Planning Ahead (Hopefully way ahead)

When I die, I want my head cryogenically frozen. I hope that one day science will develop the abilities to attach my head to a robotic body and allow me to have more time on Earth. Hypothetically, I will look something like this:


(Graphic credit: Peter V.A., photoshopper extraodinaire)

Sorry to be morbid, but most people have a plan for when they die. Mine involves the possibility of living hundreds of years more. I love being alive, so why not try to keep on living?

The whole plan depends on a few factors.

First, it depends on the development of technology to reanimate brains of deceased humans. This is my biggest hurdle. I firmly believe that in 50-100 years scientists will develop the technology to greatly extend a human life. One possibly crazy scientist has dedicated his life to this pursuit. His name is Aubrey de Grey. His beard terrifies me as much as his ideas intrigue me. Although he has gotten a lot of flak from the scientific establishment, I think that it is innovators like him who will advance the science of longevity. He analogizes a human body to a car. If you can continue fixing and replacing the various parts, the machine will last forever. He suggests things such as implanting genes into humans that would pick up the junk that eventually weakens our arteries or causes cancers. I say, rock on, Aubrey.

However, it is another matter altogether to bring a severed head back to life and reattach it to a body, or in my case, to a robot. However, Alcor, located in Arizona, is willing to help me, by preserving my head until science catches up with my dreams, for a price of course.

Unfortunately for me, it is not cheap to be cryogenically frozen: it costs $80,000. So my success in achieving a cryogenically-aided afterlife depends on my success in earning money. This might be the biggest impediment, since I don’t predict I will die rich.

And of course, there is a huge chance that the investment will result in nothing. Also, Alcor might be a company just looking to rip off some rich longevity-loving people. But I won't care if either of these things are true. I'll just be a frozen head, after all.