‘Any option is better than death’: Cryogenics scientist to RT

In a few decades, cryogenically frozen people could be resurrected either in their own bodies or those of humanoid robots, or even have their minds uploaded onto a computer, a scientist from a Russian cryogenic company told RT.

“If modern technology keeps developing at the pace it is now, then it will be possible in several decades,” said Igor Artyukhov, one of the founders of KrioRus, Russia’s first cryogenic company. The group’s aim is to store bodies or brains of dead people or animals in liquid nitrogen in the hope that one day technology will allow them to be resurrected.

The company doesn’t guarantee that its patients will be resurrected, Artyukhov said, adding that no one can know for sure if the technology will fail.

“It would be easier to have an example of a case that had worked. Then there would be no questions. But this won’t happen tomorrow, or in ten years. However, people are dying now and we need to do something.”

There is nothing good about death, the scientist says. “Death is the absence of life. I love life and I want to see what the future will be like,” he said, while revealing that he too will be cryogenically frozen.

There may be many ways to resurrect cryogenically frozen patients, Artyukhov claims.

“A person could be resurrected in his own body or in a new body. Probably he would have a robot-like body. They could also be uploaded onto a computer and live in an extended reality. Any option is better than death,” he explained.

Artyukhov showed the RT team ‘the people of the future’ – patients encased in huge capsules filled with liquid nitrogen.

“This is our cryostat. It contains liquid nitrogen, in which bodies are suspended head down,” Artyukhov said, pointing to a huge container.

Italian, Japanese, British, Australian, Swiss, and American flags could be seen displayed around the room, as well as others. At least nine cryogenically frozen foreigners are stored in KrioRus’ containers.

He pointed out another container, a much smaller one, fit for... a human head, where KrioRus stores the brains of those who believe that, in hundreds of years, scientists will revive their minds and ‘upload’ them into another body.

Founded in 2005 as a scientific research organization, KrioRus has an 11-year history. So far, it says 51 people or their brains have been cryogenically frozen in the company’s laboratories. 

The main precondition for a body to be frozen is that the person has to be dead, both physically and legally. Otherwise, the process is equated to killing.

The whole procedure of freezing a body raises many ethical questions and concerns. Many scientists say that it is impossible to resurrect a dead body even if it is properly thawed out, and probably will be in the future.

The issue of cryogenics hit the headlines earlier this week when a British teenager who died of cancer was cryogenically frozen after winning a landmark court case shortly before her death.

The 14-year-old girl’s divorced parents became embroiled in a legal battle over whether her wish to be frozen at a specialist facility in the United States should be granted. In a touching letter to the court, the unnamed teenager wrote: “I don’t want to die but I know I am going to… I want to live longer… I want to have this chance.”