Freeze My Mush
I was pleased to read in the latest ‘The Immortalist’
magazine that there was an eminent scientist who believes that one day we will
be able to recover people from their ashes. My view has also been heading in
that direction. An opinion formed by my optimistic belief that there is no
impenetrable barrier which one day will prevent further acquisition of knowledge
or stop man’s progress towards achieving almost anything he sets his
accumulative mind to.
I cannot imagine the day
when all the research laboratories and all the institutions built to acquire
further knowledge and progress, close down. I cannot imagine all the people and
androids employed by such research organisations all going home, putting their
feet up and proclaiming, “that’s it, our work is complete, we cannot learn any
more than we already know, we can achieve no more!”
Assuming that is the case
then it follows that one day we will be able to revive people from their jar of
ashes on the mantle piece. However, I would not suggest that cryonics is
therefore unnecessary, it may take a few billion years for us to become that
clever and in the meantime we may miss England winning the world cup again.
So why do some scientists
say that cryonics will not work? It occurs to me that when people become very
scientifically knowledgeable they begin to see which way technology is heading
and therefore predict future advances. I think the temptation is then to assume
that any advances they cannot foresee are not possible. Hence, Einstein’s
statement in 1939 that it will not be possible to release nuclear energy. We
also have the glaring example from 1895 of the Head of the US Patent Office
sending a memo out to his employees telling them to wind down their activities
as very few more inventions and developments were possible.
It seems clear to all
doctors and scientists involved in cryonics that if a brain is preserved with
all the information relating to the person intact, then revival of that person
is possible. What is heavily debated is the best way to preserve that
information and if revival will be possible in the event of a less than perfect
preservation, and if so, how much less? My view would be that even a very badly
damaged brain will be revived in the future. It may be, that the more
deterioration of the brain, the longer it will take for technology to advance to
the level required to extract complete information of the person from what
remains. My best guess, for what it’s worth, would be the following: -
Perfect Vitrification
70 years
Perfect
Freezing
100
1-hour delay starting the
cool down and suspension process 150
6 hour
delay
250
12 hours
delay
300
24 hours
delay
500
48 hours
delay
800
Ashes
1 billion
So my policy is to aim to
obtain the best and quickest suspension that is available that I can afford.
But we cannot predict what may happen to our fragile bodies and so, if I happen
to stop breathing without the presence of the CE standby team I am confident
that I will still return. So my message to my colleagues in the team is that
even if you find my brain is in a very poor state when you arrive, please freeze
my mush.
|
