Wait But Why, April 2016, “Why Cryonics Makes Sense” – This is probably now the most read piece in history about the pros and cons of cryonics. It was republished with permission in our magazine. Eight months later, our website still gets decent traffic from this article, and no link roundup would be complete without it. If you’re looking for one article to share with a friend who hasn’t thought about the issue, this is it.
The Economist, February 6, 2016, “Wait Not In Vain” – An excellent piece about the developing business of organ banking. The potential XPRIZE award is currently available to be voted on.
Scientific American, February 1, 2016, “Can Our Minds Live Forever?” – This is a change for Shermer, who wrote a 2001 editorial in Scientific American titled “Nano Nonsense and Cryonics“.
MIT Technology Review, October 19, 2015, “The Science Surrounding Cryonics” – If you haven’t already seen the study from a year ago involving memory retention in cryopreserved roundworms, you should. This article links to that study as part of a longer discussion about cryonics and consciousness.
The Journal of Medical Ethics, February 25, 2015, “The case for cryonics” – I hate linking to articles behind a paywall, but if you’re looking for a thorough treatment of this topic, here it is.
Journal of Critical Care, December 2014, “The Future of Death” – An excellent piece on the changing nature of the boundary between life and death. “If future technologies come to include nanotechnological interventions to enter cells and reverse structural and molecular changes that prevent natural return to normal cell function, then even neuronal cell death as currently understood is not a loss of the capacity to return to consciousness. Whether a patient is living or dead depends on time, place, and circumstances as much as it does on biology.”
