Quote from: wachtwoord on November 22, 2013, 09:23:16 AM

Quote from: BittBurger on November 22, 2013, 04:23:32 AM

Exactly. They don't rip the cells to shreds. They vitrify them. It's like plasticizing. You guys should read up on the newer technology for cryonics. You sound like stock market guys trying to comment on bitcoin :-)

Did they manage to put a human into cryogenic stasis and revive him again without killing the human? If so: Wow cool, I imagined many other great things being realized WAY before that (such extreme celluar rejuvenation techniques, quantum computing and cold fusion).

No, that's not what he is saying... Vitrification is still a one way trip for now, even for animals. But it does prevent ice formation entirely, so the chances are not anything as bad as being ripped to shreds. And the cryogenic state is very stable, so it is likely (given good organizational policies and/or survivalist tactics) that it would be around for hundreds of years.

To the people of the future where there are extreme regenerative techniques available, you would be considered essentially a living person if your brain is recoverable. (Full body replacement and reversible cryostasis would be everyday things for them, so there's no reason to think you are dead.) However, you don't want to rely on morality alone so you would want to save some money aside in a form they cannot touch without first reviving you.

There is definitely room for improvement in the tech, and I've been advocating within the cryonics community that there be more focus on research. But mainstream scientists don't take cryonics very seriously, so there is a smaller pool of candidates to work on the neural cryobiology aspect. Some well placed bitcoin prizes might help get people to look deeper into the unsolved problems of cryonics. I would recommend focusing on the blood brain barrier and on cryoprotectant toxicity mechanisms.

We could get to a point of perfect brain preservation within our lifetimes. If that happens, screw the rest of the body... If I had unlimited money, I would want to build a big huge storage facility (monolithic dome for energy efficiency and stability) and start cryopreserving people globally for free. 50 million people die per year, and there will be more as the population ages. With a big enough storage container, it gets really cheap/energy efficient because you only have to insulate the outer surface.