dw dragons skg joined in and replied with this 12 years ago, 5 minutes later[^][v]#486,266
say hi to y3k
Anonymous C joined in and replied with this 12 years ago, 1 minute later, 7 minutes after the original post[^][v]#486,268
Cryogenic Death Benefits: Better Off Dead?
It's life, squeegee, but not as we know it.
The premise of cryonics is simple: Do nothing, and when you die, you die forever; get cryopreserved, and when you die, maybe you get a second chance. But what does “when you die” mean, and why does it matter?
In the past, if your heart stopped beating and your lungs stopped breathing — end of story, you were legally dead. Then resuscitation technology got better and “dead” people starting rebooting. Ta-da!
So the goal posts were moved and death became popularly defined as “brain death.” Surely, you are dead if you have no measurable brain activity. Nope. People have already been brought back from that. Now, cryonic proponents say you aren't dead… really dead… until you have suffered “information-theoretic death.”
Whatever death is taken to mean, one thing is obvious. The “fresher” you are when cryopreservation begins, the better your chances of returning. The ugly truth is that the moment you die — by any definition of death — you start to spoil. Every second that ticks by increases the amount of damage your your body and brain undergo. Finally, at some point, you will be gone, no matter how advanced the technology.
Location, location, location
So if you are planning on cryogenic preservation, you shoud try to avoid dying on a sailboat in the middle of the Pacific or while hiking in the Mojave Desert. It would be best to die at a cryogenics facility. Keel over in the lobby, get thrown on a gurney, get wheeled into the cryopreservation operating room and undergo the procedure.
Even better, though, would be to start the cryopreservation before you are dead. Of course, if the cryopreservation staff were to “help you along,” the law, in most states and most countries, would likely consider that manslaughter or even murder.
However, if assisted suicide were legal, you could choose the day and time of your cryopreservation. The process itself could bring on legal death, but only after the preservation had begun. It would be a smooth transition from life to legal death to....? This would guarantee the absolutely highest cellular integrity possible and give you the best chance of being brought back in the future. Additionally, future medical technology would likely be able to bring those who have been best preserved back sooner than those who have suffered more damage. But assisted suicide isn't legal... is it?
squeegee (OP) replied with this 12 years ago, 15 minutes later, 22 minutes after the original post[^][v]#486,272
@previous (C)
i die as soon as i plunge my head in this bucket. see ya, suckers.