Reasons why cryonics will not work

I was recently reading some reasons why cryonics would not work and decided to put them, and others I have seen, down in their simplest form.  I know there are subtleties and complexities to these arguments, but very often they are presented as a one liner, even by people whose background you would expect more logic from.  I decided to also present as a simple statement and draw a “logical” conclusion from the statement.

  1. If you freeze something, it comes out as mush when thawed.  Just put a steak in your freezer, leave it for 2 days then thaw it.  You see, mush when it is defrosted.
  2. Have you ever seen or heard of a person suspended and brought back to life.  If something has not been done yet, it must be impossible.
  3. It goes against what is natural.  People were only meant to live about 70 years (substitute with what you think is natural). Any extension to this through medical progress is unnatural and should not be pursued.
  4. The few thousand who may be suspended will cause over population if ever resurrected.  Therefore cryonics should not be pursued. Those billions with their life expectancy now extended many years by current medicine will have no effect on the population so this is a worthwhile endeavor.
  5. The human brain and body is too complex to be restored. It can’t ever be done.  Nothing as complex as the human brain and body can exist.
  6. The human brain contains more than just the physical.  I just feel that it contains something more.  That something more that seems to me to be there cannot be brought back when dead.  Just ask those who were dead and brought back by current medicine.
  7. The scientists who say cryonics will not work are right. The equally qualified scientists who say it may work are wrong.
  8. There is nothing known now that even has the slightest hint that cryonics may be possible. The freezing of human sperm cells and embryos has nothing to do with humans.

I am up to number 8.  If anyone can think of more please let me know.

Regards, Peter T

2 thoughts on “Reasons why cryonics will not work

  1. Hey Peter,

    I saw your website when I searched google blogs for cryonics. I have one for you that comes from the one that talks about problems with cryonics.

    “The popular conception of nanobots, which too many cryonics advocates seem also to share to repair tissue, is bollocks. Drexler’s computer-controlled nanoscopic miracle workers would need to violate physics. Nanobots won’t resemble the popular image of macroscopic industrial robots a billionth of the size with their own built-in supercomputers — they’ll be carefully designed chemicals, much like cells or enzymes (the real-life examples of nanobots).”

    • Hi Paul,

      I think you are referring to the rational wiki site.

      Let me add something which is keeping with the tone of this comment you quoted.

      “The popular conception of nanobots, which too many cryonics advocates seem also to share to repair tissue, is bollocks. Drexler’s computer-controlled nanoscopic miracle workers would need to violate physics. Nanobots won’t resemble the popular image of macroscopic industrial robots a billionth of the size with their own built-in supercomputers — they’ll be carefully designed chemicals, much like cells or enzymes (the real-life examples of nanobots).” The possibility that cells and enzymes exist and work is nonsense.

      This is a conclusion similar to the one in the article i.e. “…which too many cryonics advocates seem also to share to repair tissue, is bollocks.”

      Please let me know others you may have. Thanks.

      Regards, Peter T

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