https://www.cryonics.org/images/uploads/misc/Prospect_Book.pdf
and (skipping the table of contents and preface) please read CHAPTER 1 Frozen Dead, Frozen Sleep, and Some Consequences. The second chapter, The Effects of Freezing and Cooling, may be of interest to those of you who want to know the mechanics/technicalities of freezing people.
Here is another great intro about cryonics, brought to you by Caitlin Doughty, who runs the "Ask a Mortician" youtube channel. She'll tell you the ins and outs of cryonics as well as the pros and the cons.
An educational Ted x Talk from Joao Pedro de Magalhaes in 2017 about cryonics and scientific improvements in vitrification:
Most of this information may sound far-fetched, but there is an animal that regularly undergoes almost complete freezing and rejuvenation at the change of the seasons over the course of its life. We present: the wood frog.
https://owlcation.com/stem/Frozen-Wood-Frogs-and-Adaptations-for-Survival
Particularly important are the sections on Hibernation, the Dangers of Freezing Living Tissue, Preventing Cells from Freezing in the Winter, and Thawing Safely in the Spring, and Cryopreservation.
The Quiz:
1. What is the difference between cryonics and cryogenics?
2. Who is the father of cryogenics?
3. What is the book called that the father of cryogenics authored?
4. How does Dr. A Parkes define "biological death"?
5. What is vitrification?
6. List one possible usage of cryonics.
A base to the first student who can tell us who Ted Williams was, and what he has to do with cryonics...
ReplyDeleteThe baseball player who had his head frozen?
DeleteYup. But I wouldn't say HE had it frozen, apparently it was his son's idea. That raises ethical issues too...
DeleteMore on "Teddy Ballgame" and his unfortunate post-season:
Please Don't Call the Customers Dead https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/13/business/yourmoney/please-dont-call-the-customers-dead.html
THE LIVES THEY LIVED; The Batter Who Mattered https://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/29/magazine/the-lives-they-lived-the-batter-who-mattered.html
Ted Williams news - http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/ted_williams/index.html
And here's the wonderful elegy to Ted, in the fullness of life at the end of a marvelous career, by John Updike - https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1960/10/22/hub-fans-bid-kid-adieu
"Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu" by John Updike (1960)
DeleteFenway Park, in Boston, is a lyric little bandbox of a ballpark. Everything is painted green and seems in curiously sharp focus, like the inside of an old-fashioned peeping-type Easter egg. It was built in 1912 and rebuilt in 1934, and offers, as do most Boston artifacts, a compromise between Man’s Euclidean determinations and Nature’s beguiling irregularities. Its right field is one of the deepest in the American League, while its left field is the shortest; the high left-field wall, three hundred and fifteen feet from home plate along the foul line, virtually thrusts its surface at right-handed hitters. On the afternoon of Wednesday, September 28th, as I took a seat behind third base, a uniformed groundkeeper was treading the top of this wall, picking batting-practice home runs out of the screen, like a mushroom gatherer seen in Wordsworthian perspective on the verge of a cliff. The day was overcast, chill, and uninspirational. The Boston team was the worst in twenty-seven seasons. A jangling medley of incompetent youth and aging competence, the Red Sox were finishing in seventh place only because the Kansas City Athletics had locked them out of the cellar. They were scheduled to play the Baltimore Orioles, a much nimbler blend of May and December, who had been dumped from pennant contention a week before by the insatiable Yankees. I, and 10,453 others, had shown up primarily because this was the Red Sox’s last home game of the season, and therefore the last time in all eternity that their regular left fielder, known to the headlines as ted, kid, splinter, thumper, tw, and, most cloyingly, misTer Wonderful, would play in Boston. “what will we do without ted? hub fans ask” ran the headline on a newspaper being read by a bulb-nosed cigar smoker a few rows away. Williams’ retirement had been announced, doubted (he had been threatening retirement for years), confirmed by Tom Yawkey, the Red Sox owner, and at last widely accepted as the sad but probable truth. He was forty-two and had redeemed his abysmal season of 1959 with a—considering his advanced age—fine one. He had been giving away his gloves and bats and had grudgingly consented to a sentimental ceremony today. This was not necessarily his last game; the Red Sox were scheduled to travel to New York and wind up the season with three games there... (continues-https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1960/10/22/hub-fans-bid-kid-adieu)
Alternate Questions:
ReplyDelete1. T/F Most of us living now have a chance at immortality
2. T/F The basic program is a form of suspended animation
3. What is suspended animation?
4. What type of death do we most frequently have in mind?
5. Are legal death and religious death the same thing?
6. What is the main problem with the freezing techniques now?
7. What is one of the issues with cryonics?
Discussion Questions:
1. Would you be interested in cryonics?
2. Is this different from immortality to you? Why/how?
Links:
Here's the Ted William's story http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ted-williams-frozen-head-batting-practice-cryogenics-lab-book-article-1.381985
Here's one about Disney who a lot of people believe is utilizing cryonics
http://mentalfloss.com/article/54196/disney-ice-truth-about-walt-disney-and-cryogenics
Here is a link to a website with tons of information on cryonics
http://www.cryonics.org/
1. True
Delete2. No
3. a standstill in the life processes of the body
4. Clinical death- cessation of heartbeat and breathing
5. no way
6. freezing damage from ice formation
7. contribution to the population problem
Links:
http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=81398750-e8ae-415b-b31e-ce43dfa8e078%40sessionmgr4006
http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=5&sid=81398750-e8ae-415b-b31e-ce43dfa8e078%40sessionmgr4006&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN=125547795&db=asf
^this looks at cryogenic transportation, something that would be necessary for mass freezing
Alternate Questions
ReplyDelete1.What Societies were the main pioneers in reviving the "dead" ?
2.Who coined the phrase "hardening of the categories”?
3.What does "Cellular death" refer to?
4. (T/F) Clinical death is often irreversible, the criteria of biological death are stagnant.
5.What is the chief value of research?
6.(T/F) Since the brain usually begins to deteriorate within a few days after breathing stops.
7.(T/F) And "ourselves" refers to people, not just family
8.For the present, what basic program must we rely on?
Answers to Cameron's Questions
1.T/F Most of us living now have a chance at immortality; True
2. T/F The basic program is a form of suspended animation; False
3. What is suspended animation? Suspended animation refers to a standstill in the life processes of the body
4. What type of death do we most frequently have in mind? "Clinical death"
5. Are legal death and religious death the same thing? No
6. What is the main problem with the freezing techniques now? They cause freezing damage
Link
www.nytimes.com/2006/01/04/opinion/cronyism-and-crises.html
Here is an interesting article I found about allegations against Alcor from a former employee, Larry Johnson. He claims to have wired conversations, taken photographs, and collected documentation of mistreatment of Ted Williams' remains.
ReplyDeletehttp://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/alcor-employee-makes-harsh-allegations-cryonics-foundation/story?id=8764331
Alternate Quiz Questions:
ReplyDelete1. (T/F) At very low temperatures it is possible, right now, to preserve dead people with essentially no deterioration, indefinitely.
2. (T/F) If civilization endures, medical science should eventually be able to repair almost any damage to the human body, including freezing damage and senile debility or other cause of death.
3. Who does Ettinger propose will handle the arrangements of cryonics?
4. Is suspended animation the same thing as cryonics?
5. Explain the difference between suspended animation and cryonics.
6. In some simple life forms suspended animation can be produced simply by ______ and reanimation by _________ them again.
7. Define clinical death.
8. Define biological death.
9. Define cellular death.
10. Suspended death will refer to?
11. What is the chief value of research on suspended animation?
12. What 4 countries have laboratories and hospitals involved in researching freezing techniques?
13. What did Dr. James F. Connell, Jr., say about full-body freezing and suspended animation?
14. (T/F) After someone dies a natural death, his body will be frozen and preserved at a very low temperature to prevent further deterioration for an indefinite period.
Here's another perspective on cryogenics:
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/JydMgZhhx_4
Answers for alternative questions:
ReplyDelete1. True
2. No
3. A standstill in the life processes of the body
4. Clinical
5. No
6. Freezing damage
7. Population problem
Answers for alternative questions:
ReplyDelete1.True
2.False
3.Standstill in life processes of the body
4. Clinical death
5.Nope
6. Damage that has done by freezing temperatures
7. Problem of the populations