What are the odds of cryonics working?

Odds of success: 1 in 567. If you can think of other ways cryonics might fail, moving probability mass from “other” to something more quantifiable, that would be helpful.

Who invented cryogenic freezing?

James Hiram Bedford, a former University of California-Berkeley psychology professor who died of renal cancer on Jan. 12, 1967. Bedford was the first human to be cryonically preserved—that is, frozen and stored indefinitely in the hopes that technology to revive him will one day exist.

Why not whole body cryopreservation after death?

Thanks to Martha Payne for this question. There are plenty of practical reasons not to sign up for whole body cryopreservation after death – the most important of which is that there is absolutely no proof or guarantee that it is reversible.

Is cryonics the future of death?

Technology doesn’t stand still and neither will our current definition of “legal death.” Cryonics is our ambulance ride to the high-tech hospital we’re confident will exist in the near future, with medical technology and equipment that will be able to successfully revive persons who were considered “hopeless” or “deceased” by today’s standards.

Is cryogenic body preservation the future of life?

Cryogenic body preservation may well reduce the extent we live for the present…while trashing the future. Cryogenic freezing can only secure immortality if tremendous technological progress occurs in the future, society doesn’t collapse, and future generations are benign and kindhearted enough to revive those who opt to freeze themselves.

What is cryonics and how does it work?

This is one of many questions that you asked the BBC about cryonics – the science of preserving the entire human body at ultra-low temperatures after death in the hope that one day scientific advances will allow people to be revived. Thanks to Martha Payne for this question.