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Cryonics is a somewhat new scientifical field. It deals with freezing a body after death to preserve it. Then in the future when it is possible to save a human life, they will be "thawed" out and reborn in a different time. It could be that the future discovered a cure for a disease that the human died of, or any number of causes of death. The body has to be preserved almost immediately by cooling the body. The degregation of brain cells occurs rather quickly after death, so lowering the body to cold temperatures is crucial to the preservation.

What is your opinion about this? Is it right to freeze a body after death? Do you think this is cheating death? Will you consider doing this?

My opinion is yes, yes, and yes. I mean, where's the harm in letting a scientist try to resurrect me in the future? If he can, I get to live longer, and if he can't...well, I'm already dead.

Given our current overpopulation problems, I doubt that this is going to be a priority for science. Besides, the point at which people get frozen is when they're on death's door, and if cryogenics will heal your terminal disease and let you live through the higher life expectancy, you're still old and decrepit. I wouldn't want to be cryogenically frozen for the same reason I'd rather die than wake up from a 20+ year coma: getting my bearings again would be an extreme effort for very little profit.
I'd be much happier with a brain transplant into a cloned body. And, hell, maybe at some point we'll start getting good at correcting God's innumerable mistakes in our design with each iteration.

I don't see anything wrong with this ethically, but it's not something that I would ever do (for basically the same reasons as Suki). The only exception might be if I were to develop a terminal illness now, while I'm young. Since (I'm presuming) freezing my body would preserve my youth, I might adapt more readily to a new environment.

Also, Suki, I'm presuming you're mentioning God with an element of sarcasm...because it doesn't make much sense for you to believe in God only to blame him for our imperfections, then revert to atheism whenever it's convenient.

Thats my main problem. If they freeze me when I am old (say 80), then when they revive me I would still be 80. It wouldn't be a good thing really =/

Also they should spend more money on much more important things. A "pod" at a cryogenics center costs a ton of money to buy (I heard up to $120 thousand, and thats just after death). Plus they are having a ton of problems getting it straightened out as it is: problems about freezing the body safely.

I personally would never do it.

Religious views on the subject is welcome :D

This is a /really/ bad idea. But for all of you who objected that you don't want to wake up to an 80-year-old body, the point is to be revived when science has progressed far enough to bypass aging to some extent.

Mute Monk wrote:Also, Suki, I'm presuming you're mentioning God with an element of sarcasm.

Astute.

Tsukatu wrote:

Mute Monk wrote:Also, Suki, I'm presuming you're mentioning God with an element of sarcasm.

Astute.

Sarcasm Combo. +1 to multiplier.

I saw this in a movie (I don't remember the name of it) where the scientists done this thing and after 200 years the guy and the woman came out the capsules or whatever and it turns out to be they are the smartest persons in the world at the moment because the average human intelligence dropped in considerable amounts.

Starbucks will be a brothel in the future. <3

Tunco wrote:I saw this in a movie (I don't remember the name of it) where the scientists done this thing and after 200 years the guy and the woman came out the capsules or whatever and it turns out to be they are the smartest persons in the world at the moment because the average human intelligence dropped in considerable amounts.

Idiocracy

Tunco wrote:Starbucks will be a brothel in the future. <3

Hm, I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, the girls behind the counter and a small portion of the customers are usually pretty hot, but on the other, the compulsive frappucino drinkers aren't exactly my cup of tea. I suppose it all boils down to whether or not obesity will be adequately curbed in the future.

I liked Transmet's take on this. People get frozen. People wake up hundreds of years in the future. People can't cope.

rennaT wrote:I liked Transmet's take on this. People get frozen. People wake up hundreds of years in the future. People can't cope.

Futurama did the same thing, but their solution was to freeze themselves further. (The Cryonic Woman)

Tunco wrote:I saw this in a movie (I don't remember the name of it) where the scientists done this thing and after 200 years the guy and the woman came out the capsules or whatever and it turns out to be they are the smartest persons in the world at the moment because the average human intelligence dropped in considerable amounts.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahhahahaahahahaaa. So sadly ironic.

Tsukatu wrote: I wouldn't want to be cryogenically frozen for the same reason I'd rather die than wake up from a 20+ year coma: getting my bearings again would be an extreme effort for very little profit.

I agree, but for the sake of my curiosity:

What if tomorrow you're in a car accident and paralyzed from the waste down. In the future there may be a cure, would you then consider Cryonics?

rennaT wrote:I liked Transmet's take on this. People get frozen. People wake up hundreds of years in the future. People can't cope.

Transmet is exactly why I said what I said. :)

Blackson wrote:What if tomorrow you're in a car accident and paralyzed from the waste down. In the future there may be a cure, would you then consider Cryonics?

No, I'd go through conventional treatment that modern medicine can provide rather than have myself killed in the hope that they can resurrect me later with no complications and fix me using a slightly less inconvenient method. I'm just not a fan of the "make it somebody else's problem" ideology behind the whole idea.

Oh, man, Tsukatu likes Transmetropolitan? You have so many layers. :D

SlappyMcGee wrote:Oh, man, Tsukatu likes Transmetropolitan? You have so many layers. :D

Unlike Cowboy Bebop characters.

:(

The government says that you can only perform cryonics on patients that are legally dead. This means that the heart has stopped beating. However dying is a process that takes many minutes (meaning the brain and other cells have not fully died until minutes after the heart stops). This is when the cryogenists step in and do their work.

I don't think killing yourself for cryogenic means is what it means =/

SlappyMcGee wrote:Oh, man, Tsukatu likes Transmetropolitan? You have so many layers. :D

Dude, are you joking? Transmet is amazing. I've been considering another re-reading of Transmet in its entirety in the summer.

Tsukatu wrote:

SlappyMcGee wrote:Oh, man, Tsukatu likes Transmetropolitan? You have so many layers. :D

Dude, are you joking? Transmet is amazing. I've been considering another re-reading of Transmet in its entirety in the summer.

I have original issues and paperback editions and intend to get the Ultimate edition when it releases.

In the fear of derailing the thread entirely, what is your favorite arc? We're allowed to do this because we're admins.

SlappyMcGee wrote:In the fear of derailing the thread entirely, what is your favorite arc? We're allowed to do this because we're admins.

Ha, which do you think?
Other than #6, though, the ones I've enjoyed the most were the ones that were disconnected from the plot for the most part and spun off as their own musings on various things. Although I do also enjoy the more overtly cyberpunk issues in the same flavor as the one in which he covered the riot. 'Fraid it's been too long for me to remember many details about them to identify them, though.

I doubt that we'll ever be able to bypass aging, at least completely. There's the whole issue of overpopulation, how our atmosphere can't handle that many people, blah blah blah, and, to me, making people stop aging is a bad idea. Prolonging there lives, even, isn't that good of an idea in my book, because eventually, we'll run out of space for all the people.

If we've fully comprehended space flight by then, it may not be that big of a deal, but then again it may, seeing as how Earth is an exceptionally rare example of a garden world, or someshit. Or maybe there are garden worlds scattered all throughout the cosmos, and when (or if) we develop FTL travel we'll be dumping people all along the milky way like nobody's business.

I'm surprised y'all forgot t'mention Demolition Man. Cryogenics was half o' the story.

I wouldn't want to be resurrected.

I'm a Christian, see. ;)

Might wrote:There's the whole issue of overpopulation, how our atmosphere can't handle that many people, blah blah blah, and, to me, making people stop aging is a bad idea. Prolonging there lives, even, isn't that good of an idea in my book, because eventually, we'll run out of space for all the people.

Yeah. I mean, if there's one thing that a lot of people need to do, it's get old and die so the rest of us can have some space.

But seriously, the reasoning behind your argument is poor at best, not to mention the fact that overpopulation is a current problem, not a future problem. Please re-evaluate the situation.