Un-frozen

We hear of and see cryonics in the movies:

“It’s a technique used to store a person’s body at an extremely low temperature with the hope of one day reviving them.”

The technology is in its infancy, but this article by Rachel Nuwer raises interesting questions about the scenario when the person awakens in the future (assuming the technology worked). First off, she says:

“They would immediately face the challenge of rebuilding their lives as strangers in a strange land. How that would play out depends on a host of factors, including how long they were gone, what kind of society they returned to, whether they know anyone when they are brought back and in what form they return.”

What about money problems when they return? Looks like people have been thinking of a solution for that problem!

“The Cryonics Institute invests a fraction of patient fees – currently $28,000 with life insurance – into stocks and bonds. The hope is that future returns can help revived persons get back on their feet, so to speak.”

But overall, Nuwer feels things wouldn’t end (begin?) well when they awoke from their long sleep:

“Even if cryogenically revived persons come back to a more equitable and advanced future, the mental flip-flops required to adjust to that new world would be substantial. Dislocated in time, alienated from society and coming to grips with the certainty that everyone and everything they had ever known is irretrievably lost, they would likely suffer symptoms of intense trauma.”

So I am in full agreement with Alexandra Potter who wrote:

“We think we know what we want, but we can never really know until we've got it. And sometimes when we have, we discover we never really wanted it in the first place - but then it's too late.”

I guess those who choose to be cryonically frozen had never heard that line.