If all goes according to plan, a little Thai girl
nicknamed Einz who is now dead will some day
read this sentence. That plan, however, requires
incredible faith in technological
advancements. Elinz's body has been cremated
and all that remains is her head - which is now
filled with medical-grade antifreeze and stored
in a vault in Arizona.
Einz, whose formal name is Matheryn
Naovaratpong, died from an aggressive strain of
brain cancer on January 8th n Bangkok. She was
nearly 3 years old.
Two Alcor representatives one a retired
neurosurgeon were on standby to perform a "field
cryoprotection," which involved injecting her
with medical-grade antifreeze and lowering
her body temperature to around 80 degrees
Celsius below zero.
The family didn't just observe this graphic
procedure. They participated. "The
(neurosurgeon) said, 'Anyone who wants to go
should go now,'" says Dararat. "All of us stayed.
They said, 'Really? You're not afraid?'"
Minutes after Einz's death, the family was
helping place their daughter inside the
temperature-controlled, futuristic coffin they'd
constructed in the family's own factory.
Einz's head was not separated from her body
until it reached the foundation's facilities in
Arizona. Transporting corpses is somewhat
common; ferrying severed heads tends to draw
suspicion from customs agents. "If you send only a
head, you may run into problems," Sahatorn says.
"The officer at the X-ray machine may say, 'Oh
no, a human head!"
Her death would have unfolded as a private
tragedy had her parents not made a profound
choice. They decided that Einz would become
the youngest human and one of very few Asians to
undergo cryonic preservation.
"We believe death can be overcome in the
future," says Sahatorn, the girl's 41-year-old
father. "Human beings are seeing technology
increasing exponentially. It just doubles, doubles,
doubles. If our computer systems proceed like
this, they'll double their abilities minute by
minute. That would allow us to solve the world's
biggest problems."
This sentiment will be familiar to anyone
versed in the theory of the "Singularity," a
postulated era of dazzling possibility that
adherents believe will be ushered in by
explosive scientific breakthroughs in the
coming decades.
This belief in exponential scientific
achievement, steadily gaining adherents in the
West, is embraced by Einz's parents. Both
Sahatorn and his wife, Nareerat, hold doctorates
in electronics engineering. And both share the
view — as do believers in the Singularity — that
mortality is a problem science can fix.
That faith compelled the grieving engineers to
build a capsule for their recently deceased
daughter that could regulate her body's
temperature during the long shipment to the U.S.
(There are no cryonic facilities in Asia.) Einz
was collected by the U.S.-based Alcor Life
Extension Foundation, the world's largest
cryonics operation. The non-profit foundation
charges $80,000 to "neuropreserve" a human's
brain.
The goal, as worded by Alcor, is to "save lives by
using temperatures so cold that a person beyond
help by today's medicine might be preserved for
decades or centuries
Both of Einz's parents intend to cryo-preserve
their bodies. But if the odds of Einz's revival
are slim, the odds that all three can be successfully
revived and reunited are even slimmer.
"Honestly, it will be hard to see her again,"
Sahatorn says. "The probability is very low."
Einz's parents also hold out hope that life
extension breakthroughs will keep them alive
long enough to witness their daughter's revival.
"If I don't die in the next 30 years, maybe we'll
meet again," he says, "That's how long it might
take for science to figure out how to rejuvenate an
old man and extend his life."
The Huffington Post
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