X-Message-Number: 6362
From:  (Brian Wowk)
Newsgroups: sci.cryonics
Subject: Importance of Brain Cryopreservation
Date: 18 Jun 96 19:05:37 GMT
Message-ID: <>

Keith Henson writes:

>> 	It is beginning to appear that the money needed to
>> perfect brain cryopreservation in our lifetime (estimated at
>> about $8,000,000) 

>This is a really interesting number, Brian.  Is it propriatary, or
>can you release how it was generated?

	It's loosely based on how much it has cost to develop
vitrification technology for kidneys.  (Vitrification is a
method of cryopreservation without ice crystal formation.)
Suffice to say that if cryopreserved brains could be made
to look as good ultrastructurally as vitrified kidneys,
cryonics would be virtually certain to work.

	Ironic, isn't it: Technology now exists to get your
kidneys to any arbitrary future time, but not your brain. :(   

>> Yet none have shown any interest
>> in transforming cryonics from a long-shot bet on nanotechnology
>> to a proven method of neurological time travel.  The reasons
>> for this complacency are unclear to me.

>I can think of several reasons.  Being a brain in a bottle does not
>appeal to me even slightly.

	Is it really any worse than being a HEAD in a bottle?
The technology would be best applied in-situ anyway.    


> The *whole* problem needs to be solved, not just part of it. 

	Of course.  The question is, which part do you want solved
FIRST?
 
***************************************************************************
Brian Wowk          CryoCare Foundation               1-800-TOP-CARE
President           Human Cryopreservation Services   
   http://www.cryocare.org/cryocare/

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