The choice to suspend yourself is strictly personal and highly speculative at best despite what you might hear from the various organizations out there or other “true believers”.
The honest organizations will tell you there are no guarantees and the process is entirely speculative, however if you don’t have yourself frozen upon “deanimation” (their word for death) there’s a 100% certainty you will not be “reanimated”.
I first learned about cryonics preservation in 1968 when the movement’s founder Robert C.W. Ettinger appeared with Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show. I had my father suspended when he passed in 1989 and my mother two years later in 1991. I also had the family pets, our 2 dogs and cat, suspended later. All five are currently “resting” with Cryonics Institute in Clinton Township, Michigan.
In 1992, I had the good fortune to meet Bob Ettinger and his second wife Mae, when one of the A.C.S. (American Cryonics Society) members went to see the then C.I. facility in Oak Park, Michigan. We stayed with the Ettingers for the weekend. Bob and Mae were great hosts and both impressed me as intelligent and forward thinking people who see what is and think what can be.
Every great advancement has come from those who refused to accept the current status quo. I look at cryonics as it stands today and think that if technology continues to advance without limitations, both those imposed by nature and by mankind, then someday reanimation will become a reality. The only drawbacks I can envision is the possibility that at some point in the future, either through natural or man made disaster, the human race will succumb to anhiilation or to a lack of interest (possibly due to a lack of progress in scientific advancements) and simply abandon any further attempts to maintain those in suspension or freeze anyone else.
If course the field is rent with “what ifs” as any attempt to know the future always is. No one could envision how sustained flight could be achieved until two bicycle shop owners proved it could be done. No one could possibly see how man could leave Earth and travel to the stars a century or more ago. But for a very few who looked beyond the norm and envisioned the possibilities the future held, we would still be earthbound.
As I said, this is a highly personal choice, but weighed against the alternative this is a “no brainer”. I only wish this process were more affordable for the average person. Life insurance or an annuity are the only ways most can afford the procedure. The procedures themselves, although much improved since the early days of cryonics, are far from desirable.
As anyone knows who has stored something in a freezer (much warmer than −321⁰F), anything not secured in a container is desiccated in time. Even things in containers will dehydrate in time. If you have ever seen the body of Ötzi The Iceman, the 5,300yr. old Neolithic bodily found in the Italian Alps, you know what damage freezing can cause. Of course Ötzi was exposed to the elements from time to time over those years but he was a lot warmer as well. The point is no one knows what damage long term suspension itself will cause, especially for the earlier suspensions.
Weigh all the factors then decide for yourself.
The choice to suspend yourself is strictly personal and highly speculative at best despite what you might hear from the various organizations out there or other “true believers”. The honest organizations will tell you there are no guarantees and the process is entirely speculative, however if you don’t have yourself frozen upon “deanimation” (their word for death) there’s a 100% certainty you will not be “reanimated”. I first learned about cryonics preservation in 1968 when the movement’s founder Robert C.W. Ettinger appeared with Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show. I had my father suspended when he passed in 1989 and my mother two years later in 1991. I also had the family pets, our 2 dogs and cat, suspended later. All five are currently “resting” with Cryonics Institute in Clinton Township, Michigan. In 1992, I had the good fortune to meet Bob Ettinger and his second wife Mae, when one of the A.C.S. (American Cryonics Society) members went to see the then C.I. facility in Oak Park, Michigan. We stayed with the Ettingers for the weekend. Bob and Mae were great hosts and both impressed me as intelligent and forward thinking people who see what is and think what can be. Every great advancement has come from those who refused to accept the current status quo. I look at cryonics as it stands today and think that if technology continues to advance without limitations, both those imposed by nature and by mankind, then someday reanimation will become a reality. The only drawbacks I can envision is the possibility that at some point in the future, either through natural or man made disaster, the human race will succumb to anhiilation or to a lack of interest (possibly due to a lack of progress in scientific advancements) and simply abandon any further attempts to maintain those in suspension or freeze anyone else. If course the field is rent with “what ifs” as any attempt to know the future always is. No one could envision how sustained flight could be achieved until two bicycle shop owners proved it could be done. No one could possibly see how man could leave Earth and travel to the stars a century or more ago. But for a very few who looked beyond the norm and envisioned the possibilities the future held, we would still be earthbound. As I said, this is a highly personal choice, but weighed against the alternative this is a “no brainer”. I only wish this process were more affordable for the average person. Life insurance or an annuity are the only ways most can afford the procedure. The procedures themselves, although much improved since the early days of cryonics, are far from desirable. As anyone knows who has stored something in a freezer (much warmer than −321⁰F), anything not secured in a container is desiccated in time. Even things in containers will dehydrate in time. If you have ever seen the body of Ötzi The Iceman, the 5,300yr. old Neolithic bodily found in the Italian Alps, you know what damage freezing can cause. Of course Ötzi was exposed to the elements from time to time over those years but he was a lot warmer as well. The point is no one knows what damage long term suspension itself will cause, especially for the earlier suspensions. Weigh all the factors then decide for yourself.