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The biggest leap of faith surrounding cryonic preservation - and the greatest omission on the part of its proponents - is the sticky question of consciousness.
by biohacker42 18y ago
The biggest leap of faith surrounding cryonic preservation - and the greatest omission on the part of its proponents - is the sticky question of consciousness.
I can think of bigger leaps of faith.
For one, there's the question of what ice does to tissue. Ice crystals shred cells. Some things of small enough volume, like rabbit kidneys, can be frozen faster then ice crystals grow. But the problem is ice crystals also grow when something is unfrozen. And there is no equivalent super fast unfreezing. Unless you count burning. Tissue damage occurs again.
So the question if a future technology will ever be able to stitch together a brain shredded by ice crystals is a very important one.
If we could just freeze something as simple as a heart, never mind more complicated organs like kidneys, it would save countless lives. I mean organ transplants, not resurrection.
- Femur 18y ago>So the question if a future technology will ever be able to stitch together a brain shredded by ice crystals is a very important one. Absolutely! There are so many variables that come into play. Lets say that a significant percentage of brain cells become irreparably damaged; how much of an impact would this have on memory recollection? Perhaps some brain cells cold be repaired; what impact would that have? There are so many unknowns at this point that you are indeed correct that a big leap of faith is involved.
- topynate 18y ago"Vitrification" goes a long way towards addressing the specific problem of ice formation. Very rapid cooling is unnecessary. The downside is that you currently have to have your body removed prior to neuropreservation. I don't discount the other serious challenges of cryonics, like fracturing and cryoprotectant toxicity.