) at the age of 92. Cryogenics is the process of freezing your head or your entire body in hopes science will one day figure out a way to bring you back from the dead. Ettinger will join his two wives (what was he thinking???) and his mother in frozen limbo.
The facility is in Clinton Township, Michigan. Over 100 human corpses are floating in the gentle giant capsules filled with liquid nitrogen in hopes of one day living again. Nobody knows for sure whether we can ever restore consciousness frozen bodies, but cryopreservation is a phenomenon present in the animal kingdom and effective medical technology.
Many livestock have developed tricks to survive temperatures below zero degrees Celsius, accounting and after periods of paralysis caused by frost. And scientists have made important progress in freezing living tissue and even of whole organs for medical purposes.
The minimum price that the airline claims for his services is 28,000 dollars. Other organizations charge for customers and amounts up to $ 200,000 and offers the possibility of "neuroprezervării" instead of full body freeze, freezing heads may require only interested in the idea that personality and memories are stored in the brain and loaded into a computer or an artificial body in the future.
One obstacle to overcome is frozen ice crystals within the bloodstream are very sharp. They can actually cut tissue and blood vessels, causing sever damage that make it difficult preserving vital parts of the human body.
Question: Do you think this process of cryogenics is actually a possibility? Can we freeze our heads or bodies in hopes that one day technology will enable us to one day live again?
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46 comments:
Fascinating stuff here . . . but I have to admit, I'm not a believer. Best of luck to all those frozen souls. :)
I think they might be able to revive frozen tissue, even sleeping frozen people. But once a person dies and the soul is gone, it's not coming back.
I am now going to have nightmares about being stuck in popsicle limbo with MY mother. :(
Wagging Tales - Blog for Writers
The two wives bit made me laugh. As did Charmaine's comment.
:)
Janet, it is fascinating, but futile I believe. Just goes to show, live the best you can and love people.
Alex, I agree. I think of the parable of Abraham's bosom. Once dead, people are not coming back, at least in this life.
Charmaine, I haven't seen you in a while. Thanks for stopping by!
Suze, one has to find humor in anything to make it through this life. Example: see the Weekend Follies.
Hi Stephen .. I'd hate to come back as a frozen 92 year old .. and laughed at the two wives and Charmaine's comment ..
Probably over aeons of time we could alter ourselves to be like the insects and animals that completely close down .. but they do it within their life cycle - not at the end. Though .. will we be here to evolve to that level ...?
Not a nice thought for a summer day - though the ice crystals cutting us from within .. is interesting ..
Cheers Hilary
Freezing just the head seems unreasonable to me - how can a head be preserved all by itself. Do they freeze the brain stem and portions of the spinal cord too?
I think you could conceiveable cryo freeze the whole body though; at least while its living.
Not sure it is something you'd want to do without a really good reason. Space travel or such.
Good food for thought.
........dhole
I read about Ettinger and his two wives in the paper. Fascinating but creepy!
Ellie Garratt
I think it could be made to work with living people, but I don't think the stuff they're doing at the moment is anywhere near the level it needs to be, so all the people so far are just very large popsicles.
mood
This is so interesting. You know, I pretty much think anything is possible, but ... then the dreaded moral dilemmas of these possibilities weigh me down. It would just mess with the natural path of the universe, don't you think? Then I ask myself, but what if THIS IS the natural path of the universe??? Dun, dun, dun ... :o)
I like the way the guy in the pic has his hands strategically placed. He looks chilly rather than suspended in animation. It seems possible to slow down the metabolism by chilling but to completely stop it unless a person is on life support like someone in a coma it seems highly unlikely as tissues would deteriorate etc.
Looking forward to seeing your blogfest entry.:O)
OH wow - great fodder here for some fabulously creepy stories!!
Tantalising as the thought of living forever, is, I'd much prefer not to! Take care
x
Hi Stephen, now this is something I know something about, ha ha. I've read a bit about this and find it fascinating that people think this will actually work. Isn't one life enough?
Denise
I love the idea of it... the fantastical concept and possibilities. But I don't believe it will ever happen. It's a form of playing God that I don't think God will standby and allow. But hey, who's to say for sure??? Certainly not me! :)
Now that's a thought provoking question. Even if it was possible I'm not sure many people would be pleased to see me a second time around.
Yvonne.
There are many issues involved, like, what if someone forgets to pay the electric bill and the power goes out. And what kind of world would they wake up to? I already have lots of scenarios running through my mind. I feel another book coming on.
Why are they waiting for people to die to try it out? They should try it out on live people, that way they know it will work or not. All for science! But, I don't think the line of those waiting to be frozen alive is too long. As far as I know, only Harrison Ford has been frozen alive for the sake of a really fat alien, it worked but left some major scars, I don't think he'll ever recover from Six Days and Seven Nights.
OMG, the cryogenically frozen Austen Powers totally got me sidetracked. LOL!
It's a fascinating topic though. Hey, we freeze embryos and bring them back to life...why not whole humans someday?
Scary thought, in many ways.
To me, it's just one more scam to relieve us of our money. Of course, this is not aimed at us common folks. Great post!
It seems unlikely that someone who was frozen at the age of 92 would be able to survive long, even if the process was proved to work. But cryogenics in the long run, if technology improves? I don't know. Maybe.
It's an intriguing idea but reality? Up for grabs on that one. Biggest problem I see is actually being able to access those memories and the essence of who they are.
Then there is the whole business with all those floating heads with no bodies...
The whole process is great fodder for fiction.
Sia McKye's Thoughts...OVER COFFEE
Clarissa, fortunately Harrison Ford made up for that abomination of a movie with Cowboys vs. Aliens.
Lydia, I hadn't thought of that. We do have the ability to freeze embryos and use them at a later time.
Pat, good point. I hadn't thought of that angle either.
Golden Eagle, why not try this with people who have an incurable disease. Freeze them when they're still alive and thaw them out once a cure has been found.
Sia, I agree. Those memories that make up our essence may not be there even if it is possible to wake them up later.
cryogenics is so creepy and weird. And interesting... did you hear that This American Life episode about it? Seems like the title was something like "A good idea at the time," or something. It's about a man who had to keep a few folks frozen, and failed.
Austin Powers. LOL! :D
Interesting concept. Amazing ideas for fiction. Am not sure I want to read those stories, however.
Thanks for writing about it!
Monti
NotesAlongTheWay
It's a very intriguing idea. I think they'll come up with something ... I want to be a head in a jar ... with a robot body.
I remember reading a short story many years ago where people who'd been frozen were thawed - only to discover too late that aliens had taken over the bodies.
I think it's probably pretty absurd. Sounds like a great to scam people while they're alive. Once they're dead and frozen they won't know whether their bodies are really being taken care of or not. And if this became very common we'd have vast warehouses with frozen people and heads. It's all creepy to think about. Probably some good story material here for sure.
Lee
Tossing It Out
LTM, good point. What about when the tubes or vats fail to preserve a body. Then what?
Monti, I have a few ideas. I could at least do some short stories.
M Pax, how cool would that be!
Diane, I read that too in the Nat'l Inquirer.
Arlee, that would be my concern. That I would just rot away in a vat and no one would notice.
I'm not familliar enough with the science to say if it's possible, but I'm not sure that I'd want to do that. I'm pretty curious about the Great Unknown on the other side of the headstone.
I'm getting creeped out now... Have to agree with the others about the more comical aspects of his adventure!
I'm pretty doubtful they can do it with people that are currently frozen. I think there has been some encouraging hints at things that might work in the future. The hard part is figuring out how to freeze someone so those cell walls don't burst when those ice crystals you mentioned start forming - especially in the brain.
I won't keep my fingers crossed. Reminds me of the episode of the Simpsons when the froze Mr. Burns until they could come up with a cure for '17 knife wounds in the back'.
This is so interesting, Stephen.
I'm with Alex (and you) on the soul not returning when a person dies. To me the people are wasting their money, but isn't this interesting?
P.S. I wouldn't want my head detached from my body. Seems creepy.
P.S.S. Isn't Disney frozen?
P.S.S.S. I think Mr. Ettinger should be happy with his 92 years of life.
I don't think I'd be a good candidate for Cryogenics. I find those brain freezes I experience whenever I slurp a Slush at the local DQ to be quite annoying. No sireebob, definitely NO neuroprezervării for me!
Austin's chest looks like bad buffalo hair.
I have no idea. All I know is that I hate being cold.
I'm sure it will be possible one day in the future. I'm not sure I'd want to be revived, though!
I'm not a believer that the people frozen now can be brought back, but I could see it in the future when they overcome the obstacles they have now with fast freezing bodies. But that's a long time away.
My take on all this is that when a person dies their body, soul, and spirit all seperate so coming back from the dead just isn't going to happen. However, if someone is frozen alive then perhaps they can be brought back.
Hi Stephen -
I wouldn't want to come back to this body, especially as it deteriorates with age.
I much prefer God's plan. At the resurrection, we get brand new bodies free from all the nastiness of the curse (sickness and disease).
If folks want eternal life, they need to read John's Gospel.
Blessings,
Susan :)
YOU also fascinate me! It is a great idea, scifi wise, but no I do not think this will work. Really, two wives; this guy is nuts! I think they will find another way, perhaps some type of signal to reawaken brain waves and stimulate thought, just joking! I wish they had showed this process on "The Jetsons" ;D
I would worry more about getting freezer burned~
It's an interesting topic, that's for sure. I think the body can be revived possibly, but the spirit cannot return.
Good luck to the guy with the two wives. He's going to have a lot of drama on his hands when they all wake up.
I'm still laughing about the two wives. Toss in the mother and what kind of mad-capped story would that make? Forget about the sci-fi. I'm inspired to write a comedy screen play now.
That was funny about two wives! I hope he doesn't get in trouble when he becomes alive again in the future :) Hehe.
This is a fascinating post, Stephen. Who knows really? We know that in the past, computers were an impossibility and look at us now.
I finally got back here to read this post. When I first saw the title, I didn't have time to read it. Yes, what was that doctor thinking by freezing both wives? The freezing of heads only is nightmare material. Really, that's sick stuff. The ice crystals being so sharp and doing damage makes me wince. There's lots of fuel for good sci-fi stories in this post!
One must ask, where do the ideas for this new technology come from? Is that not sci fic? Was it not impossible for doors to slide open in front of us just a couple of decades ago, and phones without having being hard wired, what kind of an idea was that? I think it would be possible for cryogenics to work. The part I am stuck on is the spiritual side of it. I thought that once the silver cord was severed at death, this meant that the spirit/soul was not coming back. But then, spiritual matters are far too involved and too much for our human minds to understand. In reality, anything is possible.
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