4 Responses to “Is cryonics (wrongly called cryogenics) scientific?”

1. DanE on April 7th, 2008 11:42 am

   Cryonics is the low-temperature preservation of humans and other animals that can no longer be sustained by contemporary medicine until resuscitation may be possible in the future. Human cryopreservation is not currently reversible. In the United States, cryonics can only be legally performed on humans after pronounced legally dead. The rationale for cryonics is that the process may be reversible in the future if performed soon enough, and that cryopreserved people are not dead by the modern information-theoretic definition of death.

   The central premise of cryonics is that memory, personality, and identity are stored in the structure and chemistry of the brain. While this view is widely accepted in medicine, and brain activity is known to stop and later resume under certain conditions, it is not generally accepted that current methods preserve the brain well enough to permit revival in the future. Cryonics advocates point to studies showing that high concentrations of cryoprotectant circulated through the brain before cooling can largely prevent freezing injury, preserving the fine cell structures of the brain in which memory and identity presumably reside.

   To its detractors, the justification for the actual practice of cryonics is unclear, given present limitations of preservation technology. Currently cells, tissues, blood vessels, and some small animal organs can be reversibly cryopreserved. Some frogs can survive for a few months in a partially frozen state a few degrees below freezing, but this is not true cryopreservation. Cryonics advocates counter that demonstrably reversible preservation is not necessary to achieve the present-day goal of cryonics, which is preservation of basic brain information that encodes memory and personal identity. Preservation of this information is said to be sufficient to prevent information theoretical death until future repairs might be possible.

2. Daniel O on April 9th, 2008 8:18 pm

   I guess you could still say that this is scientific, but I really can’t see preserved corpses being revived. I mean, if we could do that, surely we could revive preserved egyptian pharoahs. Not going to happen, but still a science.

3. Mark W on April 11th, 2008 3:14 pm

   actually wood frogs are able to be frozen and revived.

   as are a few snakes, fish and insects.

4. Ellie ! on April 14th, 2008 12:56 am

   Hi! DanE has a great response about what Cryonics is, and I really can’t add anything to it on that subject.

   As to “Is it scientific”? Yes.

   The definition of scientific is : “systematic; discovered through experimentation”. Since the inception of modern Cryonics, the pioneers have systematically improved cryopreservation technology.

   As an example, at one of the initial cryopreservations, they planned to purge the vascular system of the patient with Helium to allow access for future technology. In practice (by experimentation), this was determined to be impractical. Future experiments improved the process further by introducing new cryoprotectants and vitrification protocols. Other improvements include closed circuit perfusion and the chest compression module. The “discovery” process is ongoing. Rumor has it that Alcor is adapting their vitrification protocols for full body preservation, and SA has a fairly radical quick cooling technology that is still in it’s infancy.

   The logical result is that Reanimating cryonics patients will likely be a last-in-first-out process. When reanimation becomes feasible, the very recently preserved will have used the “best” technology, and have the least amount of repair work required. As the restoration process matures, they will be able to reanimate the “older” patients.

   To the other people that answered…
   Wood frogs are not mammals, and they cannot survive full freezing, their hearts remain unfrozen. It is true that no non-embryonic mammal has been suspended and reanimated,

   Next:
   No, the Pharaohs will not be recoverable. All of our current knowledge indicates that a “person” is stored in the physical structure of their Brain. Egyptian Mummies had their brains removed through their sinuses, and stored in jars where they dried to a powder, losing the physical structure forever.

   I am a funded option 2 member of the Cryonics institute.

   -ellie
   The water bear (microscopic)is the largest creature to survive full

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