|
|
Article: A frozen future? Cryonics as a gamble.(Skeptical Opinions)
- Article from:
- Skeptic (Altadena, CA)
- Article date:
- June 22, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Skeptics Society & Skeptic Magazine. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
FOR MANY, THE WEIRDEST NEWS of 2002 was the story that American baseball legend Ted Williams had been frozen. Williams' son had turned his fathers body over to a firm that suspends its "patients" in liquid nitrogen. A firestorm of media attention followed.
The U.S. is the only nation with a thriving industry (if you can call it that) in cryonics, The underlying hope--that properly freezing people immediately after they have crossed the threshold we call "death"--may allow them to be later reanimated, is a bold assertion about the future.
This goal is not scientific, in the sense that the results can be checked right now. However, this is not the same as ...