Cryo-startup: As someone in the death tech industry, I'm interested in how they're going to solve the problem of knowing the moment the person has died in order to get them into the the ambulance "very quickly". It's a tough one. Sometimes you don't die when, or where, you imagine. As my mum says: "Erstens kommt es anders, zweitens als man denkt."
It's always useful to consider the euthanasia view when if comes to end of life matters. I need to think a little harder to see it in this case. Perhaps this? Someone needs to be so close to the line between life and death - in order for the freeze to conserve someone worth reanimating - that there is an incentive by the company to freeze sooner rather than later. In some cases a little too soon... Perhaps also that the person themselves would rather end their life sooner, so their thawed version has a better start in the future.
On a person note, I like the finiteness of life. This service is unlikely to be something for me.
But if it is euthanasia on the sly / sort of a scam (assuming reanimation has no real hope of happening,) then you might want to sign up for it even given your (commendable) attitude about life!
I think they could do quite well in terms of getting investment. In the end, they might not end up doing much cryogenic freezing. If you consider that there are quite strict tests for whether our organs can be donated after death, it'll be similar. If certain illnesses are present, the death occurs in an accident, the person isn't frozen quickly because they aren't found immediately, they may not be suitable for freezing. But then, I'm sure they're aware of that.
The technology doesn't exist currently. This industry is based on the assumption that whilst we don't have the technology now, someone will invent it in the future. Whilst that might sound foolish, in really long term projects it's worth modelling new technologies into them. The world will not develop at the rate of the technology that exists today.
For example: when they started the human genome sequencing project, had they assumed it would take as long as it did based on the knowledge and computer power of 1990, they might have assumed their project would be complete in about 2070. I seem to remember reading that it was an inbuilt assumption of the project that their computers would get faster during the project. The graph that shows the completion rate for the genome sequencing looks kind of exponential. (Below link) Of course, they were learning as they went deeper into the project, but technology took huge leaps as they were working which helped them finish in 13 years, not c.80 years. And I think they assumed that in that some way.
Of course, things don't always develop in the direction we think. We don't have the flying cars my dad thought would exist by now. We got Facebook instead. (Stolen from a rather lovely interview years ago with Buzz Aldrin.) Anyway, the cryo people will have to work pretty hard to make sure the technology that underpins their ideas actually happens. But it might not.
The genome thing sounds like a quantitative progression vs the quantum leap of reanimation of the dead.
Another question haunts me: It's a real gamble for the customers. What if it does one day work but they wake up as lab specimens in some AI run nightmare? Or any other not so friendly scenario. One can't assume the current sociopolitical conditions are going to be around forever.
Reanimation might look like a quantitive progression after it's been achieved too.
I'm stressed enough living in this world and I grew up here. I'm OK living my life, calling it a day and letting future people deal with the future. Imagine being from 1510 and waking up today in 2023. We think today is OK. They might (!) find it difficult to adapt.
Cryo-startup: As someone in the death tech industry, I'm interested in how they're going to solve the problem of knowing the moment the person has died in order to get them into the the ambulance "very quickly". It's a tough one. Sometimes you don't die when, or where, you imagine. As my mum says: "Erstens kommt es anders, zweitens als man denkt."
I was just wondering whether it was euthanasia on the sly...
It's always useful to consider the euthanasia view when if comes to end of life matters. I need to think a little harder to see it in this case. Perhaps this? Someone needs to be so close to the line between life and death - in order for the freeze to conserve someone worth reanimating - that there is an incentive by the company to freeze sooner rather than later. In some cases a little too soon... Perhaps also that the person themselves would rather end their life sooner, so their thawed version has a better start in the future.
On a person note, I like the finiteness of life. This service is unlikely to be something for me.
But if it is euthanasia on the sly / sort of a scam (assuming reanimation has no real hope of happening,) then you might want to sign up for it even given your (commendable) attitude about life!
Very true! Yet all I’m think about is the cryo-startup merchandise potential with catchy lines. Coffee mugs, T-shirts, USB sticks etc..
Great point. Not sure if I'd invest in them!
I think they could do quite well in terms of getting investment. In the end, they might not end up doing much cryogenic freezing. If you consider that there are quite strict tests for whether our organs can be donated after death, it'll be similar. If certain illnesses are present, the death occurs in an accident, the person isn't frozen quickly because they aren't found immediately, they may not be suitable for freezing. But then, I'm sure they're aware of that.
What's the actual evidence that cryogenic freezing and reanimation might work? Have they successfully trialled it on other mammals?
The technology doesn't exist currently. This industry is based on the assumption that whilst we don't have the technology now, someone will invent it in the future. Whilst that might sound foolish, in really long term projects it's worth modelling new technologies into them. The world will not develop at the rate of the technology that exists today.
For example: when they started the human genome sequencing project, had they assumed it would take as long as it did based on the knowledge and computer power of 1990, they might have assumed their project would be complete in about 2070. I seem to remember reading that it was an inbuilt assumption of the project that their computers would get faster during the project. The graph that shows the completion rate for the genome sequencing looks kind of exponential. (Below link) Of course, they were learning as they went deeper into the project, but technology took huge leaps as they were working which helped them finish in 13 years, not c.80 years. And I think they assumed that in that some way.
Of course, things don't always develop in the direction we think. We don't have the flying cars my dad thought would exist by now. We got Facebook instead. (Stolen from a rather lovely interview years ago with Buzz Aldrin.) Anyway, the cryo people will have to work pretty hard to make sure the technology that underpins their ideas actually happens. But it might not.
Nice fact from this website: https://news.ucsc.edu/2022/03/t2t-genome.html
It took almost twice as long to finish the last 8% of the human genome as it did to sequence the first 92%.
The genome thing sounds like a quantitative progression vs the quantum leap of reanimation of the dead.
Another question haunts me: It's a real gamble for the customers. What if it does one day work but they wake up as lab specimens in some AI run nightmare? Or any other not so friendly scenario. One can't assume the current sociopolitical conditions are going to be around forever.
Reanimation might look like a quantitive progression after it's been achieved too.
I'm stressed enough living in this world and I grew up here. I'm OK living my life, calling it a day and letting future people deal with the future. Imagine being from 1510 and waking up today in 2023. We think today is OK. They might (!) find it difficult to adapt.
:( no one preserved a few urban landlines for nostalgia, historz, or dead batteries
Maurice, I’ll go buy the coffee mug sometime this week.
Alles Gute!