Life is difficult, it was never meant to be easy, but even
still our current world population is living a much better life compared to
that of our ancestors. Most humans don’t struggle to find food, water, shelter,
access to healthcare, access to school, or access to work. In fact, in our
society in the United States, we complain about attending school, or having to
work an hour longer than schedules, needing to go to our doctor’s appointment for
the yearly physical, and going to grocery when there’s a restaurant down the
street. We take so much for granted.
Despite the majority of the population having these first
world-problems, many people live in seemingly inhospitable conditions, where
they walk miles every day to the nearest potable water, school is nonexistent
when your family is struggling just to survive.
Instead, here, today, we talk of posthumanism, transhumanism,
and the ability to extend our lives beyond that of current biological clock. We
are unsatisfied with the concept that our bodies are only meant to last us at
most, a century of experiences. We hunger for more, we yearn for an existence
in which our body’s shelf life is almost immortal, and the limitations of our
bodies nonexistent.
For centuries human have sought ways to extend life and enhance
life, scientists and doctors alike. We developed sanitation procedures,
medicines, supplements, medical treatments, surgical procedures, prosthetics,
cures, robotic limbs, nootropics, gene therapy, gene editing and cryogenics. In
the past humans developed rituals to prolong life, and developed beliefs in
which the soul leaves the body and exists in a realm where our human form
cannot.
Humans will continue on this quest, until they cease to
exist.
Take for example, cryogenics, where corpses are suspended in
an almost frozen state in order to preserve the body for its eventual
reanimation of its host. This tale almost seems like something out of a science
fiction novel, but it is not. While cryogenics may appear to be a new area of
uncharted science and like something out of an X-files episode, it has been
researched for much longer than people may think. For decades cryogenics has
existed behind a veil that only those in the scientific area, philosophers, and
those interested in prolonged life have opened. Now, you see stories written
about it, the pioneers behind the madness, and think pieces about its implications,
and the questions that arise.
Most of us would think that living as long as we possibly
could sounds ideal, because that’s all we’ve ever known. Wouldn’t it be nice to
see future generations of our family, or see the world change exponentially
before our eyes? But then that begs the question, should we even be allowed to see
it? Human bodies have an expiration date, we were not meant to live beyond our
human clock. Are those that seek to live an almost immortal life, just afraid
of death and what lies beyond the death of the body? Human existence is painful,
sometimes insufferable, kind, generous, loving, and frightening. Is living
preferable than to never know what lies beyond? All of these are fundamental
questions that one must ask themselves before committing their body to a care of
a cryogenic bank.
On another note, who are those people that are paying to cryogenically
store their bodies? The procedure itself is not simple and requires people who
have the knowledge and experience to perform it, in addition to the preservation
of the body for decades or even centuries until reanimation becomes a possibility.
This means that those that are opting to suspend their corpses are people with money.
Lots of money.
In the 1990s the procedure cost about $40,000 to ensure your
membership at a facility and has things happen in life, that number has
increased by far. So in essence this means that only the people who have the
money to do so are capable of making the decision of preserving their body with
the hope to come back to life. This procedure excludes the vast majority of
people.
This brings up another question, are you important enough
that the world will need you, decades, centuries or eons from now? What makes
you special? And who are to decide that? We have had many important people,
those have created enormous positive change, and have influenced our lives even
after their death. But they weren’t preserved at a cryogenics center. The only
people being stored are those with money. Why should they be given that choice?
On a related note, what will these preserved humans look
like? How will they behave? Will the same soul who inhabited that body come
back? The idea behind the cryogenics movement is that the body will initially
look the same, but there is also the expectation that technology will have advanced
in the area of robotics and prosthesis, so the human limbs, maybe even organs
will be enhanced or replaced with tech. The human form will be drastically different
from what we see today.
Furthermore, this will make us question the meaning of
mortality. If this process is at all possible, what does it really mean to be
dead, if you can just come back to life?
Not only that, but it will also make us question other
fundamental questions as well, such as what does it mean to be human? What we
currently define as human, is someone who is conceived through biological means
and is a creature of incredible intelligence capable of emotions and feelings.
Will these new humans even be humans, if a part of the human life is eventually
die at the end? A critical part of humanity will be disrupted. These new humans
will not resemble us at all.
This is why, I urge all those who are contemplating the
decision of using a cryogenic tank with the hope of coming back to life. What
do offer? What makes you special? What do you want? What do you expect? Can you
deal with the idea that perhaps your reanimation might not be paradise you
hope? But most importantly, why do you focus on the future and hope to live
forever when there are others that hope to live another day.
While, the transhumanist, posthumanist movements both
intrigue me. I struggle with complete understanding, with the idea of cryogenics.
Sure, the idea that I might live forever and possibly see future makes me
curious. But I live a life in which I am able to meet my basic needs, and I don’t
lie at night wondering if I am going to be alive tomorrow. There are numerous
people who struggle everyday just to drink water, eat, sleep, work and much
more. What are we doing to help them? Why should only the rich survive? Why do
the rich need to live forever, just to make more money? Your focus shouldn’t be
about how to extend your life beyond our current biological implications, the
focus should be on how do we preserve human life on earth. The damage humans
have done is irreversible, but we should try ameliorate some of our growing
concerns. More funding should go finding ways to mitigate our ecological damage,
ending world hunger, and not funding research on how to keep rich people alive.
Cryogenics is fascinating, and intriguing. But it does
nothing to solve our problems, what if the world dies while you are still in
suspension?
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