Why go through all the pain and sweat of the gym to live longer when you can just have your head cryogenically preserved? Three academics at Oxford University in England are having their heads detached and croygenicaly frozen so they can share their knowledge with future generations.
Nick Bostrom, professor of philosophy at the Future of Humanity Institute (FHI), a research center for human civilization, and colleague Anders Sandberg will just have their heads frozen, while fellow researcher Stuart Armstrong plans on paying more than $200,000 to have his entire body cryogenically frozen.
As The Independent reported, Sandberg told The Sunday Times that although life with just a head would probably have some limits, by then science would be advanced enough that his memories and personality could be downloaded on a computer.
Armstrong is so excited about the possibility of seeing life in the future that he’s taken out a policy on his unborn daughter as well.
“If you picture the world in, say, 200 years, when reanimation is possible, it will probably be a wonderful place,” Armstrong told The Independent. “I want to sign up the baby so she has the same chance.”
Because Oxford’s FHI doesn’t have a human cryogenic preservation research program, Bostrom and Sandberg are paying the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Ariz. to keep their heads until they can be brought back to life. The foundation already has 117 bodies in cryopreservation, 77 of which are just heads or “neuropatients.” Armstrong and his family will be stored at the Cryonics Institute in Michigan.
“The object of cryonics is to prevent death by preserving sufficient cell structure and chemistry so that recovery (including recovery of memory and personality) remains possible by foreseeable technology,” Alcor’s website explains. “If indeed cryonics patients are recoverable in the future, then clearly they were never really dead in the first place. Today’s physicians will simply have been wrong about when death occurs, as they have been so many times in the past.”
Other notable people who have been cryogenically frozen include baseball star Ted Williams and TV sitcom writer Dick Clair. “X-Factor” host Simon Cowell is among those who are believed to be considering freezing their bodies after death.
