The arrest of biological time as a bridge to engineered negligible senescence

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Jerry LemlerTodd M Huffman

Abstract

Biological systems can remain unchanged for several hundred years at cryogenic temperatures. In several hundred years, current rapid scientific and technical progress should lead to the ability to reverse any biological damage whose reversal is not forbidden by physical law. We therefore explore whether contemporary people facing terminal conditions might be preserved well enough today for their eventual recovery to be compatible with physical law. The ultrastructure of the brain can now be excellently preserved by vitrification, and solutions needed for vitrification can now be distributed through organs with retention of organ viability after transplantation. Current law requires a few minutes of cardiac arrest before cryopreservation of terminal patients, but dogs and cats have recovered excellent brain function after 16-60 min of complete cerebral ischemia. The arrest of biological time as a bridge to engineered negligible senescence, therefore, appears consistent with current scientific and medical knowledge.

References

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Citations

Dec 17, 2005·Critical Care : the Official Journal of the Critical Care Forum·Leslie WhetstineDavid Crippen
Mar 7, 2008·Rejuvenation Research·Benjamin P Best
Nov 23, 2006·The Surgical Clinics of North America·Maxim D Hammer, David Crippen
Sep 10, 2014·Journal of Critical Care·Brian Wowk
Jun 3, 2020·Rejuvenation Research·Aubrey D N J de Grey

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