Cryonics and Nanotechnology

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Cryonics and Nanotechnology

• Steve West

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Cryonics Pitfalls

• At this point, the idea of cryonics probably
  sounds like the end of death. In theory, it is
  or at least it will be. In practice, there are a
  number of problems that prevent it from becoming
  commonplace.

1. Cryonic freezing is expensive. If you plan on
   becoming one of Alcor Life Extension Foundations
   patients, expect to be set back about 150 000.
2. Restrictions and codes of ethics prevent work on
   patients who are not declared legally and
   clinically dead. This means that work must be
   done fast, and too much cell damage may occur
   before the patients body is even preserved
   properly.

1. Whenever the temperature of matter decreases this
   much, ice crystals will form. In living cells,
   this would cause irreversible cell degradation
   and damage.
2. While vitrification nearly completely deals with
   the formation of ice, it presents a new issue.
   Cryoprotectant chemicals, in the concentrations
   that are needed, are highly toxic to the body,
   and cause nearly as much damage.
3. Even if a body can be perfectly preserved, the
   fact that it needed preservation means that
   current medical technology could not cure what
   killed the patient, and there is nothing but
   speculation to prove that future technology would
   fare any better.

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Cryonics - Introduction

• Cryonics is the belief that a human being or
  organism that can no longer sustain life may be
  frozen cryogenically immediately after death,
  and, sometime in the future, may be brought back
  to life.
• The idea behind Cryonics is not to directly
  reverse the death of an organism, but to preserve
  it until a time when it may be brought back.

Interesting Fact There is controversy as to
whether Cryonics is itself a science. Many
cryonicists believe that it is, while
non-believers and skeptics consider it to be a
proto-science at best, and at worst,
pseudo-science and fraud.
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Cryonics Vs. Cryogenics

• Many people believe that Cryonics and Cryogenics
  are simply two interchangeable terms for the same
  science. This is not actually the case.

Cryogenics is the study of the behavior of
materials when subjected to extremely low
temperatures (roughly anything below 150K
(Kelvin)). The science focuses on the industrial
application of freezing matter at extremely low
temperatures (such as cryogenic freezers or use
during surgery)
Cryonics, while based in the same concept of
freezing matter at cryogenic temperatures, is
specifically the belief LIVNG organisms, once
pronounced clinically dead, may be preserved and
eventually resuscitated via technology that is
not currently available. Cryogenic institutions
do not generally support Cryonics, considering
the concept impossible and the practice a waste
of resources.
Diagram of a Cryostat (Used in Cryogenic Storage)
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Specifics of Cryonics

• The founding idea behind cryonics is that
  death as we consider it is not necessarily
  final. Legal death is pronounced when the patient
  enters complete cardiac arrest. However, this is
  theoretically not truly death.
• By a scientific standpoint, complete death only
  occurs when cell damage and chemical disorder
  becomes so severe that normal operation could not
  possibly be restored.
• Even this is a subjective term, however, as
  advances in medicine continually move the
  threshold for what damage is irreversible.

Absolute death, by these standards, only occurs
when the chemistry of life has been disrupted to
such an extent that, in theory, NO technology
would ever be able to restore it to functioning.
This is known as information-theoretic
death. Because of these principles, cryonic
scientists believe that, even once a patient has
been considered clinically dead, their life can
be preserved as long as their cell structure and
chemical interaction remain intact. While they
are considered incurable by current medical
standards, they can be kept alive until such a
time that repairing them to normal functioning is
possible.
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Specifics of Cryonics (Cont.)

• Cryonics once relied solely on freezing a
  patient at extreme temperatures using a cryogen
  such as liquid nitrogen or helium. However, more
  recently, a newer form of preservation has been
  developed.
• When cryogenically preserving an organ, the
  addition of large amounts of chemicals known as
  cryoprotectants can prevent the buildup of ice
  crystals within cells. The chemistry of life
  stops completely, but there is very little to no
  cell damage caused by ice buildup. Preserving
  something at cryogenic temperatures without any
  formation of ice is known as vitrification, and
  could be the future of successful Cryonics.

Liquid nitrogen is COLD! It liquefies at
temperatures below 77K, the equivalent of -196C.
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Organizations

• The Alcor Life Extension Foundation is one of
  the foremost researchers of cryonic science, and
  is the best place to go if you plan on becoming a
  member.
• Upon becoming a member, it is possible to have
  either the entire body or the head only preserved
  upon death. Alcor will intervene at the earliest
  possible moment after cardiac death.
• Alcor patients are stored in vacuum sealed tanks
  under liquid nitrogen for long term care. These
  are much like giant thermos bottles, heavily
  insulated to keep cold in and heat out.

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Nanotechnology

• After a body or other organism has been
  preserved through cryonics, there remains the
  issue of how to revive them in future times, and,
  upon doing so, regenerate damaged tissue and
  cells to an extent that life can continue.

Besides the concept of memory and identity uplink
(the concept of uploading a persons identity
onto a mechanical device), nanotechnology,
specifically nanomedicine, is the most promising
method of doing this.
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Nanotechnology (Cont.)

• In its most general term, nanotechnology is
  engineering at an extremely small scale.
  Nanotechnology has many applications, such as in
  the industry and the field of medicine.
• As nanotechnology improves, smaller, more
  efficient devices and machines can be created,
  using fewer resources and consuming smaller
  amounts of energy.

In the field of nanomedicine, nanotechnology
holds the potential to greatly improve medical
treatment. Nanomachines could be used to diagnose
diseases much more quickly, or made to
specifically target a malicious virus or bacteria
at a cellular level. This process would be much
less dangerous than flooding the body with a high
concentration of a conventional medicine, which
could have harmful side effects.
Below is a link to a video on how Rexin-G, a type
of nanomedicine made to target tumor cells,
works. Note that this video is from a commercial
site and so is not included as an information
source in the Works Cited http//www.hybridmedica
lanimation.com/anim_rexg3.html
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Applications in Cryonics

• Because of the medical applications of
  nanotechnology, nanomedicine plays a key role in
  the future of Cryonics.
• Advances in the field of nanomedicine may lead
  (in the near or distant future) to a method of
  successfully bringing a vitrified human back to
  life.
• Ideally, a machine could be created on a
  cellular scale to counteract and repair the
  damage caused by ice crystal formation and
  cryoprotectants, to maintain the condition of the
  patient during storage, and to eliminate the
  cryoprotectants upon waking up.
• The technology to do so has not yet been
  developed, but future advances may make this
  entirely possible.

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Ethics and Controversy
In addition to the moral controversy of these
sciences, there are more practical issues that
arise as well. Storing vitrified patients over
extended periods of time requires careful
monitoring, energy, and resources. These
resources are used for a practice that may or may
not have any gain in future. If cryonics and
nanomedicine successfully advance, population and
therefore environmental issues will arise. If
death can be repaired populations will
skyrocket as there is nothing to balance new
births. The point will inevitably be reached
where Earth can no longer support the population,
and natural resources will be used up in ever
increasing amounts.

• Cryonics is a very controversial subject in
  modern society. The idea that life does not end
  upon clinical or cardiac death is not easily
  accepted, as death would now be considered, to an
  extent, a reversible process. This concept raises
  the moral question of whether humans should ever
  be able to access technology capable of
  preventing loss of life to such an extent.
• Even more so, the process of extending life
  (possibly indefinitely, if nanomedicine advances
  to the point where cells can be actively repaired
  by nanomachines) could be considered as stepping
  beyond the boundary of what should and should not
  be possible, or tampering with the laws of
  nature.
• The preservation of the human body after death
  also brings into question the concept of the
  soul, which, according to religion or certain
  cultures, could not be preserved as the physical
  body could.

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Additional Sites (For Images ONLY)

• http//www.rose.brandeis.edu/PRLab/Crystalizations
  /cool/cryostat.gif
• http//www.gwu.edu/sps/Society20of20Physics20S
  tudents20(SPS)/Events/232B3207-4CB8-4E3A-8341-286
  F32BE4156_files/211.jpg
• http//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27
  /Liquid_nitrogen_tank.JPG
• http//images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/sharemed/t
  argets/images/pho/t014/T014510A.jpg
• http//www.unisciences.com/biologie/photos/nanomac
  hine.png
• http//www.alcor.org/
• http//library.thinkquest.org/05aug/00736/images/n
  anomed.jpg
• http//www.sciencedaily.com/images/2007/05/0705200
  91842-large.jpg
• http//www.nano.org.uk/

• http//www.psdgraphics.com/wp-content/uploads/2009
  /02/abstract-background.jpg
• http//images01.tzimg.com/cache/h3w4/500_119223569
  3_7637964.jpg
• http//i.ehow.com/images/GlobalPhoto/Articles/4566
  610/51873-main_Full.jpg
• http//www.redicecreations.com/ul_img/2353nanotech
  nology.jpg
• http//sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/news/200
  3/08/02/williams_alcor_ap/lg_alcor_ap.jpg
• http//rgs.tamu.edu/publications/Flower_Frozen_wit
  h_Liquid_Nitrogen201280.jpg

Also used as an information source, see Works
Cited