Ice Ice Baby

Life extension.

Live forever.

Fortunately, science has been generous over the last several decades, allowing us to breach life’s internal clock by the means of freezing it. Science is now able to cryogenically freeze your body thoroughly, or in other words, stop your internal biological clock from moving on with present time. It is now possible to stop time on yourself or another without harming the human structure, enabling science to essentially lock you away until a more capable future comes upon us where we can be woken. The science field is called “cryonics,” or a branch of science devoted the ideology that life either on the brink of loss or one that has been severely limited due to crippling illness, can be suspended until science has developed further and able to bring them back.

Cryonics isn’t the answer to cure all illnesses, but it is a start in the right direction. It may seem futuristic and sci-fi still, but over the past several years the topic has emerged sporadically time and again. While the topic of the singularity has been discussed on television and in news articles, cryonics is still below the radar for most. The singularity, if you touch into the science shows and articles every so often, has to do with blurring the line between what is considered man or machine. The theory introduces artificial intelligence, or when robotics is as intelligent if not exceeding that of mankind. Cryonics is like the singularity in the sense that it does teeter within the realm of discussion of cheating or escaping death, something you do nudge into when being cryogenically frozen.

Good Idea: Preparing and knowing your options.
Bad Idea: Hoping for the best, not planning for the worst.

Knowing your options.

Cryonics?

Cryonics is the process of “freezing” — or technically vitrifying — our bodies in order to preserve what life we have left until future science and medicine has developed a system to resurrect our suspended bag of bones. I think it is a mutual feeling amongst most people that a life lived longer is in most cases, better, as typically no one wants a short lived stint of time on earth. Why would anyone agree to have their body preserved indefinitely awaiting the day to become restored back to life in full health, if that day ever comes? Cryonics, though a bit extreme, is a solution for some. It may not guarantee anything more than a smidgen of hope. But, it’s this glimpse of possibility that leaves you ambitious, that who knows. It could work. The sliver of faith, while borderline mad, is all some need to stand on. Maybe, just maybe, one day in the future, science can take your rock solid body and a bring it back to a far superior state. And that sounds pretty good huh?

Money, though.

It costs to stay dead.

This is the catch. You better be sure your bank account is plentiful, as it isn’t cheap. At a minimum you will need around $80k for the basic “package,” but if you would like to freeze alongside the first-class elitists, you’ll need around $200k to qualify. Unless you’re Drumpf, then you’re fine.

But, are you “dead?”

Wealth isn’t everything.

Let’s get to the most important detail of the process. You must be technically and legally dead, i.e., when all functions of the brain have irreversibly stopped. Once you have been officially declared no longer with us (rest in peace), the cryonics institute of your choice can then begin to haul your lifeless corpse to the nearest establishment. Then you can legally be allowed to become preserved, as this is not something done while you are alive by accordance to the law.

Can’t lie to you.

Some horror stories.

Being technically dead is a requirement — and with being dead comes the scary factor I shall enlighten you with. If you are dead, you are without the ability to control what happens to your corpse post-mortem, which means willingly or not, someone else has their hands on the fate of your body. Trust has to be strong, and without it, immoral behavior can ensue…

Like this.

Ted Williams, for those not familiar with the name, was a famous American baseball player from the early to mid-1900s. He is considered to be one of the all-time greatest hitters in history. Ted’s tie to cryonics rests on controversy, because unlike most who visit the cryonics institute, his was without consent. The most important point about Ted Williams is that not the fact that he was frozen, it was the how he was.

Originally wanting to be cremated, signing a will stating so, he laid his body’s resting place in someone else’s hands. Trusting his son with his wishes to be fulfilled, he granted him the power over his remnants.

In 2002, Ted passed away, immediately being transferred to Alcor’s facilities where he would then be put into cryogenic sleep. Ted was flown out for preparation and submersion, but where the issue comes into play is during the procedure, not despite being put to sleep against his will, but in the details of his preservation. Going against his will for cremation was bad enough, but dismembering his corpse for preservation is another. Ted’s body was mutilated in the process of preserving, put through a process known as neuropreservation, or the decapitation of the head to be stored separately, usually reserved for a failing body or a severe handicap.

Ted, on the other hand, was not handicapped, so the process of neuropreservation was unnecessary. His severed head was also stored in a Cryostar — or a cooling bin not made for permanent preservation. Normally, this procedure would benefit the client upon wakening. In the future it would theoretically be possible to transfer their head to a new, abler body, bringing functionality that has been lost or missing. For Ted, it’s nothing but a loss, something he’ll learn about another day.

Having both sides to the science is good, isn’t it? The pros and cons. First off, it was his son’s obsession over the cryonics movement that resulted in Ted’s involuntary involvement into the cryogenics field. He had an obsession that spawned from literature and experts in the field, so his father’s timely death happened, it granted him the opportunity he was waiting for.

So, good idea?

Um, morality.

That depends on your stance on life and death. To some, cheating death (more or less) would be morally wrong and absurd. Not many would welcome death, but not many would welcome bypassing it either if it seemed manipulative by any means. If one has lived a thorough and well-orchestrated life, is it proper to accept death in old age — accompanied by illness or not? What is the correct procedure to death? It is our biological structure failing. So, would it be morally obscure to think that avoiding death via indefinite preservation is wrong or unjust?

People can claim they are ready to die, that it’s alright, it is time. If their bodies are failing and death is imminent, that the only solution is acceptance. But, what is difficult is accepting a future that enables us a resolution to dying.

This is a subject being studied, and more crucially, a solution we will only come to know when we arrive to the future — and I don’t mean us per se — but, us as a species. Cryonics is a door to that possibility, a light in the keyhole that brings an ounce of hope that we as a race can flourish a little better. Preserving in itself won’t necessarily guarantee anything spectacular, but it heightens the chances the spectacular could arrive within your lifetime — even if that means having to pause your ending lifetime a bit. Cryogenics hinges on morality. You have to decide if it’s a good thing, because it isn’t in a realm of a norm right now. What is right or wrong when it’s utterly grey?

The solution?

First steps are key.

Now that the bad is out of the way, here’s a little good to sandwich this.

Cryopreservation is actually that, not “freezing.” So, saying that someone is frozen is wrong, but under most circumstances is often correct enough, because it’s the easiest way to go about discussing the topic without having to lay groundwork first. What vitrification entails is putting someone into cryogenic preservation under extreme low temperatures of -120 degrees Centigrade and below, but without the formation of ice crystals. Freezing people without the freeze part, essentially. Like how a piece of food is frozen in the freezer and is able to be kept for a longer period of time, the human body is held unchanged for an extended duration in the cold temperatures as well. And like the food in the freezer, the human body is subject to freezer burn — or ice damage — if left for lengthy spans of time. To prevent this damage, scientists have come up with the process of vitrifying things (not just humans) without the formation of the ice crystals to allow for a safe and immaculate preservation.

Preservation may be the first step in the right direction to finding a solution to many of our problem as a species. Not only does the future possibly hold cures for illnesses and diseases (obviously), but the more overlooked issue of longevity. The human body can only endure so much, for so long, before our biological structures begin to wear thin and deteriorate. Living happily and healthily can take you so far, but there comes a point where age becomes the most prominent factor despite your steady efforts.

Just as with the case of Kim Suozzi, who was dying of cancer and ultimately resorted to cryonics and neuropreservation. Kim was suffering from cancer that spread to her brain, so her last resort was to preserve her brain. The tumor was growing and her functionality was suffering, so as a last effort she had to discard her body and head. As we all need, Kim hopes for “a different outcome, that she might rejoin the world in an artificial body or a computer-simulated environment, or perhaps both, feeling and sensing through a silicon chip rather than a brain.”

Before you go.

It is good then?

As we are writing our will and planning what will happen to our body, it’s great to have the Plan-C. It’s easier to decide what you need to do when you know more about the options available. Comfort rests in knowledge, and to know death isn’t always the only option as we inevitably get older and decrepit. Now, there are alternatives. We are more capable as a species and our technology allows more leeway of the end. Postponing the end or bypassing it, depends how you view this. Either way, with a better understanding of cryopreservation and the impact it can have, the easier the decision if it’s good or not. There will always be the ashes, and always be burial grounds, but the other other option now resides. What better way to go then to not go at all? Cryonics, is it good?