Akamia
Member
Is there a neuroscientist in the house? Maybe a cryobiologist and a medical doctor too? If not, does anyone know where I can get in touch with one?
I'm part of a Discord server full of transhumanists. Many of them are also cryonicists; I understand there's substantial overlap between the two groups to the point where I don't believe I've met a cryonicist that wasn't also a transhumanist.
Anyway, I've gotten into a mildly heated discussion with one of the server's cryonics proponents. Far as I'm concerned, cryonics is a scam. We've been arguing for hours. Toward the end, he's made a claim that I decided required further investigation.
I want to know if this claim holds water and, more importantly, if it applies to trying to preserve a human for eons, waiting for future tech that may or may not successfully resuscitate them or upload them into some badass supercomputer.
I'm part of a Discord server full of transhumanists. Many of them are also cryonicists; I understand there's substantial overlap between the two groups to the point where I don't believe I've met a cryonicist that wasn't also a transhumanist.
Anyway, I've gotten into a mildly heated discussion with one of the server's cryonics proponents. Far as I'm concerned, cryonics is a scam. We've been arguing for hours. Toward the end, he's made a claim that I decided required further investigation.
Cryonicist said:Electrical activity in the brain isn’t transmitted by electrons as it is in an electric circuit. Instead the electrical activity is transmitted by the diffusion of ions down their concentration gradient. When an organism is cooled, the ions slow down and eventually stop moving (vitrification). They are thus preserved in the same positions that were in when the cooling was started. When the organism is rewarmed, the ions resume travelling down their initial concentration gradients.
This mechanism is the same in all organisms with brains.
So theoretically, if you were to perfectly vitrify a human brain, without ice/fracture/cryoprotectant toxicity damage, the brain would restart by itself upon rewarming.
I want to know if this claim holds water and, more importantly, if it applies to trying to preserve a human for eons, waiting for future tech that may or may not successfully resuscitate them or upload them into some badass supercomputer.