Cryonics – Is it a viable approach to life extension

Cryonics is the science of using ultra-cold temperature to preserve human life with the intent of restoring good health when technology becomes available to do so. Cryonics is a speculative life support technology that seeks to preserve human life in a state that will be viable and treatable by future medicine. It is expected that future medicine will include mature nanotechnology, and the ability to heal at the cellular and molecular levels.

Cryonics is not reversible today, the eventual perfection of cryonics will be of great value to fields such as medicine and space travel.

Can cryonics be performed on living people?

A: Legally, not yet. Obviously, it would be better to cool a patient before illness causes so much physical damage that it results in death. But it’s not presently allowed by law, even for someone in great suffering or with a terminal illness. We hope that one day it will be, under carefully controlled conditions, once revival from cryopreservation can be demonstrated.

Isn’t cryonics just a wild science-fiction gamble?

A: No. It isn’t. Especially in light of the development of a new form of technology called nanotechnology — the manipulation of individual atoms or molecules, eventually to build or repair virtually any physical object, including human cells and biological tissue.

One of its projected applications is the repair of precisely the sort of damage to human tissue caused by freezing at liquid nitrogen temperatures – not to mention cellular and organic damage caused by disease and aging.

When will that happen?  Robert A. Freitas, author of three-volume text Nanomedicine — has publicly stated, “I would not be surprised if the first cryonics revival was attempted by 2040-2050.”