I’ll be back: Does it make sense to live forever?

What is Thiel planning to achieve?

Speaking to a journalist, 55-year-old Thiel confirmed plans to cryogenically preserve his body and have it resurrected in the future. He did not divulge any details but said, “…I don’t necessarily expect it to work, but I think it’s the sort of thing we’re supposed to try to do…” The Alcor Life Extension Foundation, the largest cryopreservation institution, has 1,417 members and 205 patients who have cryopreserved their bodies with a similar belief. Alcor was founded in 1972 by Fred and Linda Chamberlain. Fred is cryopreserved at Alcor while Linda still works there.

What is cryonics? How much does it cost?

Cryonics, which Alcor terms as the “ambulance to the future”, involves cooling legally-dead patients and storing them in a vacuum-insulated metal box (10.6 feet high and 43 inches in diameter) at subfreezing temperatures using liquid nitrogen rather than electricity to protect against power outages and keep maintenance costs down. Those using Alcor for cryopreservation today must take out a life insurance policy that pays $80,000 at death for neuropreservation, or $200,000 for whole body preservation. Neuropreservation is also offered by KrioRus, a Russian cryonics company, for $12,000.

Where can you preserve your brain or body?

You can try the Cryonics Institute in Michigan, KrioRus in Russia, or startups in Australia and England. Berlin-based Tomorrow Biostasis claims to have cryopreserved about 500 people since 1967. That said, while embryos are frequently cryopreserved and can be revived, Alcor says no company has yet revived a cryopreserved human patient.

How will the brain or bodies be revived?

The Brain Preservation Foundation, which advocates preserving only the brain and not the body, believes the brain can survive years of shutdown. But Alcor says it does not believe such patients will be revived with anything “as primitive as cloning or transplants”. Instead, the technology would be sufficiently advanced to help a patient’s own cells regrow a body that matches its preserved brain. Elon Musk has hinted at uploading human minds into robotic exoskeletons, giving birth to cyborgs.

Any philosophical, legal implications?

First, if a person’s brain is frozen in 2025 but revived in 2075, the world would have changed as in the film Demolition Man where a police officer was revived nearly 50 years after he was cryogenically frozen to fight a convicted criminal, Simon Phoenix. That would be a problem. Second, most of those associated with the revived brain’s memories may no longer exist (unless they too are preserved and revived at the same time). Third, what would be the legal status of such a person? This is just the tip of the iceberg.