3 replies to this topic

[Reno]

I must admitt i am rather ignorant on what cryonics is all about. From what i understand its all about freezing someone so that they can finished unfinished buisness or just survive. With that being said I thought the act of freezing living tissue was deemed impossible due to out cells having a tendancy to rupture, water expands the cell membrane cracks.

I read the picture thread and I see many people here believe its possible. Does anyone have any thoughts on how this might be done? It takes a bit of faith just to say you believe it will come even though so many experts have said its impossible. Its quite impressive to see such a high level of beleif in people.

[JonesGuy]

The ability to freeze cells and not damage them is within our grasp. The technology is advancing slowly, but there are scientific journals pretty well dedicated to the advancment of this science.

The biggest hurdle for cryonics is capturing enough information to reasonably preserve identity. That's tough. That means that they will have to show that a memory can remain after thawing.

It's a lot easier to get an embryo to divide after freezing, but the cryonics theory is that it's all the same thing, just harder.

[bgwowk]

Please read http://www.alcor.org and then come back with any questions not in the FAQs. It's a non-trivial subject.

Very few experts are actually on record as saying cryonics is impossible. For a list of expert supporters, see http://www.cryoletter.org

---BrianW

P.S. Cells don't "burst" when tissue is frozen. That's an urban myth.

[Mind]

Brain brings up a great point. Very very few experts will tell you it is impossible. Most just say it would be an extremely difficult task to accomplish. When I first read about cryonics (maybe 10 years ago?), I could not quite figure out (with the technology at hand) how it could be accomplished. Now, ten years later, I can see many technological trends developing simulaneousely (nanotech, better vitrification, etc.) that make it seem quite possible.