Since the dawn of science fiction, the tantalizing prospect of cryogenic suspension has captured imaginations – preserving vitality indefinitely until medical technology progresses enough to revive, cure and restore. Yet despite isolated successes cryopreserving cells and tissues, extending such feats of biostasis to entire human bodies remains scarcely more plausible today than in the pages of Asimov or Clarke. However, by collaborating with two advanced possibilities still confined to fiction, we may find this dream within reach after all: artificial intelligence and extraterrestrial life.
Building on rapid advances in computing, nanotechnology and biotechnology, artificial superintelligence could one day mathematically crack the cryopreservation conundrums that confound todays science, devising solutions to seemingly intractable issues of scale, toxicity and revival. Meanwhile, technologically superior alien civilizations may have already unlocked biological mastery over metabolic regulation and cellular repair processes far exceeding present human capacity.
In this speculative piece, we analyze how joining strengths with artificial and alien expertise could enable a customized cryogenic pathway for preserving whole human bodies – suspended in timeless slumber between the stars until awakened. By peering beyond terrestrial barriers with open minds, we explore how one impossible idea could become real through collaboration with intelligences beyond our own.
Our first question when considering this topic is if you can freeze sperm, eggs and embryos, why can’t you cryogenically freeze humans? Well, as it turns out, there are a few key reasons why it’s not currently possible to successfully cryopreserve entire human bodies:
- Size – Sperm, eggs, and embryos are extremely small, so the cryoprotectant solutions can penetrate all the cells and prevent ice crystal formation. Humans are obviously much larger, so crystals are more likely to form during freezing or thawing, damaging cells and tissues.
- Toxicity – The high concentrations of cryoprotectants needed to try to overcome the size issue are extremely toxic to large, complex systems like human organs and tissues. This causes damage even before freezing starts.
- Reperfusion injury – If freezing didn’t kill the cells, rewarming and unfreezing likely would. Restoring blood flow to the whole body after suspension of all metabolic processes would cause massive issues.
- Lack of technology – We currently lack the advanced nanotechnology, cell repair mechanisms, and reversible human suspended animation techniques that would likely need to be developed before whole body cryopreservation would become feasible.
- Lack of successful demonstration – No one has yet demonstrably cryopreserved and then revived an entire mammalian body or brain. Until this major hurdle is overcome, human cryopreservation remains speculative.
The damage from existing cryopreservation techniques makes success with complex systems unlikely. So for now, while cells and tissues may be frozen, whole human cryopreservation is still science fiction rather than science fact.
Cryopreserving a whole human body would be an incredibly complex challenge that would require major scientific and technological breakthroughs across multiple fields, including:
- Advances in cryoprotectant solutions – New customizable molecules would need to be developed that could permeate tissues, prevent ice formation without toxicity, and support revival at the cellular level across the entire human body.
- Nanotechnology – Tiny nanobots could be designed to rapidly penetrate and protect all cells and structures, prepare the body for stasis and resuscitate when required. Precision control would be essential.
- Organ banking – All organs may need temporary removal, cryoprotection and storage then replacement and reattachment. This would avoid damage from freezing them in place. Vastly improved organ transplant methods would be needed.
- Suspended animation – Metabolism may need to be made reversibly slowable to a near halt. This could require nano-bio interfaces and re-animation protocols. Natural hibernation offers clues but human application is extremely challenging.
- Cellular repair – Inevitable damage will still occur so advanced medical nanobots capable of comprehensive cellular and genetic repair may need deployment upon revival. Complex repair cascades would be essential for survival.
Overall, radical interdisciplinary progress pushing cryobiology to its limits would be required. Survival would also ultimately depend on the successful orchestration of the separate solutions into a coordinated functional process safe enough for human trials. Even then, success chances remain highly speculative.
So, can AI and Aliens help humans develop technologies that would enable humans to be cryogenically frozen so they can traverse the universe? Possibly! Here are some ways AI and advanced alien civilizations could potentially help develop cryogenic technologies to enable humans to traverse the cosmos:
- AI can help humans use predictive modeling and simulation to test theoretical cryopreservation methodologies at scale without risk.
- We can leverage AI to analyze complex biochemical pathways involved in cryoinjury and revival at a systems biology level to identify targets.
- Humans can utilize AI to synthesize and rigorously screen novel cryoprotectant compounds tailored to human physiology.
- Use AI to design and prototype rigorously optimized cooling/warming protocols for whole body preservation using computational fluid dynamics
- Lastly, AI can help humans control highly customized applications of nanotechnology and directed cellular repair mechanisms upon revival.
Alien Technology Can Also Assist Us In the Following Ways:
- Share insights into cryostasis techniques from their own medical applications to better understand the challenges.
- Provide access to advanced nanotechnology capable of quickly penetrating and protecting the human body.
- Leverage their superior biotechnology to implement suspended animation and resuscitate humans without organ damage.
- Â Enable rapid development of medical nanobots that can conduct cellular repairs orders of magnitude faster than human technology allows.
- Build cryogenic capable transport ships able to store preserved humans for interstellar journeys.
By combining AI’s predictive modeling and alien super-technology, we could theoretically develop ways to safely cryopreserve humans and transport them over vast cosmic distances while avoiding fatal cryoinjuries. The science is still early but the potential is worth pursuing!
How exactly can aliens leverage their superior biotechnology to implement suspended animation and resuscitate humans without organ damage?Â
Advanced alien civilizations may have mastered sophisticated biotechnology that could enable them to place humans in a state of suspended animation and later revive them without permanent organ damage. A hypothetical process could work as follows:
- Anaesthesia – Aliens first apply a biochemical cocktail that rapidly induces a deep coma-like state, fully anesthetizing the human and suppressing higher brain function. This prevents any sensation or perception during the procedure.
- Metabolic Wind Down – Targeted bioactive compounds selectively suppress various metabolic and homeostatic processes, initiating a cascade that steadily and uniformly slows enzymatic reactions, biochemical pathways, cardiovascular circulation, respiration and organ function.
- Cryoprotection – Once metabolism has been minimised, alien nanobots rapidly distribute a synthetic cryoprotectant uniformly through all cells and extracellular spaces, shielding membranes and proteins while preventing destructive ice crystals.
- Cooling – With metabolism halted and protection in place, carefully programmed temperature gradients cool the human using an alien cryotech system optimised to avoid stress. Cooling continues until humans reach an ultra-low temperature where all remaining biological motion is suspended.
- Resuscitation – Using precise warming, organ function is methodically restored, cryoprotectants cleared and normal metabolism consciously resumed. Tailored medications manage reperfusion while nanobots repair any minor remaining defects from stasis at the cellular level, avoiding any lasting harm.
By leveraging advanced alien expertise in synthetic biology, nanomedicine and cryogenic engineering, such a process could theoretically enable interstellar travel by placing humans in profound yet reversible suspended animation. The risks would still be significant given current human physiology, but superior alien technology may one day make it possible.
Can aliens enable rapid development of medical nanobots that can conduct cellular repairs orders of magnitude faster than human technology allows?
Aliens that are more technologically advanced than humans could accelerate the development of medical nanobots for cellular repair in several key ways:
- Shared Understanding of Nanophysics – Aliens may have uncovered novel nanoscale phenomena allowing improved functionality like more efficient propulsion systems for cell-sized robots. Access to advanced materials science and applications of quantum effects could enable major performance jumps.
- Bio-Inspired Designs – Alien medical nanobots likely leverage complex biological principles pioneered from millions of years more evolution than on Earth. Adapting alien biomechanical designs refined by nature on their home planets could boost flexibility, functionality and biocompatibility.
- Advanced Manufacturing Methods – Superior alien nanofabrication technologies like high-precision atomic/molecular assembly and quality control automation could drastically increase the sophistication and specialization of medical nanobots we can engineer.
- On-Board Power Systems – Alien expertise in miniaturized, high-density power systems like nuclear micro-batteries or fuel cells could eliminate reliance on external power sources, allowing nanobots to operate at peak capacity inside the human body.
- Optimized Control Interfaces – Alien computing know-how could enable revolutionary brain-bot interfaces, allowing intuitive and precise real-time control of cellular healing nanorobots injected in human patients.
By collaborating with humans, advanced aliens could transform our primitive understanding of the engineering possibilities at the smallest scales – unlocking the potential for medical nanotechnology far beyond what our current technology can support.
Current science leaves whole-body cryopreservation of humans unattainable despite the routine freezing of reproductive cells and tissues. Significant advances across interdisciplinary fields would be essential beforeattempting to extend cryopreservation to revive entire human bodies or brains.
While sperm, eggs and embryos are sufficiently simple in scale and biology to yield success already, overcoming the formidable hurdles of toxicity, physical damage and technological limitations hindering larger structures remains daunting. Until revolutionary breakthroughs enable us to uniformly perfuse protective compounds, safely arrest metabolism and consistently restore viability without devastating harm, cryonics will remain speculative science fiction rather than practical reality.
Yet as genetics and nanotechnology continue rapidly transforming what we consider possible, there may come an as-yet-unforeseeable day when science conquers the immense complexities of biostasis to make long-term suspended animation a practical option. Until such a future arrives however, while small components of life can be frozen, tragically no loved one lost today can yet return by thawing. The human condition remains our own to bear.