Should you freeze your brain? These scientists think it’s worth a shot
Is it sensible to freeze your brain? If you are dying, is it worth getting decapitated, pumping in preservatives and then putting your head in the fridge? According to a survey of neuroscientists, just possibly. Or, at least, not all are certain it is completely pointless.
The consensus of the poll of 300 neuroscientists is that there is a 40 per cent probability that we will one day resurrect memories from preserved brain structures — and then, perhaps, eventually fully emulate a brain.
There were, though, divergent views. One respondent cautioned that there was a difference between what is possible in theory and what is possible in practice.
For Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston, a neuroscientist from Monash University in Australia, and the instigator of the poll, technology has now advanced to a level where he considers brain preservation worth a punt. “If I got the bad news [that] I was dying, and I had the time to get myself preserved, then I would,” he said. “I really think it has a chance of ensuring that I live longer.”
But, he said, this doesn’t mean that we will one day be able to chat with some of the dozens of people known already to have had themselves cryogenically frozen. This form of preservation has been paid for by some people since the 1960s. Most previous techniques would have turned brain structures to mulch. Only recently, argues Zeleznikow-Johnston, have we developed methods good enough to maintain connectivity patterns.
