Okay, so why Cryonics?

A couple of years ago, rather concerned over my impending demise (I am a bit of a busy body. I don't want to die. I'd like to stick around to see what happens.) I researched the field of cryonics and began plotting how I'd save US$25,000 (insurance payable to the cryonics institute is usually the easiest). And that was for a full-body freeze, not just the head. After all the argument goes that we kinda need the spine for some lightning-in-a-bottle charges so I thought I'd just freeze the whole package.

Life extension science is real. We're getting there. I expect China will be the world leader in stem cell therapy. Telomere research is heavily underway. I even have a couple hundred shares in Geron, which owns over 100 patents in telomere and other life extension research (the Marvel concept, but that's another story). Plus calorie restriction has been scientifically proven to work.

And hey, we are living longer. My grandmothers are over 90 (and little dizzy) but otherwise in fair health, and my parents are pushing the envelopes of 70 and still chirpy and planning trips around the south of China. Like they say, 30 is the new 20 (and I sure feel that way) and 40 is the new 30 (my sister sure feels that way), and 70 is the new 50 (my mom and aunt feel that way).

I have gone way off topic...

Anyhoo... yeah, freezing my body. A few technical issues.

Transporting my body to a cryo lab upon death is a tricky thing. The closest locale is Australia. Never mind.

Even if we could get it there in time, the local funeral parlors need to be trained to prepare the body (they couldn't even reply my email). It's not as simple as throwing it on ice but it works in cases of emergency. Since resuscitations have not yet been attempted due to our inferior technology in this field, it isn't something worth risking.

Third, the technology of freezing isn't perfected yet. When frozen with current technology our cells are irreversibly damaged. Until they can reverse it, it isn't terribly useful.

And that's the technical issues.

Now come the emotional issues. Waking up 100 years in a completely new world (imagine a person waking up today who was born and lived in 1905 - quite different). That's the fun part.

But then you realise you don't know anyone. All the people you knew and loved are gone. It crushes me to know that if I extend my life drastically, all my loved ones may well not be there (unless it is a worldwide life extension, which is cool) and I'll have to face life without them. That saddens me deeply.

Yes, there will be new families, friends, and new loves, but it won't be the same... and of course, that's what I say now but that is how I feel now. Perhaps if I am there, I would simply rejoice that I'll live through another age, which is cool too.

But honestly, that is the major drawback for me. Not the money, not the thawing (if it works and I don't explode like that senator in X-Men).

Plus we still have to die someday anyway, whether it is tomorrow, in 70 years, or in 700 or 70,000,000 when the Universe either expands forever and we freeze to death (or maybe adapt or get replaced by parts) or crushes into a singularity (ouch get squished). 'Course it'll be funner to stick around for the latter years.

I've attempted to convince everyone I love to get frozen with me but no one's bit. I suppose I could always freeze my cats when they pass on... cat cryo is available. Hmm...

Will our conservatism keep us alive long enough to reap the benefits of the new era of medicine?

In the brilliant article A Dose of the New Medical Reality, Dale Carrico addresses the emerging dilemmas of morphological freedom as medicine changes our lives and limits.

It was absolutely wonderful to see Joanne and Ser Mann again - the old flatmates back together. We reminisced about the good old days and noticed none of us look any difference than when we were back in Melbourne. :p

Jo loved the teddy bear I bought her and the sushi restaurant gave us a lovely table (I told them it was Jo's birthday) and we talked for hours. It was really good to catch up. We hadn't seen SM in 5 years! Time sure flies.

The evening reminded me how important good friends and good memories are. We parted, promising more frequent dinners and a possible dive trip together. It will be a ball to spend days on an island together. Just the three sisters running amok all over again!

Although I had to work yesterday, it has been a relaxing weekend. Lazed around a lot in bed reading and started piling a stack of them beside my bed for easy reading again.

I finished Rage of Angels by Sidney Sheldon for the zillionth time. I notice as time passes I see the characters in a different light. For the first time, I sympathised with Mary Beth Warner and admired her strength and fortitude.

Started reading a book called The 9 Emotional Lives of Cats (I think) for the second time. Wonderful reading. I dozed off last night though after the first couple of chapters.

Saturday evening I went to Action City to find a gift for Jo and ended up with a small Sylvanian Families dollhouse for my sister-in-law too. Dinner at Mos Burger away from the maddening crowd. Bought some groceries and then headed home.

Took pictures (I was togged up) with all the cats when we returned home last night! It was a rare treat. Even managed to catch Kaku to snap a few shots! :D

Then we watched Without a Paddle (I've loved Seth Green since he played Oz in Buffy) and found it immensely fun and delightful.

Friday night we had dinner near Malay Village after buying cat food at Julia's. She asked if I was interested to have my cats appear on a cat food can and immediately suggested Tuxie! :o We were such flattered parents. Yes! We said and promised to send her his picture over the weekend.

Tina's sent the eyechips (and 2 free gorgeous bangles) and they arrived yesterday! :D They're so cute! I can't wait to get home and do some eye surgery on the dolls.

Joker from Waverly Films is nominated for the MVPA Awards, which is like the Oscars of music videos. Another amazingly cute and beautifully directed short MTV.

A brilliant short film about a man and his cat. A must-watch for everyone! :)

Slept most of yesterday and feel vaguely human today. Found an old journal of 1998 while scrambling for some reading material. It was an interesting read.

I realise how journals aren't accurate records of a person's life.

You need to be in a certain mood to write, usually melancholic, archivey - I just made this up, meaning feverishly trying to immortalise (as much as paper or bytes are capable) one's life events as they pan out for posterity, or simply bored (that's when the meaningless quizzes get posted up). The times when you're having a ball are most likely not archived cos you're having too much of a good time to do so.

So when I'm dead (or heck, even alive), don't take my blog literally. :)

(Quoted from: Bad Astronomy Blog by astronomer Philip C. Plait)

I know a place where the Sun never sets.

It’s a mountain, and it’s on the Moon. It sticks up so high that even as the Moon spins, it’s in perpetual daylight. Radiation from the Sun pours down on there day and night, 24 hours a day—well, the Moon’s day is actually about 4 weeks long, so the sunlight pours down there 708 hours a day.

I know a place where the Sun never shines. It’s at the bottom of the ocean. A crack in the crust there exudes nasty chemicals and heats the water to the boiling point. This would kill a human instantly, but there are creatures there, bacteria, that thrive. They eat the sulfur from the vent, and excrete sulfuric acid.

I know a place where the temperature is 15 million degrees, and the pressure would crush you to a microscopic dot. That place is the core of the Sun.

I know a place where the magnetic fields would rip you apart, atom by atom: the surface of a neutron star, a magnetar.

I know a place where life began billions of years ago. That place is here, the Earth.

I know these places because I’m a scientist.

Science is a way of finding things out. It’s a way of testing what’s real. It’s what Richard Feynman called “A way of not fooling ourselves.”

No astrologer ever predicted the existence of Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto. No modern astrologer had a clue about Sedna, a ball of ice half the size of Pluto that orbits even farther out. No astrologer predicted the more than 150 planets now known to orbit other suns.

But scientists did.

No psychic, despite their claims, has ever helped the police solve a crime. But forensic scientists have, all the time.

It wasn’t someone who practices homeopathy who found a cure for smallpox, or polio. Scientists did, medical scientists.

No creationist ever cracked the genetic code. Chemists did. Molecular biologists did.

They used physics. They used math. They used chemistry, biology, astronomy, engineering.

They used science.

These are all the things you discovered doing your projects. All the things that brought you here today.

Computers? Cell phones? Rockets to Saturn, probes to the ocean floor, PSP, gamecubes, gameboys, X-boxes?
All by scientists.

Those places I talked about before—you can get to know them too. You can experience the wonder of seeing them for the first time, the thrill of discovery, the incredible, visceral feeling of doing something no one has ever done before, seen things no one has seen before, know something no one else has ever known.

No crystal balls, no tarot cards, no horoscopes. Just you, your brain, and your ability to think.

Welcome to science. You’re gonna like it here.