The Guardian on Cryonics
The Guardian looks at modern day cryonics and its goals: "First, cryopreservation techniques need to improve so patients' bodies - and especially their brains, the repositories of memory and personality - suffer minimal damage. Second, the medical techniques for [revival] must be developed. ... If we succeed in our mission, cryonics will become a process carried out in hospitals by medical staff for much shorter times. ... That in itself is a change from the early days. [The] demographics are changing. Formerly, most cryonicists were young, male and geeky. Now, Alcor gets whole families. The important unknown is: Can a cryosuspended brain, warmed and revived, retain the memories and personality of its owner? ... I think within 30 years we'll see a successful revival, but the people revived then would be cryopreserved 30 years from now. ... Last in, first out: the earliest patients to be cryopreserved suffered the worst damage. James Bedford, who in 1967 became the first person ever to be cryonically suspended and who is now at Alcor, was barely perfused at all. ... For the people being cryopreserved now, under the best conditions, my guess is 50 to 100 years. ... Given the current rate of medical progress and research into nanotechnology [if] we haven't done it in 100 years, it's not going to work." How far we've come in the past decade, to see respectful, balanced articles on the serious work of the cryonics community as the new media norm.
Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/feb/14/research.cryonics