Cryonics is being studied as a way to treat terminal illnesses and extend life, and it is also expected to play a role in future industries such as space development. However, despite the success of the cooling phase, there are still many challenges to overcome, such as brain damage during the thawing process. Scientists are still hoping to overcome this with future technologies.
People around the world have probably encountered cryonics at least once in their lives, whether in movies, comics, novels, anime, or other media. The concept of cryonics was first mentioned in 1962 in the book The Prospect of Immortality by Robert Ettinger, a physics professor at the University of Michigan. The idea of a cryonics man gained so much attention that it was featured in various media outlets, and scientists began working on the technology to freeze humans. This intense interest stems from people’s desire for “immortality”. The idea is that even if you are terminally ill, you can continue living if you wait for the technology to cure your illness through cryonics, and even if you are not terminally ill, becoming a cryonics patient will give you the possibility of extending your life through future technology. Excited by this possibility, many people have invested in cryonics, and research into cryonics is still ongoing. While interest waned for a while, recent advances in space development have brought cryonics back into the spotlight. Until hypersonic spacecraft are developed, traveling to other planets could take decades or centuries, making cryonics essential. Let’s take a look at the current progress, challenges, and potential of this important technology.
First, let’s take a look at the current state of cryonics. Currently, cryonics occurs quickly after a person’s heart stops beating and they are legally pronounced dead, while their organs are still fresh. Doctors first ensure that the brain receives enough oxygen and blood to sustain the body until it reaches a cooling facility, while the body is kept at a low temperature with ice. An anticoagulant called heparin is given to keep the blood from clotting until the body arrives at the facility. Once at the facility, the real cooling begins. First, the body’s internal fluids are removed and replaced with glycerol-based antifreeze, because if the body is immediately placed in liquid nitrogen to cool, the remaining water in the body will freeze and expand in volume, destroying cells. Once all the water has been replaced with antifreeze, the body is cooled to minus 130 degrees Celsius on dry ice. The body is then stored head first in a large tank filled with liquid nitrogen at minus 196 degrees Celsius. Currently, cryopreservation of a whole body costs around $180,000, but there is a more economical way to preserve just the brain, which can be done for around $70,000. The brain-only method was developed because of the possibility of using the brain’s DNA to create clones of oneself. So far, modern cryonics has been very successful in the cooling phase. In particular, Dr. James Bedford, who became the first frozen human over 50 years ago, had no physical abnormalities when he was checked in 1991, according to the cryonics company Alcor. He was put into cryonics when the technology was not yet perfected, so he was cooled with some blood still in his body. However, given that he appeared to be in good physical condition, modern cooling techniques are near perfect. However, unlike cooling, thawing still presents many challenges.
While the cooling process involves removing water and replacing it with antifreeze to prevent the body’s tissues and cells from being destroyed, thawing is not just about raising the temperature to thaw a frozen human. There are many issues that need to be addressed, including repairing brain damage from lack of oxygen, brain and body damage from the toxicity of antifreeze, organ damage from temperature changes, and incomplete regeneration of tissues after thawing. While body tissues can be repaired to some extent through regenerative technologies, the brain is still an area that requires a lot of research. We still don’t fully understand the human brain, and there’s no guarantee that restoring its structure will preserve the information it contains. Nevertheless, the promise of future technologies is what keeps scientists working on cryonics. Advances in biotechnology, nanotechnology at the molecular level, and nanomedicine could improve cell regeneration and preservation techniques, which could help to fully thaw cryonics patients. In addition, recent attempts have been made to utilize the “connectome”. The connectome is a brain map that schematizes the neural network of the brain, and it is expected that it will be possible to reconstruct the structure and information of the frozen brain by utilizing it. While the thawing process is more difficult than the cooling process, and there are many issues to be resolved, there is growing hope that we will be able to “resurrect” frozen humans thanks to continued research and advances in science and technology.
While cryonics technology is still developing and its success is uncertain, the industry continues to grow. Many companies, including Alcor in the US, Cryonics, The Cryonics Institute, and KrioRus in Russia, have entered the cryonics business and are conducting research. Furthermore, in the US state of Texas, the “Timeship Building” has been under construction since 2016, with the capacity to house around 50,000 frozen humans. Despite the uncertainties of the technology, cryonics is gaining popularity because it could have a significant impact on space development, which is a key future industry. According to a report on cryonics published in March 2015 by the UK’s Science and Technology Committee, the UK is already developing a range of devices to enable cryonics, and the UK government is fully supporting the industry. Recognizing the potential, people and countries are investing, and two companies, Alcor and Cryonics, have announced that their membership is now more than 1.5 times larger than it was in 2010. This upward trend is expected to continue.
So far, we have looked at the cooling process of cryonics, the challenges of thawing, and the future prospects of cryonics. While the freezing process seems to have been almost perfected, there are still many problems with the thawing process. However, despite these problems, there are high hopes for the future of the technology, and attempts to thaw it continue. In line with these expectations, the prospects for cryonics are bright, and the industry continues to grow. At the rate of technological advancement, it may not be long before cryonics is no longer a novelty.
