This is at the Nature website:
In 1773, US polymath Benjamin Franklin argued that scientists should try to invent a method of embalming such that a human could be revived in the future. He admitted “a very ardent desire to see and observe the state of America a hundred years hence”. Neuroscientist Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston thinks that such brain preservation and revival could well become feasible. But his complex book acknowledges this proposition as “scary and disquieting” — requiring us to scrutinize our own mortality, “a deeply unpleasant task”.The book is The Future Loves You. The description at the publisher's site is:
A brilliant young neuroscientist explains how to preserve our minds indefinitely, enabling future generations to choose to revive us.I look forward to reading a lengthier review!
Anyway, I am surprised at the observation of Benjamin Franklin - quite ahead of his time there. (I see that Frankenstein wasn't published until 1818, and I presume it may have popularised the concept of revival of the dead.)
You sure want to pick the right 100 year period to be revived in, though. I mean, he died in 1790, and although the world of 1890 had undergone the industrial revolution, it had got nothing on the changes between 1890 and 1990. I'm not sure we'll ever see anything quite like that century again, in fact!
3 comments:
A brilliant young neuroscientist explains how to preserve our minds indefinitely, enabling future generations to choose to revive us.
Rubbish.
"Rubbish" is certainly a substantive criticism of a 400 page-long scholarly work. I suppose you've thoroughly scrutinised it?
Sure the idea sounds odd and implausible, but you're asking noise, not signal.
We can't even store organs for transplantation. Organs are mostly cellular structures repeated. Brains are completely different, with a great many geometries, cell types, and nuclei. His reads like another version of transhumanism. Feynman once stated scientists should focus on problems that can be solved. So how about he starts with preserving organs for transplantation? Not sexy enough, won't sell enough books with that. Then I might take him seriously. I've seen far too many outlandish claims like his, people claiming to be able to live forever, being able to cure cancer(sure, cure a category). A non active brain decays in minutes yet his proposal involves removing a brain for cryopresevation.
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