howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#1
from the independent, i find the whole thing a bit creepy.
What if you were told that you could cheat death by having your veins filled with chemicals, before being hung upside down in a sleeping bag inside a freezing vat of liquid nitrogen, to be resurrected in decades or centuries to come?
As unlikely as it sounds, more than 200 bodies are stored like this around the world, as increasing numbers of people place their faith in the bizarre but fascinating science of cryonics as a means of achieving everlasting life. Now, the newest addition to the deep freezers is the father of the burgeoning movement himself, Robert Ettinger, who has died - or merely completed the first of his life cycles - aged 92.
The former physics teacher is the 106th person to be stored at the Cryonics Institute in Detroit that he founded in 1976, after science fiction ideas inspired him to write a book, The Prospect of Immortality - which presented the concept as very much not fiction. It was the bone-graft surgery that he received on his legs after being wounded in the Battle of the Bulge during the Second World War that first interested him in the advancements of medical technology - and certainly nobody could accuse Ettinger of being a pessimist. "If civilisation endures, medical science should eventually be able to repair almost any damage to the human body," he wrote, "including freezing damage and senile debility or other cause of death." He added: "No matter what kills us, whether old age or disease, and even if freezing techniques are still crude when we die, sooner or later our friends of the future should be equal to the task of reviving and curing us."
Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
#2
Surely as memories and what makes the person are electrical charges in the brain, shouldn't they also keep them plugged into the mains to keep them charged up
Been nice knowing you :)
#3
This might explain Rupert Murdochs performance at the Parliamentary Committee........rapid thawing can do that!
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#4
it all reminds me of that scene in "the simpsons" when mr burns is in a freezer and his lackey says "don't worry sir, we will have you out of there the minute they find a cure for 20 stab wounds in the back".
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
#5
"Infamy, infamy..all scientific in(ovation is) for me."
Alas, the one aspect of human nature that is likely to hold sway over the centuries is "beer & circuses"...keeping the existing population amused. Here is where this science shall come into it's own.
"Look!! It can do tricks, and such tricks that we have not seen since ages past. Why, I'll wager we can even get it to vote Tory...just you wait and see."
Apart from sustaining their investment portfolio over the years and finding a bank that will survive over time. What society would re-energise the extinct except for the sake of amusement?
Yes, Paul, that's more like it. A plugged-in brain in a jar...with only each other to communicate with. The eight circle of Hades?
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#6
what i don't understand is that this chap will still have a 90 year old body should he be resurrected, hardly something to look forward to.
what is the difference between cryonics and cryogenics?
Guest 657- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,037
#7
Interesting but not for me thanks!
