X-Message-Number: 1085
From:  (Keith Lofstrom)
Newsgroups: sci.cryonics
Subject: Re: Possible thawing process?
Message-ID: <>
Date: 31 Jul 92 00:35:29 GMT

References: <> 
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>>if the thawing process could be accomplished using some sort of
>>complex microwave system (please, let's not start with the jokes :) ).

>The real problem isn't in warming the body up. The problem is that
>cells are critically damaged and need to be repaired -- this will
>likely require nanotechnology.

I would be very surprised if the biggest problem in reanimation wasn't 
heating, but COOLING.  We are talking about trillions of little nanomachines
rooting around in there, and trillions of MIPS of computing - I would guess
that most of it is going on external to the body itself, simply for heat
removal.  Every time you probe a molecule with a little grab and shake, or
put two things together in an exothermic reaction, a little bit of heat
is released.  I don't have many beliefs, but inefficiency is one of them.
In any case, I imagine a patient will be disassembled into tiny little pieces
(with edges carefully marked) then put back together.  I would hope they would
improve things a little bit and leave some seams, making it easier to do field
swaps of systems ("Can you lend me a hand over here?"  ;-) ).

It will be easier to work without a lot of thermal motion - the actual repair
process probably would occur at liquid helium temperatures or colder.  When
that is finished, you probably have a body full of repaired, dormant cells.
Each cell will probably have thousands of little globs of frozen chemicals
in ice, carefully prepared to release the right chemicals in sequence to get
things started.  Each glob will have a little heating charge, and a "fuse"
leading off to the central control.  Set off the fuses, and within a few
milliseconds your liquid helium temperature patient is at room temperature.
At this point, you can start the heart and the lungs, start testing nervous
subsystems, and finally wake up your - very disoriented - patient.

Of course, the first thing that will happen after the patient wakes up is
that they will try to get his/her consent to a whole bunch of improvements,
then take the patient back down to 4K to make them.  After all, it will be
easier to replace their bowels with a better design, rather than have to
build lavatories for them.  Etc.  I hope they ask first.

Keith
-- 
Keith Lofstrom                Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Power ICs

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