lsparrish comments on Normal Cryonics - Less Wrong

58 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 19 January 2010 07:08PM

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Comment author: lsparrish 14 November 2010 12:16:36AM 1 point [-]

How much time did you spend researching the question prior to concluding that it was false hope?

Comment author: georgepennellmartin comment score below threshold [+] (7 children)

Comment author: ata 14 November 2010 01:00:40AM * 2 points [-]

The death and freezing for probably over a century of your brain, would be traumatic. Information would inevitably be lost.

This is incorrect. Modern cryonics does not use "freezing", but rather vitrification at liquid nitrogen temperatures (below -124°C), such that chemical reactions almost completely stop. (See the table at the bottom of this page and the section about the claim that "cryonics freezes people" on the Cryonics myths page.)

Comment author: georgepennellmartin 14 November 2010 01:25:28AM 0 points [-]

Thats very interesting, its obvious that cryonics isn't just a pseudoscience. But I can't see how a brain's electrical impulses and ongoing chemical reactions would be preserved and restarted, if they were ceased.

Comment author: Perplexed 14 November 2010 01:49:21AM 1 point [-]

I can't see how a brain's electrical impulses and ongoing chemical reactions would be preserved and restarted, if they were ceased.

I don't see why you think there would be a problem. Raising the temperature restarts chemical reactions. Shine a light in the eyes or tickle the feet - that is all it takes to start nerve pulses flowing if the metabolic support is working. Restarting the heart is going to be more difficult than restarting the brain. That is to say, not difficult at all.

Comment author: jimrandomh 14 November 2010 01:55:25AM * 1 point [-]

This is slightly misleading, since the difficulty is not in restarting the reactions, but in repairing the damage sustained between death and preservation, repairing damage caused by the preservation process, and undoing the vitrification itself. These are hard problems, but they are well enough understood that we think we can predict which research paths will eventually lead to solutions, and what those solutions will look like in broad terms.

Comment author: lsparrish 14 November 2010 03:05:00AM 1 point [-]

The original comment didn't say anything about structural damage or toxicity, just electrical activity and ongoing chemical reactions, which are non-issues.

Comment author: Perplexed 14 November 2010 02:17:31AM 1 point [-]

Right. I was assuming essentially no damage between death and preservation. Current practice is far from this ideal, as I understand it.

lsparrish comments on Normal Cryonics - Less Wrong

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