I'd like to post some introductory material on cryonics and some ideas that may help ImmInst. The cryonics movement has been active since Robert Ettinger published his 1964 book ‘The Prospect of Immortality’. The cryonics group has been promoting immortality much longer than ImmInst. We have much to learn from their mistakes and successes. I'm especially interested in how credible scientists distanced themselves from Ettinger after he promoted the concept on talk shows and in the media... - BJK
Cryonics: A Short History The "Impossible" Dream
by Charles Platt
Vice President, CryoCare Foundation
The dream of escaping mortality has tantalized humanity for
thousands of years. It occurs in all primitive cultures and
modern world religions. Even Buddhism, which rejects the
concept of an afterlife, offers the solace of reincarnation.
Clearly, there is a natural human yearning to transcend the
limits imposed on us by our physical form.
In the twentieth century, for the first time, scientific
evidence finally provided rational hope that the dream might
become a reality. In 1940, pioneer biologist Basil Luyet
published a work titled "Life and Death at Low Temperatures"
in which he described his experiments freezing living cells.
Luyet observed that many organisms were damaged irrevocably
by physical and chemical changes which were triggered by the
freezing process, but in some cases he managed to restore
normal function when organisms were rewarmed after freezing.
Cryobiology
Luyet's work led a team of British scientists to
establish a whole new area of science which they named
_cryobiology._ By soaking cells in a solution of glycerol,
they minimized ice damage. Using this _cryoprotectant,_ they
were able to freeze red blood cells and bull semen, then
restore their functions completely after rewarming, thus
proving that life can, in fact, be stopped and restarted
under controlled conditions. If such a thing as a "life
force" exists, it seems to survive the frozen state.
The Promotion of Cryonics
In the United States, an American physics professor
named Robert Ettinger saw that the discoveries in cryobiology
had important implications for human beings. In 1964, his
book _The Prospect of Immortality_ promoted the idea that a
person frozen after legal death might rationally hope to be
resuscitated at some time in the far future when medicine has
acquired the ability to cure most diseases, reverse the aging
process, and repair any residual damage caused by freezing.
The name that was applied to Ettinger's concept was
_cryonics._ This distinguishes the freezing of human beings
from _cryogenics,_ the general science of low temperatures.
Initially, cryobiologists reserved judgment regarding
cryonics. But as Ettinger began appearing on talk shows and
sensationalistic media coverage began to snowball, many
scientists started to distance themselves from the concept,
perhaps fearing that they might lose credibility or funding.
As a result, there has been very little research into
reversible cryopreservation of mammals since the 1960s.
MORE: http://www.cryocare.org/history.txt
