German-American billionaire and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel recently revealed that he has signed up to be cryogenically frozen after his death so that he can hopefully be revived in future, though he said that he was sceptical of the tech’s capacity.
“I’m not convinced it works. It’s more, I think we need to be trying these things. It’s not there yet,” the 55-year-old entrepreneur said on a podcast last week.
Thiel’s response came while speaking about the life-preserving possibilities of so-called “cryonics” during an appearance on journalist Bari Weiss’s podcast.
“Is it true that you’re signed up to be cryonically preserved when you die so that you might be brought back to life in the future?” Weiss asked the 55-year-old entrepreneur, according to New York Post.
“Yes, but I think of it more as an ideological statement,” Thiel replied.
“So it’s true?” the journalist reported.
“Sure. I don’t necessarily expect it to work, but I think it’s the sort of thing we’re supposed to try to do,” said Thiel, who has an estimated net worth of $8.13 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Thiel is known to be an avid follower of cryonics and other anti-ageing technologies. In 2014, the tech billionaire told The Telegraph that he had signed up to be preserved after death by the biotech firm Alcor.
What is cryogenic freezing?
The concept of cryogenic freezing is derived from the practice of freezing food using liquid nitrogen. Food manufacturers use this tech to maximise production efficiencies while minimising costs. The use of cryogenic gas at very low operating temperatures of -80ºC provides a high heat transfer rate that ensures quick freezing times.
Similarly, cryonics will be used to preserve humans and animals at cryogenic temperatures in the hope that future science can restore them to healthy living conditions and rejuvenate them.
Gravitas: What is Cryogenic preservation?
Cryonics can only be performed after the pronouncement of the legal death of the subject.
Legal death does not mean “irreversibly dead.” Death is a process, not an event, and the process takes longer than is commonly believed.
How does it work?
Once the cryonic subject is pronounced “legally dead”, dry ice will be used to keep the body at a low temperature. Then they will be infused with cryoprotectants, like antifreeze, to prevent ice crystal formation – which would kill cells – before the temperature is slowly lowered and they are preserved in liquid nitrogen at extremely low temperatures of below -130 degrees Celsius.
For the cells to survive dehydration after death, the body is kept at low temperatures, but uncontrolled dehydration and freezing can also prove lethal to living cells. Hence, it has to be done carefully.
The eventual aim is that one day they will be rewarmed and revived, however, there is no evidence or guarantee that they can be.
(With inputs from agencies)
