Link of the day: Why Cryonics Makes Sense
How do you define death? There are quite a number of ways to answer that. Centuries ago, you were considered dead once your heart stopped pounding. With CPR, catecholamins and defibrillators widely available, this is not necessarily true anymore. How about defining death as the moment when brain activity has seized? Brain activity is not easily defined (is the cells falling apart in a dead brain a form of brain activity?). And it might not be a definitive barrier either: A couple of animals can survive freezing of their brains and there are experiments done to freeze and thaw mammalian brains. I don’t want to argue that cryonics will be working in the near future and I would not assume more than a 10 percent chance that anybody could ever revive me if I ended up in a cryonics tank. I simply want to make the point that the idea is not as crazy as it sounds. Modern Medicine is all about extending the time until someone is actually considered dead. Many research groups are all about reviving organisms that are now considered dead. A good introduction and summary of the topic is this whaitbutwhy post about cryonics. I can highly recommend to have a read, if you’re interested in the topic.