Several weeks ago, I wrote a blog post titled “Head in the Cloud?” about the technology scientists are working on to upload people’s brain memory to a cloud after they die, by converting human brains to code which can run on machines. I discussed the idea of hacking death, and concluded with the question of whether humans can actually transcend death through their brain data living on – I was skeptical that a human being could be reduced to simply a database of memories.
More recently, though, I found another article on physically preserving people after they die through cryonics – the science of preserving people through sub-frozen temperatures in the hope that some time in the future, they can be brought back to life. The headline reads, “Floating in a tank of liquid nitrogen, unable to control our destiny, is very unappealing. But it’s much more appealing than being nibbled on by worms and bacteria.” Alcor Life Extension Foundation is a freezing center dedicated to making this practice available to the public. More than 1,100 people, referred to as “cryonauts,” have committed to being frozen, and 149 heads and bodies of people from around the world are currently stored at its center in Scottsdale, Arizona. The cost for this procedure? $80,000 for preserving just the head, and $200,000 for preserving the entire body. You can even freeze your pets!
One aspect of the article I found particularly interesting was its description of the timeline of the science of preserving life, drawing cryonics all the way back to Benjamin Franklin, who had hopes of embalming people in the future. When I think about how drastically technology has progressed within very recent years, and how many technological predictions have recently come true (i.e. self-driving cars available to the masses), the idea of “immortalization” in the future doesn’t seem that far of a reach to me. Throughout the semester, we’ve discussed how cultural perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors surrounding death have evolved over time (for instance, how death moved from the public sphere to the private sphere). However, the emergence of companies like Alcor shakes things up a bit further. With the advancement of cryonics, technology can change the very way we die – or, potentially, don’t.