Synopsis:
Kim Suozzi, a 23 year old college student, will likely die from a brain tumor in the next 3-6 months. She would like to be cryopreserved, but doesn't have the money to pay for it. The Venturist Society and other cryonics organizations are raising money for her here:
http://www.venturist.info/kim-suozzi-charity.html
Below, I make the case for cryonics, and for donating to Kim's cause in particular. I've donated $100 to her cryopreservation fund, and I hope some of y'all will donate as well.
Detail:
Although medicine advances at a seemingly glacial pace, our understanding of our bodies is ever increasing. Within the last century, terrible scourges--smallpox, the black plague, polio--which once killed or crippled hundreds of millions of people have been almost eradicated. Reasonable extrapolations from the history of medicine suggest that given enough time, aging and the diseases of aging will be cured as well. Death will then only befall those who choose it, or who suffer from accidents or misadventure.
Unfortunately, most of us are probably born too early to take advantage of those technologies. So what can we do?
If a patient is distant in _space_ from proper medical care, we can transport them via ambulances, life flight helicopters, or jets.
But if a patient is distant in _time_ from proper medical care, there is only one technology that offers any hope: cryonics.
For those few on my list who may not know, cryonics is the experimental medical practice of cryopreserving (at below freezing temperatures) critically ill/injured patients now, in the hopes that future medical technology will be able to cure both a) their illness/injury and b) cooling damage caused by the cryopreservation process itself.
Cryonics is a technology still in infancy. No human has yet been revived from cryonics suspension. We don't know if repairing the damage from the cryopreservation process itself is possible in any reasonable time frame. We don't even know if we're preserving enough information that _any_ potential future technology could repair the damage.
However, there is reason to hope. There are thousands of humans walking the planet who spent years cryopreserved as embryos. Corneas, skin, blood, pancreatic tissue, and neurons, among other tissues, have been cryopreserved with apparent full function. With properly applied vitrification technology, ice damage in the brain appears to be eliminated altogether. At a physical ultrastructual level, the neural structure of properly vitrified brains appears to be intact. (Chemical, osmotic, and biochemical damage still occurs though.)
At a minimum, I think it's worth doing the experiment. Even if the people cryopreserved now cannot be revived, by making the attempt we will learn how to improve the process so that future patients will be able to survive.
If you agree, I'd like to encourage you to donate to help finance the cryopreservation of Kim Suozzi.
Kim is particularly short on time. At 23, she suffers from a Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) brain tumor, a particularly aggressive brain cancer. The tumor will almost certainly kill her in the next 3-6 months. Cryonics is her only remaining hope of living a full life (and perhaps beyond).
I don't know Kim personally. I only became aware of her when she posted to reddit asking for help. But judging from her writing and videos, she seems smart, determined, and realistic. She knows cryonics offers but a slim chance at a longer life for her. But with the help of pioneers like her, perhaps someday taking a journey across time (in a cryonics capsule) to seek medical care will be seen as mundane as taking a journey across space (in an ambulance). I support her efforts, and I hope you will too.
Kim Suozzi, a 23 year old college student, will likely die from a brain tumor in the next 3-6 months. She would like to be cryopreserved, but doesn't have the money to pay for it. The Venturist Society and other cryonics organizations are raising money for her here:
http://www.venturist.info/kim-suozzi-charity.html
Below, I make the case for cryonics, and for donating to Kim's cause in particular. I've donated $100 to her cryopreservation fund, and I hope some of y'all will donate as well.
Detail:
Although medicine advances at a seemingly glacial pace, our understanding of our bodies is ever increasing. Within the last century, terrible scourges--smallpox, the black plague, polio--which once killed or crippled hundreds of millions of people have been almost eradicated. Reasonable extrapolations from the history of medicine suggest that given enough time, aging and the diseases of aging will be cured as well. Death will then only befall those who choose it, or who suffer from accidents or misadventure.
Unfortunately, most of us are probably born too early to take advantage of those technologies. So what can we do?
If a patient is distant in _space_ from proper medical care, we can transport them via ambulances, life flight helicopters, or jets.
But if a patient is distant in _time_ from proper medical care, there is only one technology that offers any hope: cryonics.
For those few on my list who may not know, cryonics is the experimental medical practice of cryopreserving (at below freezing temperatures) critically ill/injured patients now, in the hopes that future medical technology will be able to cure both a) their illness/injury and b) cooling damage caused by the cryopreservation process itself.
Cryonics is a technology still in infancy. No human has yet been revived from cryonics suspension. We don't know if repairing the damage from the cryopreservation process itself is possible in any reasonable time frame. We don't even know if we're preserving enough information that _any_ potential future technology could repair the damage.
However, there is reason to hope. There are thousands of humans walking the planet who spent years cryopreserved as embryos. Corneas, skin, blood, pancreatic tissue, and neurons, among other tissues, have been cryopreserved with apparent full function. With properly applied vitrification technology, ice damage in the brain appears to be eliminated altogether. At a physical ultrastructual level, the neural structure of properly vitrified brains appears to be intact. (Chemical, osmotic, and biochemical damage still occurs though.)
At a minimum, I think it's worth doing the experiment. Even if the people cryopreserved now cannot be revived, by making the attempt we will learn how to improve the process so that future patients will be able to survive.
If you agree, I'd like to encourage you to donate to help finance the cryopreservation of Kim Suozzi.
Kim is particularly short on time. At 23, she suffers from a Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) brain tumor, a particularly aggressive brain cancer. The tumor will almost certainly kill her in the next 3-6 months. Cryonics is her only remaining hope of living a full life (and perhaps beyond).
I don't know Kim personally. I only became aware of her when she posted to reddit asking for help. But judging from her writing and videos, she seems smart, determined, and realistic. She knows cryonics offers but a slim chance at a longer life for her. But with the help of pioneers like her, perhaps someday taking a journey across time (in a cryonics capsule) to seek medical care will be seen as mundane as taking a journey across space (in an ambulance). I support her efforts, and I hope you will too.