X-Message-Number: 4739
Newsgroups: sci.cryonics
From:  (Will Ware)
Subject: Re: Cold Start
Message-ID: <>
References: <4020at$>
Date: Sun, 6 Aug 1995 19:28:27 GMT

Ralph Merkle () wrote:
: ... a modest proposal:  put 10^15 "heating pellets" into 
: the brain as you build it, each one about one micron away from its 
: neighbors.  When you want to warm the brain, trigger all the heating 
: pellets at once.  Heat need only flow from the pellets to the 
: surrounding tissue, a distance of less than 1 micron.  The heat can 
: travel this short distance in almost no time (well, a few microseconds 
: or less).

If the heating pellets could be distributed throughout the brain of a
suspendee prior to freezing, it could also apply to rewarming the
suspendee's brain.

Perhaps the inverse operation could be done as well. Just before a
person dies, distribute 10^15 gizmos throughout his or her brain, also
spaced about a micron apart. On some global signal, they all perform
some sort of endothermic reaction, cooling the brain, again in a few
microseconds. This should prevent freezing damage, I would think, if
it's feasible at all. It would be nicely economical if the cooling
and rewarming gizmos were the same.

It also strikes me that, if the entire temperature difference to be
traversed is too far for one reaction, there might be gizmos that handle
different parts of the transition (like rocket boosters). The first
flock of gizmos could lower the temperature to below water's freezing
point (I imagine that's the most dangerous part of the transition, and
should be made in a single bound), and the second...Nth flock bring the
brain down to liquid nitrogen temperatures.

One interesting question is how to synchronize the action of all these
gizmos that probably aren't in direct physical contact. This could be
done by radio. In the nanometer size range, an antenna could simply be
a charged mass on the end of a spring. The frequency and bandwidth of
the antenna are determined by mass, spring constant, and mechanical
damping coefficient. When the brain is warm, and the gizmos aren't
otherwise engaged, they can be treading water to make sure that their
antennas are lined up with the transmitting antenna. It should be pretty
easy to build AM radio circuitry, and a little logic circuitry to align
the antenna and verify an accurate signal to freeze or rewarm.
-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------
Will Ware <> web <http://world.std.com/~wware/>
PGP fingerprint   45A8 722C D149 10CC   F0CF 48FB 93BF 7289


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