Would you want to be
Cryogenically frozen
if there was
a guarantee of
waking up in
200 years?
There is a company called Alcor in Scottsdale, Arizona that is dedicated to mastering the science of reanimation. Well, for now it’s dedicated to preserving “legally dead” (murdered individuals are out!) people in hopes of reverse-zombie-ing them.
And! There are real people, yes, real human-persons, that have shelled out cold, dead, cash to maintain their lifeless bodies for the mere HOPE of being brought back into this world at a later date.
At this time, there is no technology that allows a ‘frozen’ loved one to RSVP to your family BBQ reunion at Ibach Park, so don’t order them a screen printed shirt just yet. What cryogenics does do now is collect your 100% legally deceased remains and attempt to preserve your personality, body and brain by replacing the water cells with “protective chemicals” that slow the body’s chemistry until it stops–much like a sled down a hill with no driver. They are then placed in a protective, silver non-coffin presumably until Fry comes from the future to give us the secret of talking heads in jars.
Sounds like a massively expensive gamble to me. But, what if the ‘hope’ part of this equation was deleted and it became an absolute to Rip Van Winkle yourself 200 years after your life-party ended?
Would I do this?
H, E double hockey sticks no.
And here’s why:
You know that feeling when you wake up from sleeping and forget where you are for 2 seconds? Times that by 10,000,000 and then punch yourself in the face. It would be like your family lovingly tucking you into bed and kissing you goodnight only to wake up in a technology orphanage where your alarm clock is finding out all your friends are dead and you are wearing last-last-last-last-last season’s style. The horror.
I’m curious about the future as much as the next person, but let’s be honest, it is humanity’s calling card to throw a crazy house party forgetting that the future is coming home in ten minutes. Wall*E might as well have been a documentary.
And, more importantly, I don’t want to wake up from the most terrifying dream I’ve ever had–DEATH–to a bitchy robot who doesn’t understand why I’m crying when they say Ben and Jerry’s hasn’t existed for 100 years.
I know, I know, I hear you, you future-crazy-pioneers: I’m going at this from the worst-case scenario, (which as your life’s last gamble, I think is nothing short of prudent…) but, okay, what if it isn’t awful?
You wake up from the greatest nap of your life in room dimly lit by cupcake-smelling candles, and digitized whale sounds. A friendly scientist that looks like Tom Hanks as Walt Disney takes your hands, explains what year it is and sings your favorite song. You are slowly acclimated to the current culture and then hailed as a time warrior by all news media. You spend your days going on all expenses paid adventures in flying cars, learning and recounting stories about the early 2000’s, what an iPod was, and horrors of this thing you called traffic. Sounds pretty great, until you realize you have become nothing more than a novelty, and after they’ve plucked all the information from your old squishy brain, you are left with no friends or family, unnoticed and discarded with the rest of the elderly– something society still hasn’t improved. Zing.
It is as natural and normal for humans to die as it is for humans to try to escape that fact, but all it does is prolong the inevitable. In short, the only thing I want frozen when I’m dying is my brain after eating Ben and Jerry’s.
No way. I’m not interested in living in this world forever. I already feel I’m behind on the times anyway and I think our world has only gotten more stressful. In another 10 years it’s going to be even crazier let alone decades from now.
Totally selfish to say yes. It’s the epitome of arrogance to freeze yourself and expect people in the future to revive you. Total narcissism. You think you are so important and so fascinating that 200 years from now people will want to bring you back to life? Why would they have to respect your wishes in the first place? Just one more way my generation feels free to burden future generations. Bring me back, make my ecological footprint extend indefinitely. Also assumes that people 200 years from now will have WAY more respect for their elders and way more respect… Read more »
No! That seems SO lonely.
Depends on the legal safeguards in place. Forget about the technological capability for a moment. Just because you COULD be reanimated later doesn’t mean the legal or political system would let you do it. Don’t ever assume that the future will be brighter than the present just because you can live longer! I have very little faith in human nature that when I woke up I would have all the same rights as I did when I was frozen. You are never more vulnerable than when you’re dead. When you’re frozen, you have no vote, no legal status, no way… Read more »
yes id do it,
i also imagine if they could revive me, they would also have age reversal/ rejuvenation technologies too
I wouldn’t do this. As much as I fear the finality of death, I wouldn’t want to be like those sad sacks in that “Star Trek: The Next Generation” episode who are reduced to hunting through the space telephone book for their descendants who are probably horrified to see them.
P.S. to Nathan, that kind of sounds like a Halo short film I saw once about how Master Chief is cryogenically frozen in between being deployed to alien skirmishes.
I was thinking of that episode, too.
Ironically, the people who say “yes” to this question are often people who aren’t very fond of old people, but they expect to be welcomed by people in future generations.
I would do this, but I’d wait until my mother passed, because if I went into cryogenic hiding, it’d be just as awful as me actually dying, which I’d never want to do to her. And then in the meantime, if I had any kids, I wouldn’t be able to do it at that point either… If it weren’t for family, I’d be in.
I personally probably wouldn’t do it, but let’s say I was an orphan and I just wanted to serve my country, so I volunteer to undergo an operation to become a supersoldier and a crimefighter. I could see myself getting frozen and waking up decades or centuries later and carving out a niche for myself as an inspirational symbol and getting back to fighting crime, as long as there still is crime and we don’t end up in Star Trek.
For me it depends entirely on when I died. If I went today or tomorrow I’d definitely do it, because clearly I got ripped off and need some more life to live and I think I’d be better prepared for the inevitable isolation and future shock. But if I make it to old dude status than I’ll be happy with what I had and all of the weird things I made my heirs do to collect their inheritances.