Storing dead people at -196°C

In Switzerland, there's a new cryonics company: and they invited me to have a look around. I had questions: legal, practical, and ethical, and I want to be clear: this is not an endorsement. I just wasn't going to turn down that invitation. ■ Tomorrow Bio: www.tomorrow.bio/
Camera: Martin Bäbler
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[@TomScottGo]

I realise that I said "freezing" in the introduction, and then get corrected later on in the video. I didn't notice until I got to the edit, so it had to stay in!

[@EditorZyldy]

It’s okay 😂

[@amieanne_]

@@lpc9929me too bro

[@MsZsc]

dam

[@user-op8fg3ny3j]

There's only one thing certain in life after taxes: it's that every soul *will* taste death

[@avator_1469]

​@@lpc9929well done sir

[@Maximus5641]

But when I freeze a dead body in my fridge, I go to jail. This isn't fair

[@sjt2115]

You just needed to have them subscribe to your freezer service.

[@bbroogs]

Also you forgot to replace all their blood with antifreeze... or did you..

[@lorisducly6567]

Because you do it free. Capitalism won't let you do it without income

[@jimmyzhao2673]

👀

[@tommyfred6180]

:)

[@abouttime837]

the idea of a trust fund for your own dead corpse where generations of people will work to preserve it is very pharaoh-like

[@kristoffer3000]

A really damning glance at just how stupid capitalism is, that allows people to have the very likely outrageous amounts of money needed for this whilst people starve to death.

[@shepshape2585]

I also would think that there are so many worthwhile charities that could really use that money and won't have it. Maybe even research into whatever disease took your life. They say you can't take it with you, but these people are trying their best.

[@IDonotHaveAGoodName]

that's what happens when people have money.

[@x--.]

Arguably its just a trust fund for a long-shot research project. Unlike trust funds for the actual living rich which only serve to make sure they stay in power. These dead have no power.

[@jacobcook245]

@@shepshape2585 Maintaining cryostasis costs very little money because liquid nitrogen is ten times cheaper than milk. Many people spend more (sometimes over a million dollars through insurance) on cancer treatments which fail more than they succeed.

[@LalanDesai]

Imagine someone who was once inside that freezer watching this video after 500 years.

[@jacobcook245]

That might be me one day (and it could be you, too)!

[@InDoMiNuS]

That's if humanity survives and doesn't destroy itself. Also I don't think the internet as we know of it today will be around after 500 years.

[@ivorscruton5121]

​@InDoMiNuS Humanity may not be around 500 years from now, at least not as we now know it.

[@MrLazlness]

Damn this hit me hard, I just came out of the freezer last week

[@ok.elenh.]

Δεν θα υπάρχει το βίντεο η τεχνολογία προχωράει....ούτε αυτό δεν θα μπορεί

[@MrWapadar]

This is the epitome of "So you're telling me there's a chance."

[@waywardmind]

I like that the CEO specifies that it's a research procedure, not a medical procedure.

[@Grim_Beard]

Probably for legal reasons.

[@RyanSoltani]

@@Grim_Beardyeah

[@commscan314]

@@Grim_Beard And also probably just to be pedantic.

[@agrimshaw92]

If he said it was a medical procedure he'd have to hire doctors, nurses, an ethics team, and the company would be subject to a MUCH higher degree of regulation

[@veramae4098]

Noticed the shrubs in front are all in stages of dying ...

[@gary1213]

Never thought we'd see a home freezer tour from Tom but here we are.

[@robertgardner9694]

😂serial killers rly do hide in plain sight bruh

[@thezpn]

Tom caught freezer fever from Technology Connections

[@IdleByte]

@@robertgardner9694 Is it serial 'killing' if you intend to bring them back?

[@noxnc]

@@IdleByteDefinitely. SEE Dhamer, Jeffrey.

[@pattheplanter]

Freezer burn!

[@hansofaxalia]

wastelander in year 2504: “hey boss look! The boys and I found a bunch of preserved bodies frozen in some tube, gonna be eating good tonight!”

[@laka0013]

I'd feel weird waking up knowing that my family and friends of today could potentially have been dead for hundreds of years. On the other hand this would allow me to know what happened to them as oppose to not knowing at all if there's no afterlife.

[@itstoasty7089]

We will never have such technology. At cold temperatures you’ll eventually die regardless. I do suggest you seek Jesus Christ my friend, for he died for your sins and allows you to have the good afterlife you mentioned about. God bless

[@JulianDanzerHAL9001]

unless some of them sign up too

[@AllenLantz]

you'd get over it, make a new family and new friends.

[@scholaroftheworldalternatehist]

This would be awesome, you get to skip the boring parts and then learn all about what happened and what fascinating world you arrived in. Nearly zero percent chance of success, but the theory is interesting.

[@awesomeboss3634]

you would literally be like fry from futurama, 100s of years into the future and having all of the people you know dead.

[@LimitedWard]

Imagine being one major recession away from getting thrown out like a freezer burnt chicken.

[@MichaeltheORIGINAL1]

That was dark, but damn, you made me laugh hard, haha!

[@user-un8tv1pp8m]

People call that capitalism, and thanks to mr Greenspan and his bootjacked helpers in Washington and the Pentagon, we all live that way. Every recession kills thousands of people. Or throws them out of shelter, jobs and food. I can easily imagine rich folk "saving" the corpses of their tribesmen, anyway. And if not - good riddance. Bodies go back into the carbon cycle, as it should be.

[@joel425]

invesment funds typically recover from recession but i doubt this will last forever

[@Adriano_446]

They would at least bury them.

[@plusonerabbit]

FREEZER BURNT CHICKEN 😭

[@fakepng1]

As a person who has never been frozen at -196°C, I agree.

[@daizdamien1409]

how good was amorphous state?

[@Ahmed-ow3rc]

Technically at some point in time and space, you were frozen 🥶

[@linden6352]

acktshually you would not have been frozen you would have been stored at -196°C*

[@ratchetandchank8648]

This is how I explain my frozen toad collection next to the chunky monkey in my freezer to house guests

[@H20.]

​@@linden6352that's the best alternative spelling of actually, that I've seen😂

[@hedleyt8095]

Imagine waking up in 500 years and dying again 2 days later because you still have cancer...

[@lilsamantha1]

😂😂😂😂😂

[@firefly9838]

The idea is that in 500 years there will be a cure

[@Voltomess]

@@firefly9838 not necessarily they still do not have a cure for rabies and many other diseases

[@thecomedypilot5894]

"Ok, one more video before bed" *The video:*

[@Catastropheshe]

Sweet dreams 😂😂😂

[@OrangeSheepPlayz]

Same ToT

[@bionicbison05]

Tom straight up showed us where he hid the bodies and expected us not to notice

[@rowanmorgan457]

This should be pinned.

[@miles611]

Follows that video about the place where it's technically legal to murder someone

[@Mtl-zf9om]

Why hide the bodies causing storage shortage when you can just dissolve them in a barrel of sulfuric acid?

[@Goldy01]

@@Mtl-zf9om because science!

[@jrus690]

Tom is not rich enough for this, but we know that he is at least trying to pretend that nothing bad happened.

[@gmfinc18]

Tom in a thousand years: This is the pod where I was frozen and now I'm going to be a delivery boy.

[@RickMyBalls]

His tshirt is exactly the appropriate shade of red.

[@alexnepu1561]

Then next week : this is my robot friend and my cyclop boss

[@kagitsune]

I understood that reference 😂

[@PhantomMarquis]

Pizza delivery for I.C. Wiener!

[@Durmomo0]

Welcome to the world of tomorrow!

[@ocayaro]

“People chasing money and losing their health, and using their money to chase health; Preparing for a future they will never see and forgetting the present, and Living like they’ll never die, and dying like they never lived.”

[@sodaboi2387]

I live in Germany and had the experience of going to the exhibition and programme "UN_ENDLICH" (IN_FINITE) from the Humboldt Forum. It was all about death and how we live with it. You got to see a very wide variety of perspectives, be it religious or scientific, and this cryonics company was part of it. Insanely interesting stuff.

[@ismellmandude6401]

What were the religious perspectives? Is there any online tour? Which ones were the most hopeful?

[@rosuav]

Tom, you've shown us a lot of really cool places in this series, but -196°C is definitely one of the coolest...

[@invincible4u]

damn that's cold

[@Emp31]

Icy what you did there

[@viiperbiite]

snow surprises there!

[@Qay]

I froze for a second reading that

[@ysesq]

filled to the top with chill people...

[@Immadeus]

Tom is really trying to make the most existential crisis inducing videos before he takes his break.

[@hazzardgaming405]

being someone fine with death it is always unsettling to see someone else so fearful of it.

[@Herbertti3]

@@hazzardgaming405 You probably believe in god?

[@BlueFlash215]

​@@hazzardgaming405I myself am fine with it. But I want to leave last so I can take care of things that need care.

[@hazzardgaming405]

@@BlueFlash215 makes sense, everyone has a task and goal set

[@jtx6104]

It’s easier to die when you’ve either done everything you’ve wanted, passed things on to the next generation to live through them, or when living sucks ass.

[@room34]

It's hard to avoid the philosophical questions about this, and ironically as I am now approaching 50 I am much more at peace with my mortality than I was in my 20s, but I think regardless of whether or not you think cryogenics is philosophically or ethically correct, or reanimation will ever be scientifically possible, the biggest flaw with this whole thing is: you're not frozen until you are old or extremely ill or both. Future science may be able to bring you back to life and "cure" your disease, but it will never make you younger, and most serious diseases, I imagine, would leave lasting damage even if they're cured. Plus… you're now in a distant and unfamiliar future and everyone you've ever known is long-since dead.

[@connermckay4012]

Plus we're currently *literally incapable* of supporting ourselves on this planet with our current population. We need MORE death right now, and we will always need it in some capacity until interstellar travel becomes a non issue (even if we can colonize another planet, there's limited space there too), which I suspect is quite far off.

[@room34]

@@spanishprisoner I stand… corrected? Wow.

[@NiJo826]

@@connermckay4012 the overpopulation rhetoric is getting old. we have more than enough food and resources to feed/clothe/house everyone currently alive today, governments simply choose not to in favor of weapons and the very real and not completely made up economic system.

[@Lyle-xc9pg]

Not true, if they can reanimate then they can also cure you

[@room34]

@@Lyle-xc9pg That statement implies that reanimating a person is more difficult than curing all known diseases.

[@Yaybravl]

Damn those are the chillest people ever

[@cryonicsunderground]

Benjamin Franklin is known to have written a letter in 1773 to Jacques Dubourg, a French physicist and a fellow inventor, in which he muses on the concept of being preserved. Here is the relevant passage from that letter: "I wish it were possible... to invent a method of embalming drowned persons, in such a manner that they might be recalled to life at any period, however distant; for having a very ardent desire to see and observe the state of America a hundred years hence, I should prefer to an ordinary death, being immersed with a few friends in a cask of Madeira, until that time, then to be recalled to life by the solar warmth of my dear country! But... in all probability, we live in a century too little advanced, and too near the infancy of science, to see such an art brought in our time to its perfection."

[@barbaramccoy6448]

He would be sad seeing the changes in America.

[@paranoidhumanoid]

@@barbaramccoy6448 Especially in his home turf of Philly...

[@Etaoinshrdlu69]

He would be happy to see our technological wonders though.

[@Naptosis]

​@@barbaramccoy6448WTF are you talking about? Access to the sum of all knowledge, horseless carriages, flying machines, instant translation, pizza, space travel, and limitless energy! Ben would be awestruck! But probably disappointed slavery is still legal in the USA.

[@BBDumfuk]

@@Naptosishuh?

[@KartMak]

With cryopreservation, the probability of coming back is > 0. That's the selling point.

[@lazarusblackwell6988]

What i want to know is why do these people think their business will last. If you freeze someone,what happens to them if the company that does the freezing goes BUST.

[@XYZ_55]

They are passed along to next of kin, who can in turn arrange for a new company to take over.

[@fakjbf3129]

There was an interesting survey a while back that found people who plan on using cryonic services like this are actually less likely to believe it will eventually work than the average person. The reason they go through with it anyways is that even the most minuscule chance of it working is infinitely more valuable than being guaranteed to die, so they believe the trade off is worth it.

[@TheKevtherev11]

Not to mention it would be like time travel if it works. One moment you’re choking on a burger in 2023, the next it’s 2780

[@SharienGaming]

i think that survey may also be skewed by the level of wealth the people in question have... because significant excess wealth is necessary to even consider something like this

[@supervegito2277]

There is a much bigger difference between 0% and 1%, than there is between 1% and 2% afterall.

[@weirdwordcombo]

@@SharienGaming To be fair, you don't need millions. You just need to start investing at a young age.

[@r0cketplumber]

The old joke is that dying and getting frozen is the _second_ worst thing that can happen to you.

[@tom.wassell]

What frustrates me the most, is unless you're in that tank - you'll likely never get to know if it works.

[@darrencooper670]

And even if you are in the tank you will only know if it works if it works.

[@davidf2281]

@@darrencooper670 ​What if it works but a side-effect is memory loss? You wouldn't even be able to care that if it works you would only know that it works if it works.

[@glitteringstar6059]

that's literally a win / win situation, it either doesn't work and you stay dead which make you unaware of anything so it doesn't matter or it does work and you are brought to life again and from the perspective of that person, this would have happened in an instant, the moment they die they are reborn again (even if it has been 200 yrs or whatever)@@darrencooper670

[@tom.wassell]

@@spanishprisoner I think you missed my point so I'll rephrase it. It's likely you won't know if the resuscitation ever works unless you're in that tank.

[@DespOIcito]

The technology for this is likely centuries away. We won’t know if it works because it’s not likely to happen in our lifetimes

[@majurygaming753]

Just think about this. The customer will experience death, then instantly wake up in the future, in the blink of an eye. Whereas, the rest of the population will experience potentially hundreds of thousands of years. Crazy...

[@user-ke2gg6le3s]

That is true! sadly i dont beleive bringing people back to life is impossibe.

[@anujdubey9023]

“This is a dying industry” got real😂

[@alexrogers777]

Feel like at the very least this will leave some extremely well preserved modern mummies for the future

[@dougaltolan3017]

Or zombie snacks.

[@jrus690]

The Archeologists won't find anything except for the leftovers of the facility.

[@MakerManX]

​@@jrus690depends on how far into the future archeologists decide to investigate

[@ardaghion]

In 50 years when the company shuts down, they won’t need archeologists, but they will need to dispose of the remains.

[@jacobcook245]

@@ardaghion James Bedford has been kept in continuous cryostasis since 1967.

[@GeorgeFarren]

Even if it doesn't ultimately end in revival, it's a great way to preserve people for future archeologists! Kinda like modern mummies

[@NileGold]

This is an amazing point, what if mummies were supposed to serve a similar purpose

[@QemeH]

"It was the common belief of the era that being burried with a cotton gown and a plastic tube in your trachea would afford you the enternal life." - Archeologists, mistaking poorly preserved scripture in 4000 CE.

[@evilbarrels2506]

@@NileGold They kinda were, honestly. It was believed by ancient Egyptians that after you passed away your spirit would reinhabit your body in the afterlife, so they sought to preserve the bodies of those important or rich enough to justify the cost of the process. They also paired many of their preserved bodies with life-like statues that were supposed to serve as backup bodies in case the body decayed too much or became damaged.

[@rosscalhoun3389]

I doubt they'll remain preserved once the company goes under. So unless those archeologists are breaking into a still active company, I don't think anything will come of it.

[@maythesciencebewithyou]

The vast amount of data we have on present day humans will last for much longer than these cryo companies

[@enigma51ted]

this never appeared on my KZbin feed until today - facinating details :O

[@henry6136]

I honestly hope medical technology progresses to the point where these patients can be resuscitated. It'd be super cool and it would open the doors to a lot of different things.

[@deltaview2151]

Bad things too

[@deyvien]

@@deltaview2151 elaborate?

[@deltaview2151]

@deyvien Not Permanantly dying can remove human fear to be good, evil thoughts and actions without any fear can creep up. Also imagine resurrection of wealthy criminals.

[@hexiy_dev]

@@deltaview2151 but you will die, it would just pause your life, you're still mortal

[@Keeby.]

@@deltaview2151 if the only reason youre a good person is because youll die you prolly arent a good person. its the same thing with religious people who think you can only be a good person through religion. most people are good people because they just care about each other

[@akeem2983]

I don't believe that those bodies have significant chance to be recovered, but overall I think that this is an awesome and extremely beneficial kind of study, considering that even preservation of something like skin graft or small organ already could have extremely high number of use cases

[@BaseNAND]

Maybe the bodies do, but the brain will be an entirely different story.

[@sadpee7710]

except i don't think it would be ethical or legal to study these corpses or use them for anything other than possible revival. i don't think there's any research you could conduct on them either without taking them out of their containtment, which would be an ethical breech if not for revival.

[@circuit10]

@@sadpee7710I guess they mean research into cryopreservation in general will help with those things

[@norezenable]

Especially 100, 500, or if things really work out 1000+ years in the future when we need some kind of sample from a preserved body to repair genetic damage or something liek that.

[@meneldal]

I believe current science is at the level of thawing mice, and the challenge for larger animals is uneven thawing (getting everything to an ok temperature without anything burning)

[@atlas2296]

An interesting thought I had was that the people in those tanks wont experience any of the time that passes if they do indeed get revived. They will simply die, and wake up likely not even a millisecond apart in a new century with new technology, maybe with permanent damage to their body, maybe with no damage to their body. It will be like closing your eyes, falling asleep, and then instantly waking up at 8:00 in the morning, except instead of 8-10 hours, it could be 8-10 centuries

[@JohnSmith19282]

And that's exactly why I think I would HAVE to do this

[@jacobcook245]

@@JohnSmith19282 With life insurance, you can, quite easily.

[@Dockhead]

@@JohnSmith19282so where you going to live or work or have the capacity to resume life in any capable manner if even able to do so in any capable form of time after reanimation. Realistically this isnt gonna work even if it did

[@JohnSmith19282]

@Dockhead oh I totally agree realism is way out the window its cryo freezing ffs I'd do it purely out of curiosity and I don't think I could resist while knowing that for me I would fall asleep and then either be straight up dead forever like i would have anyway or just wakeup instantly years and years away . I'd want to see the tech and the medicine and if marvel have started making good movies yet 😂sorry for bad English I'm smoking a spliff

[@plzletmebefrank]

I mean... There is still brain activity for at least several minutes after your heart stops. The experience of dying could definitely cause severe mental/emotional trauma. If, ironically, one were to live through it.

[@TheAngelsHaveThePhoneBox]

3:35 Glad to hear someone will teach them how to use the three seashells.

[@Longbow-jt8jp]

Those people...are never coming back.

[@staticradio724]

I think my biggest issue with being cryogenically frozen is that the world and society moves so fast. If I were to be frozen today and woken up 500 years from now, it could be like someone frozen in the year 1523 waking up today. You just wouldn't even know how to function in that world.

[@user-on6uf6om7s]

The rate of progress also accelerates. Someone who lived on a farm in 1500 could probably get by running a farm in 1800, even 1900, but someone from 1900 would have a big learning curve getting used to modern life. We have no reason to think 100 years from now won't be an even more dramatic shift, let alone 500.

[@Kaytee48]

Good point, look at the change in my lifetime- 48 years, totally different in just 5 decades.@@user-on6uf6om7s

[@JLneonhug]

​​@@user-on6uf6om7sfortunately in this generation we have more imagination and openness, Star Trek will become reality someday, multiple universes, time shifting and teleportation exists etc.

[@slinkerdeer]

@@user-on6uf6om7s This is a very valid point. The rate of acceleration in technology advancing is exponential. 1523 will likely look closer to 2023 than 2023 will to 2123

[@What-ki4we]

Idk I kinda long to see such a sight assuming everything goes well and humanity has prospered despite all odds.

[@DanielVerberne]

It's genuinely refreshing to have a scenario like this play out with seeming honesty and respect for the limitations of current science. Also, it's entirely possible that in practicing cryonics that humanity will make accidental (or intentional) progress in other fields of medicine or science.

[@toastedt140]

Good point! Honesty is probably the only way to gain funding since there's already been a lot failures.

[@AdrianColley]

One day we will discover a cure for boneitis.

[@_Mercival_]

It is important to note the vast majority of cryopreservation facilities have simply ceased to function and let the bodies rot anyways. This whole thing is a scam and screams death denial.

[@DanielVerberne]

@AdrianColley I forgot to find a cure for my boneitis! But at least 'That Guy' got to be a rad 80s dude.

[@asmoth360]

"refreshing" 😭

[@blazewtf4797]

you will never be able to avoid death.

[@ThisIsNuckingFuts]

If the human psyche could be uploaded into a robot it could work. But that’s kinda taboo to think about. Also I can’t see it being possible! So I would have to agree with you

[@byagiejakiteh9501]

Thank you for understanding

[@CKainn]

@@ThisIsNuckingFutseven then, it would not be you. it would be a copy, a simulation of what existed.

[@blueleafy7167]

God didn't intend for people to live forever so its not possible

[@Th3Jac0b]

​@@blueleafy7167if the god exist you have no idea what it planned or not planned

[@PuzzL_]

The need to live for forever is a sign of an unfulfilled life.

[@lemfet3526]

Ofcurse life is great, and I want to keep doing new things. Why be satisfied where you are now if you can get more? Not wanting to live longer is fine. But I kindof feel bad for you tbh

[@sn0wt1ger]

@@lemfet3526 I think it warrants more pity trying to cling onto your life rather than accept your fate and move onto whatever comes next, as is the natural process of life and death.

[@Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmn]

​@@sn0wt1gerHave you ever consider an option that there's nothing after death?

[@UnfeelingMonster]

very pragmatic viewpoint from the CEO. This has a quite low % chance of actually working, but it is certainly higher than being reanimated from decomposition in a coffin or reanimated from ash

[@lovablesnowman]

0% is not larger than 0%

[@Ed-1749]

​@@lovablesnowmanbut it's not 0%. It's 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001%. Which is higher than 0

[@Lilitha11]

@@Ed-1749 I wouldn't say it is that low. Personally I think given enough time, we will eventually be able to revive these people, it is just a matter of getting them to that time period.

[@RyanBoggs]

​@@Lilitha11I personally have a hard time believing that every one of the trillions of neurological connections in the human brain could survive this process, or that every one of the tens of thousands of microscopic biological processes don't sustain any kind of damage. Even with the most ideal and perfect reanimation system, I don't think they would come back as the same person, if they can even come back at all.

[@Spyder638]

I would probably choose this option just to have a shred of hope for life again in my final moments.

[@FinlayDaG33k]

So, the weirdest part for me isn't the fact of being frozen with no guarrantee the procedure may ever work... It's the part where one would wake up, in an completely unknown future, without their friends and family or anything for that matter.

[@AlexanderAnqvist-dw8ou]

Especially because if it does ever happen, it would happen instantly from your perspective. No time would pass, it would be like the game SOMA, which is crazy

[@jacobcook245]

Some people convince their families and some friends to join them.

[@Stringandsealingwax]

Actually sometimes whole families sign up. Most people involved know others involved, so they will have friends in the future. But really, you would prefer certain death rather than go on the greatest adventure of all time (and possibly have a hugely extended lifespan)?

[@Quotenwagnerianer]

@@Stringandsealingwax Not to mention that language and culture will evolve over time. Imagine a person from the year 1023 wake up now after being frozen. They would not even know how to communicate with their surroundings let alone live in it.

[@jacobcook245]

@@Quotenwagnerianer That's a parochial misconception. By the time we're able to reanimate people, we'll be communicating telepathically with neurointerfaces.

[@AkashYadavOriginal]

Most probably future generations will be studying these Frozen corpses like we study the Mummies.

[@omp199]

That would be extremely unethical. Unlike the mummies, these people can in principle be restored to conscious functioning.

[@Dheinamar]

It would actually be cool to hear more on "making it more affordable" part and how are they working on it

[@gugobsn2718]

Most people who have cryonics contracts have the cryonics company be the beneficiary of a life insurance policy. So, they only need to pay a monthly life insurance fee for a policy of the amount of the cryopreservation procedure. This could be under $100/month if they sign up when they're relatively young and healthy (i.e., before life insurance costs shoot up for them).

[@chrysophylax_dives]

Partly by having you pay for it with a life assurance policy with the cryonics foundation as the beneficiary, but mostly because they have high fixed costs (a big facility and lots of fancy equipment) and very low variable costs (they rarely need to collect patients for storage and liquid nitrogen is cheap), so every person who signs up makes it cheaper for everyone else by spreading the fixed costs.

[@Gooner184]

They won't.

[@naerbo19]

The CEO is very honest about the mechanics of it and payment for it which is really refreshing and important for the organisation he works for.

[@CooroSnowFox]

It's only as good as what they can sell... someone else will do that job for a future that it can fix the people inside.

[@Bendoughver]

The main problem that none of these companies talk about is ice crystals and the bodys cells literally popping as they form. They all go on about using medical grade anti freeze and say we are not freezing the body, but its not possible to remove water from cells without destroying them and its not possible to freeze them without destroying them either.

[@fitybux4664]

@@Bendoughver if you're buying a ticket to their service, you'd be hoping they improve over time. But, in general, that's not how companies work. They don't tend to innovate more as they get larger, they tend to innovate less. I guess that means that, when you're very old and close to death, THEN is the time to start shopping for a market disrupting cryonics place with bleeding edge tech. 😀

[@MentalParadox]

Refreshing? Mind pointing me to the cryonics organizations that lied and made false promises?

[@scyfrix]

@@Bendoughver They particularly pointed out that what they're doing is vitrification, not freezing. Not are they removing water. It's like you didn't watch the video.

[@PSNDonutDude]

The insane thing is that if this works, those people will die, and a few minutes later in their experience wake up. A blip of time for them, will be potentially decades or centuries for us. Closest thing to time travel, but also just incredible to experience for them.

[@PHDarren]

"Welcome to the world of Tomorrow!"

[@xmarkx9988]

and if they are unlucky they will be resurrected by a massively evil entity that will torture them forever without any chance to stop it.

[@BunnyQueen97]

I can’t imagine waking up and everyone I’ve ever known, or even known of, has been dead for hundreds of years.

[@spaghbol4536]

@@PHDarren "You are a delivery boy."

[@walterroux291]

The closest thing to Time Travel IS Time Travel, Time IS relative After all. Travelling into the future by going at relativistic speeds. Time Travel to the past however does seem impossible.

[@evanplatt1325]

Major props that these people aren't selling it as a guarantee that you will be revived in the future.

[@Tennisisreallyfun]

My main concern is just the intense lack of oxygen going to the brain throughout this time. Even if someone is resuscitated later on, I find it hard to imagine any sort of technology that could restore brain function.

[@dragontoothless4351]

Closest I've experienced is -180C when working with cryogentic storage tanks that were holding various cells (human, animal, plant, bacteria) and viruses. My hands would feel like they were on fire even with multiple layers of thermal gloves, especially when reaching to the lower rack of a double rack tank to pull vials for offsite storage. Hence we'd reach our hand down for a few seconds, then go over to a nearby hand dryer to warm them back up, then repeat until we found the exact vials we were looking for.

[@daarom3472]

and then when you look up you Alliser Thorne looking over you saying "you don't know cold".

[@godzillas6301]

its said humans cant tell the difference between excessive heat or cold

[@Just_A_Simple_Time_Traveller]

@@godzillas6301 I mean at a certain point you don't feel the temperature you just feel your hand dying, and then it doesnt matter whether that's because of high or low temperatures.

[@jishan6992]

Why not use some form of tongs to retrieve your vials?

[@sadpee7710]

nice anecdote to reinforce the damage of freezing. this is a very sloppy analogy, however imagine sticking your hand into a tank unprotected, keeping it there for YEARS, then taking it out. that hand would be beyond saving. unrecoverable. now imagine your entire body in that scenario. though preserved, it'd be preserved in an irreversibly destroyed state. hopefully one day technology can change that.

[@TheUltonian]

In the UK at least, if you are terminally ill in some cases you can sign up for experimental procedures that might not work, but are at least a vary slight chance. This seems to be of a similar nature. Maybe it won't work, but at least it's another roll of the dice.

[@Xeddyhime]

And, even if it doesn't work for you, perhaps what is learned in the process can one day save someone else's life.

[@francesco245]

There's no "maybe" in that, that's what many of you fail to understand. There's absolute certainty that these dead people will remain so (because they're dead).

[@Dockhead]

@@Xeddyhimethats what we do with lab animals, except learning anything is so minuet its crazy.

[@Dockhead]

@@Dramn_ thats not what we do with rats? Can you elaborate how not?

[@HermitKing731]

"Pizza delivery for....I.C. Weiner?"

[@massiveblackwood]

this actually got me 2 reasons to not scared of death : 1. everyone is going to die, 2. ressurection been actively researched, amazing.

[@pigpig252]

Even if this never works, the research gained from this kind of project could benefit other medical fields, things like organ preservation for example

[@MentalParadox]

It's the other way round, we are using organ preservation as a way to gain knowledge to make cryonics work. Plenty of cryonicists are working on organ preservation for exactly this purpose

[@efeyzee]

They're not doing research. They're not trying new methods and seeing if they work, they're using a method to freeze people we know doesn't work for decades and selling people the false hope of being brought back

[@MentalParadox]

@@tabularasa7775 you'd be wrong

[@jacobcook245]

@@tabularasa7775 We still can't cryobank organs. There have been some experiments which have succeeded in reanimating rabbit and rat kidneys, but human organ cryobanking remains a distant prospect. Currently, people are preserved as best as possible with the technology avaialble today, but reanimation will have to wait until far more advanced technology is developed which can repair the damage incurred by the imperfect cryopreservation process of today.

[@MentalParadox]

What he said. We can keep organs cool for quick transport from the donor to the patient, but we can't store it long-term in case we ever need it. If we can figure out how to do it with organs, maybe this can be a stepping stone to doing it with entire bodies. I'm familiar with people and companies studying this very thing. One person I know (a fellow cryonicist from China) even runs a company making de-icing product for the airline industry, all in the effort of gaining know-how that might help.

[@Cutondogor]

Two things you haven't mentioned: 1) the term "Meatglass" gets used a lot in the industry, and just as you'd expect, it's fragile and liable to crack due to differences in pressure and stress created when freezing the body. Where's the biggest stress? Across the head. It happens a lot. 2) The bodies are stored in the flasks upside down with their heads in buckets, so that if the power fails and the liquid nitrogen surrounding them starts to boil off, the last place to defrost is the head. Considering quite a few people actually only have their heads preserved (less space, lower cost), there's going to be quite the need for available bodies without heads when the time comes.

[@abigailcooling6604]

'Psst, mate, I've got a bunch of bodies that need heads for your business. Leave £250 000 in a rucksack in a dark alley and don't ask questions.'

[@tigersinateahouse]

​@@pomelo9518I can't tell if it's a Monument Mythos reference

[@Marques_239]

@@abigailcooling6604 By then 250k might get you almost 5 chewing gum :D

[@safye4]

Reminds me of the show 'Altered Carbon' on Netflix where if you die, you can have your "stack" which I think was essentially your concious placed into a new body. Imagine shopping for a new body one day...

[@sardex6712]

On the contrary, I think when/if the idea and the practice and solutions come out of the practice. Cryogenics will have a fair amount of bodies (with heads) to choose from. In practice I will become widespread, mainstream and all the sorts. However just like I receive my grocery store product, I'm not a fan of of the idea of receiving a body.

[@morrishernandez151]

This is the closest thing to Vault Tec freezing people in vault 111 that I have heard off.

[@G1CHO]

Im so glad this is a waste of money and time. These "dead" people are insane.

[@thespacepeacock]

One thing that is often overlooked when discussing procedures like this, is that it doesnt only have applications for dead people. *if* cryopreservation were ever to become completely reversible, it could be used to great effect in interplanetary and even interstellar travel, which can take years or even decennia. I for one applaud any research being done that could one day enable that!

[@caelodevorago608]

It can also become something to do for terminal illnesses, you go under before it can kill you. Then you wake up sometime in the future to a "Congrats! We can fix you now!"

[@flamingspinach]

@@caelodevorago608 Well, that is exactly what they're currently using it for (and what the video describes), so that's not really an "also".

[@bwilliamstown]

@@flamingspinach No, currently you must die before they can cryopreserve you. What they meant was if the technique was perfected you could start the cryopreservation earlier in the illness, before it has advanced to the point where it has killed you (and then coming back with all of the health effects from a late-stage terminal illness present when you are "revived")

[@flamingspinach]

@@bwilliamstown That could be done today, without any need for further perfecting cryopreservation techniques. The only obstacle is that cryopreserving someone is considered murder if they're still alive from a legal standpoint. From the point of view of the company and the patient/customer, the customer *needs* to be alive when they're cryopreserved. Cryonics has never promised to resurrect the dead. The whole point is that what counts as "dead" with today's medical knowledge and with today's legal system might well count as "still alive" by the definitions of society in the future. So cryonics teams get to work during that short window of time when they still believe the patient is alive but the legal system believes them to be dead. A couple hundred years ago, you were considered dead as a doornail if your heart stopped beating, but now we have CPR and AEDs. Instead of saying that CPR and AEDs can "resurrect the dead", we simply redefined what it means to be dead, and now CPR and AEDs are life-saving interventions, not necromancy. So cryonics proponents expect the definition of death to continue to shift to catch up with medical advancements.

[@willywonka3050]

Scientists just revived frozen 40,000 year old worms, which not only came back to life but were able to reproduce. It is therefore possible for life to be paused indefinitely, we just don't have the tech yet.

[@jimyeats]

He is correct about the saying, “you’re only dead if you’re warm and dead”. In the ER we absolutely perform life saving measures until the patient (if they were brought in pulseless and hypothermic) is both warm and still pulseless. Then if we get a pulse back we often cool them off again to preserve brain function.

[@hamishwhitehenderson5197]

yes, freezing can absolutely be used in certain circumstances to prevent damage to the brain and other organs in the event of death , but only for periods up to a few hours, at that point even if there is no damage to the organs anyway and the person is completely fine, the freezing begin to cause irreversible damage.

[@Naptosis]

"Thanks for saving me! Wait! Why are you putting me back in the lake!?" 😅

[@kenbrown2808]

which is funny, because there is a full category of cold and dead, that never go to the E.R.

[@jimyeats]

@@kenbrown2808 Oh for sure. We’re talking about reasonable scenarios.

[@kenbrown2808]

@@jimyeats in out of public conversations, the common expression is "condition has self stabilized"

[@soryn_]

thanks for the note/warning at the beginning :)

[@Turbo0666]

I really see nothing wrong with it as long as when they approached clients they're as honest as the CEO seems. The research needs to start somewhere it may be all for nothing but the same thing could have been said about many other procedures in the past that are great successes today.

[@texasranger24]

This is completely voluntary and the company seems very honest about the chances of it working, so i understand why people do it and don't think it's morally or ethically wrong. It's trying to make the best out of the very unfortunate reality of death.

[@veergauba]

The company is anything but honest.

[@abouttime837]

it’s also very indicative of the state of capitalism that someone can be so wealthy their wealth takes a life of its own and fuels generations of trust fund workers who work for decades after they die just to keep their corpse frozen

[@ATact1calP0tat0]

@@veergauba you just watched a video of the guy saying the product he sells isn't guaranteed to work.

[@Stringandsealingwax]

@@veergauba I have met the CEO and several people that work there and I think they are very honest.

[@Baes_Theorem]

@@veergaubacould you specify exactly what he said that was misleading?

[@bhavikn28]

Imagine seeing your subscription bill per month and with Netflix and Amazon, you see your membership for freezing your corpse.

[@kirmityou]

I can't be sure, but I really don't think that the people that are participating in this look at their monthly statements anymore...

[@ericlotze7724]

@@kirmityoufor now at least

[@boldCactuslad]

@@kirmityou its not really just for the rich. many pay for it using life insurance.

[@MiscellanyTop]

ROFL! "Dear Sir, if you do not pay, we'll repossess you."

[@lemfet3526]

​@@kirmityouI mean I am signed up and pay around 60€/month. Am not Ritch at all. And still check my bills atleast monthly

[@PrometheusGhostRider]

Dreading the day when Tom Scott stops making videos. It’s a constant in a crazy world and most definitely a comfort

[@isaaclai1636]

Hard to believe that day has come and gone

[@Trashest]

Tou know its going to be a banger video when the most replayed is the beginning

[@BrotherhoodJay]

From what I understand of modern cryonics is that it's not an issue with unfreezing the body, it's a issue with freezing a large body (any larger than a hamster) that causes irreparable cell death if the body is frozen too slowly, allowing large crystals to form in the cells and ultimately breaking the cell walls. What's currently needed, if I understand correctly, is a way to flash freeze large bodies simultaneously in order to prevent said cell damage/death. So all these people who are currently frozen are unlikely to ever be reanimated because the damage has already been done.

[@Herbertti3]

Give it enough time and scientist develop a way to rearrange atoms. Lets say 2000 years.

[@RealGracefulGoose]

2:03

[@BrotherhoodJay]

@@RealGracefulGoose point taken

[@p3ter9000]

It seems like that issue at least is being addressed here. Liquid nitrogen will rapidly cool to prevent large ice crystals in the cell, and the antifreeze should help with that, though I wonder what the actual effectiveness of the procedure is.

[@SwissCowboy87]

@@Herbertti3 our society will not last 2000 years

[@octoegg11]

I know Tom is usually chill and all, but why would he freeze people in that tank

[@ZionUnofficial]

tom froze people in a tank????

[@rhysmeyers9396]

@@ZionUnofficial at least 5!

[@MrMysteryman00]

Cause chill people want to chill others.

[@duccc]

"Actually he vitrifies them, not freezes them" 🤓

[@kingsley.]

@@rhysmeyers9396why 120, so much?

[@mattrost2574]

The analogy I enjoy most is, "....try turning hamburger back into a living cow; same difference."

[@karatemaster1144]

Along with this procedure doing irreversible damage to the body, I wouldn’t have confidence in the company preserving these bodies properly for hundreds to thousands of years. It feels like something would inevitably go wrong before they have a chance to revive the person, and even then, it’s not even a guarantee that the future doctors would be able to work with what we gave them.

[@Stringandsealingwax]

"it feels like..." It will take 100, 150 at most. Alcor has already been around for 50 years. This is a stable organisation.

[@rantingrodent416]

@@Stringandsealingwax you're making more aggressive claims than the company's own CEO here. It is unlikely that revival will ever be possible. They say this themselves. In which case, storage will essentially be indefinite until the business fails.

[@spyderborg]

Again, it comes down to taking a flat 0% chance of revival, or some chance >0%

[@MegaKaitouKID1412]

I doubt anyone is going into this thinking that they'll be preserved for thousands of years. A company preserving itself for thousands of years is laughable, nevermind their property. The oldest "surviving" structure on earth right now is maybe 12 thousand years old, and we're not talking the Pyramids (about 5 thousand years old) or something else that's actually a standing structure, but the oldest structure that is recognizable as a building. The people who are signing their corpses up for this likely expect the technology to take maybe a couple hundred years at most. I'm not sure if the technology to revive these people is even possible-- even if the rest of their organs are kept in a condition where they could be revived, I doubt their brains are in a state that could be returned to normal. But nobody is expecting to have doctors still working on these theory and suddenly find an answer in thousands of years.

[@karatemaster1144]

​@@MegaKaitouKID1412 I agree with everything you said, 100 percent.

[@horion7271]

"You are only dead if you are warm and dead" Thats the second time i heard this line today. Weird. Also true, there is lots of cases that peoples survived after their heart stopped from cold for almost a day.

[@carltonleboss]

Baader-Meinhoff effect, baby!

[@WlatPziupp]

@@carltonleboss Been hearing about that a lot since I learned what it was

[@IstasPumaNevada]

@@WlatPziupp You did what I see there. :)

[@andrewhenshaw4067]

That isn't true, you can't survive that long after your heart stops beating. Your cells will start to damage and die within minutes because of lack of oxygen

[@FewNewReasonss]

So when we come across a body anywhere and it's cold you don't need to report it? Cause it's not dead.

[@MedEighty]

1:09 Great! So, if they do ever come back, they're going to be penniless and homeless.

[@VeryCoolAlan]

That last sentence was very eerie....

[@evandavis5223]

I worked in the plant that made those liquid nitrogen tanks for a while. It's fascinating to see how they're put to use.

[@lif6737]

Neat, you made rich people coffins

[@jacobcook245]

@@lif6737 I'm doing this and I'm not rich. Most cryonicists aren't. We fund our suspensions with affordable life insurance policies. Rabbit and rat kidneys have already been successfully recovered from cryostasis, and scans of cryopreserved human brains show intact cells, so reanimation may be possible.

[@FedkaSlovanich]

@@lif6737they should toss a homeless person in there, as a goof

[@bryannickels3032]

Tom warned us that he was taking a step back from youtube, but I never thought he'd consider this.

[@mrkrills8839]

This aged poorly

[@jaxonmattox9267]

There are no complicated ethical questions, it is obviously a harmless thing that people should be free to do. Nobody is forcing you to do it, and there is nobody who gets hurt by them doing it

[@DanElton]

👏👏👏

[@WillyFisher412]

Exactly, as well I do not see the problem with living forever either, I do the same thing every day, and have desire to change, and if I am fine for eighty years without growing at all in apathy, I see no reason why after hundreds of years I should be bored. Perhaps for people for whom variety is the spice of life, but even then I am unsure.

[@tapwater424]

@@WillyFisher412 But you wont live forever, you'll just live a very long time. Death is inevitable. If there is no afterlife, all your memories will vanish and however long you lived is as irrelevant as whether yesterdays dream you don't remember anymore lasted one or two hours. And if there is eternal life after death, this is all pointless.

[@WillyFisher412]

@@tapwater424 this is true. Let me say I see no problem with living as long as possible then.

[@tapwater424]

@@WillyFisher412 One thing is if some divine entity came down from the heavens and offered you to live your life in a loop for eternity. No strings attached, no heat death of the universe. But in reality it's not feasible to live forever, and you have to ask yourself why you have a desire to. If it is to avoid death you need to come to acceptance with the fact that you can't escape it. Everything you love will disappear one day.

[@ahdan]

I can imagine Connor Roy happily going through this procedure one day

[@Root3264]

Tom getting to know the CEO gives me the feeling my great-grandkids will see him again some day

[@philosophy_bot4171]

Beep bop... I'm the Philosophy Bot. Here, have a quote: "To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all" ~ Oscar Wilde

[@johanvanstaden2408]

One way or another, somehow the money will run out.

[@calebplatt7484]

Tom thank you for recognizing your stance on “defeating death “ is a controversial opinion. objectivity like that is important

[@JohnDoe-yr3lm]

Because we really need more people in a world running out of resources.

[@halfalawn3125]

@@JohnDoe-yr3lm that is why mining on celestial bodies other than earth needs to be a thing.

[@pestbarn]

​@@JohnDoe-yr3lmMore people definitely need to read Prescription Medicide by Jack Kevorkian.

[@desuMaKun]

⁠@@JohnDoe-yr3lmrather, having rich egoist destroying the planet by misusing its recourses

[@obaidzubair5439]

Every soul must taste death

[@DannyMinick]

Listen, leave me dead. 😂 don’t bring me back here.

[@Ifrekinlovecookies]

I personally don't think humanity should be trying to defeat death

[@oxygenasturia5706]

Well, if it works, you weren't dead, you only did a cryo sleep.

[@cpte3729]

i like being alive.

[@Datan0de]

That's fine if you want to be part of a luddite death cult. Just don't stop the rest of us from advancing, okay?

[@wr2899]

@@cpte3729you like being alive in your current situation. Things do change, especially over a lifetime.

[@derkateramabend]

Goddammit how many times will I see Tom filmed a video less than 2 hours from where I live, just to know he's already gone from there

[@Hylaeosaurus]

Heh I live in the same country as him and it is f**king annoying.

[@RainbowLayer92]

Just find anyone in a red shirt and pretend.

[@Hylaeosaurus]

@@RainbowLayer92 Tom is the exception, the redshirts always die in Star Trek. Since he keeps appearing in places he’s lucky, I ain’t risking a random red shirt.

[@AllTheArtsy]

i mean... if he wasn't already gone... what would you do? stalk him?

[@MesaperProductions]

That's an oddly specific complaint.

[@stefanzweifel]

Didn't expect Tom Scott to appear in a video made in my neighboring village. I remember my parents sent me newspaper snippets when the company started planning the facility in that village. One big reasons why they choose that location was that is relatively safe from earth quakes.

[@lety18chula]

that is so cool! do you know any fun fact about them?

[@-Selcouth]

That’s cool

[@lowruna]

And of course Swiss is more politicial stable and neutral regarding this kind of science.

[@Boatfam4]

I wonder what their protocol for other potential disasters/hazards are.

[@imstupidbut]

@@lowrunanot true

[@Twerkulies]

By the time we can revive frozen corpses, we're gonna be able to transfer our brains to machines.

[@Voltomess]

Replicas. I don't mind being an android.

[@Commenter339]

Very interesting and thought-provoking video, thank you.

[@chickennugget6684]

I think the scariest part for me is that if you live and wake up one day, to you it'll feel like no time has passed at all

[@MiscellanyTop]

Take a listen to "39," written by Sir Brian May and performed by Queen (available here on You Tube) - from Queen's 1975 album "A Night At The Opera" (Bo Rap is on the same album).

[@merseyviking]

Scarier would be to be conscious in some way and not being able to do anything about it.

[@SylviaRustyFae]

Thats the same as slpin for me cuz i dont dream. Even when goin uncon for eight hrs, it feels like i just drifted to slp right before i woke up...

[@sentryion3106]

@@merseyvikingprobably not possible because these people are medically already dead. But yes that would be truly terrifying

[@Dogo.R]

Research "medical death". Were you are litterally temporarily dead. It is done for certain procedures.

[@n.butyllithium5463]

I want to get frozen. Not necessarily to live forever, that's a bonus. I just like the idea of some poor lab tech having to refill my liquid nitrogen tank for the next century, serving my corpse like some modern day Egyptian pharaoh.

[@Baes_Theorem]

😂

[@leediaz5690]

If no one is paying for your freezing coffin they will evict your body

[@GrannySoupLadle]

It would be SO FUN to show someone from 1750 the music and technology we have now. Maybe that’ll happen with the cryo bodies. Theyre going to make some future peoples very happy one day 🥲

[@HamishW27]

This is an excellent procedure for anybody suffering from boneitis

[@thezpn]

Hopefully they remember to cure their boneitis in the future!

[@dr.badguyreviews6785]

My only regret is I have boneitis.

[@hazard7732]

*CRR-R-R-RUNCH*

[@theuncalledfor]

Just don't forget to actually get it cured when you're thawed out.

[@satekeeper]

Well either way, there's no looking back. We're sharks. Sharks can't look back because sharks don't have necks.

[@rizzystardust2404]

I have read so many fiction books with cryonics and its wild to see someone actually trying to do it

[@Phriedah]

There are a few companies attempting to do this, IIRC. This is just one of them. I think a few are in Arizona.

[@JeffBilkins]

Yes but in my experience it usually it doesn't go well. Like I'm thinking Nights Dawn trilogy, where at some point the dead raided a long-term cryogenic storage facility to unfreeze and immediately torture the patients. So at one moment as you freeze you blink and next moment you wake up and it's ultra violence.

[@suomeaboo]

It's been a thing in real life since the 60s.

[@maksrambe3812]

​@@JeffBilkinsnice

[@joanabug4479]

@@JeffBilkins it doesn't even have to be torture. I can easily imagine a scenario where far in the future they're woken up and, since they signed up to become 'research subjects' - that's just what they'll get lmao. We should get a lawyer in here to look over those papers with sci-fi tinted glasses just enough so they want to anticipate some kind of future - and give us what options these test subjects have

[@dreamt89]

Death: What are they doing to your body? Dead guy: They're replacing my blood with anti-freeze. Death: ... Dead guy: That money would have built a lot of schools in Africa...

[@paulflur4519]

Death is only a bad thing if you’re worried about living forever.

[@InevitableMayo]

My problem is I've never wanted to get old. I'd hate to prolong being old. The only way I'd get excited for this is if they were able to reverse ageing too. Like, don't bring me back only so I can live in a care home for another 60 years

[@AnemoneEnemy]

I would think that if they have the technology to bring you back from being frozen like this, they will have the technology to reverse aging. Or just get you a new body altogether

[@strobi0001]

Not only old people die.

[@KAK_PAN]

@@strobi0001 So that's the case, okay I get it.

[@Hifuutorian]

Take care of yourself and embrace it. Often times that fear is what is going to make it worse later on.

[@frostyelkk]

Aging is a natural process, therefore a process we can manipulate. Research is being done this very moment on how to stop aging in its tracks, and maybe even reverse it.

If this ever becomes a thing, it is very likely that the law will declare the reanimated person as new and distinct legal entity to the person that died. Otherwise, their will must be nullified and then you have the dead suing their descendants for their money back. Such a fascinating possibility.

[@Postoronniy]

Unless the future technologies make the concept of money obsolete by eliminating scarcity.

[@TomDufall]

Alternatively, you could have some kind of bankruptcy-like procedure where a person declared dead for a certain amount of time (or dead without preserval) has their assets distributed per the usual process. Perhaps a registered body preserval company has a certain number of days to register as the legal guardian of a body and would then take custody of the deceased's assets into a regulated trust structure.

[@TomDufall]

A somewhat darker alternative is the latter part of that but without the deceased needing into opt into it - much like you could be found unconscious in America, taken into hospital, and billed for it because it's assumed you consent to life-saving treatment, could the same apply to body-preserving treatment? Perhaps, if this became more mainstream/realistic, a preservation company could pick someone up from an accident scene (who hadn't agreed to the procedure in advance), preserve them, and then bill or take ownership of their estate on the basis that it's (potentially) life-saving medical treatment.

[@TomDufall]

More worrying for the potential resurrectees might be that the initial attempts at preservation and resurrection are likely to carry the highest rate of complications and you may well end up requiring a (renewed) lifetime of medical treatment to stay alive. For those people, time might very much be money - run out of money for continued treatment and that's you dead again, likely for good. Very hyper-capitalist.

[@netez5252]

I imagine the money put into this now will be pennies on the dollar in the future. "I want my 50 million dollars back!" "Uh.. ok. Here's a 50 million dollar bill. That won't even get you a cheeseburger these days, though."

[@Drexaan]

death is part of life, there cannot be one without the other

[@zxr250]

You're making a definitive statement that you can't prove. Defeating death is an unknown possibility. We don't know if it can be done, but we also don't know if it cannot be done.

[@Drexaan]

@@zxr250 l'm not saying it isn't possible, i'm saying that doing so would not result in a life worthy of being called such. The laws of physics are not a toy

[@josephmama1072]

@@Drexaan Absolutely deranged take. "You can't have happiness unless there is suffering." bruh

[@Drexaan]

@@josephmama1072 don't knock it 'till you try it

[@user-ke2gg6le3s]

I agree Death is somthing humans can never avoid we've been cursed with it, i do beleive perserving ones self whilst alive would protect the body for short periods of time however that will take humans a while to do that and even then if the power shuts off or if somthing goes wrong your dead.

[@BrettonFerguson]

"These canisters are sturdy. They were built by the military" (Pats canister hard a couple times. Trioxin starts spraying out)

[@aliensinnoh1]

My only problem with curing death is that there are many powerful people, who either run countries are very powerful corporations, who the only chance of ever relinquishing them of that power and causing a shake up is them dying.

[@123marijn321]

Exactly! Charlie Chaplins quote immediately came to mind: “As long as men die, liberty will never perish.”

[@moosetwin9023]

You can always try a knife to the head, I suppose.

[@aliensinnoh1]

@@123marijn321 Like, while I'd never say that the USSR or PRC were "good", they became at least a bit less bad after Stalin and Mao died. I wouldn't want Putin and Xi to live forever. That would be very bad!

[@dinozone7373]

I've given Cryonics a lot of thought in the past, and although I am still intensely skeptical of the process allowing for future revival, I've concluded that the people in the business for the most part genuine and do the utmost to advance their stated goals. Thank you Tom for such a nuanced and interesting video!

[@viviveloso8892]

​@@somebody700its an ONG

[@AbdulRehman51800]

as a religious man its feel very bad imagine you are dying and you signed a paper to be alive again which is not possible and never was possible in the past

[@NovelNovelist]

Personally, I have no particular attachment or sentimentality whatsoever surrounding final arrangements, nor do I have any ethical qualms about what cryonics are trying to accomplish -- so while I actually think it's exceedingly unlikely this will work, I reckon if someone's got the extra cash lying around, even if it's only like a 1 in a billion chance of working, why not spin the wheel?

[@KorotasGeckoGamingCorner]

I think one thing worth noting is that even if defeating death is impossible, trying to do so may lead to unprecedented technological advancements. So it's...probably worth trying anyways, right?

[@sadpee7710]

very true!

[@diablominero]

Death isn't a supernatural thing. Every cause of death is a specific injury or illness. So "defeating death" is an uncommonly dramatic way of phrasing the goal of medical advancement, which is to find effective cures and treatments for every illness and injury that can happen to someone. Looked at that way, it becomes obvious that of course we should try to "defeat death," because the alternative perspective is that we should give up on medical advancement while there's still sick and hurt people we could help.

[@justinbuddy56]

@@diablomineroI’ve heard of death more so being from an underlying illness, but I have to wonder why then does our body literally start to decay from the inside out as we grow older? Are things such as bones no longer being able to naturally generate or generate as quickly an illness, a flaw of our evolution, or what? Like if people could grow limbs back, would it take longer for us to die? Sorry about the ramble, the topic itself is fascinating to me.

[@thirtythreeeyes8624]

The problem with "defeating death" or even extreme life expectancy increase is the inequality that it will bring. It's literally the plot to multiple dystopian science fictions.

[@norezenable]

Was about to say something similar. 100, 500, or even 1000 years from now having these exquisitely preserved bodies may also be valuable in other ways. Like, oh, if we just had a preserved corpse from 500 years ago, we could undo what we did with some CRISPR thing. Don't even have to "kill" the body, just need some decently preserved cell. Or like, we can rebuild our microbiome if we just had xyz things from a person who lived a long time ago. Or like, everyone starts being born with type 1 diabetes, and we now have the technology to make lab-grown pancreases, we just need 1 viable cell to start production. Defeat death or not, its something we should be doing anyways, like a human version of the svalbard seed vault.