Have you ever dreamed of
seeing the distant future?
Or maybe just fast-forwarding
to when hoverboards finally exist?
In the world of cryonics,
many scientists believe freezing ourselves
is the way forward.
But could it actually work?
Imagine waking up in a futuristic room,
feeling completely disoriented,
like you've just woken up
from the longest nap ever.
You're surrounded by
a smiling group of doctors,
who welcome you
to your new life in the year 2200.
The sinking realization
that all your friends, family, and loved ones
are gone forever sets in.
Unless, of course,
they chose to be cyropreserved like you.
Unfortunately, there's no guarantee
that cryopreservation will actually work.
Experts in the field openly admit
that we cannot defrost someone,
and bring them back to life,
with our current technology.
But many believe that,
in the distant future,
such technologies will exist.
In fact,
over 200 believers have already
signed up to be cryogenically preserved
at the Alcor facility in Arizona.
Before you become a human Popsicle,
listen closely
if you want to make it out alive.
Cryopreservation
is a very expensive process
that requires special equipment
and knowledgeable staff.
On average, the procedure can range
between $80,000 to $200,000 USD,
depending on whether you freeze
just your head
or your whole body.
Before you can go through with the process,
be sure to make your wishes known
to your family
or whomever holds a power of attorney
over your estate.
Legally, they'll be responsible for contacting
the cryonics company
at the time of your death.
This is a huge decision.
Be sure to speak to your loved ones
and a therapist about it
before you go through with it.
As soon as you've been reported
as deceased,
a team will plunge your body
into ice water
to slow any biological deterioration.
This is done using a body bag
filled with an ice-water slurry
to lower your temperature quickly
and uniformly.
A cryonics team will inject your body
with an anticoagulant
to prevent your blood from clotting.
Then they perform chest compressions
for at least five minutes,
to pump the anticoagulant
throughout your body
to all of your blood vessels.
A funeral director or team member
will introduce a thin tube
into your left and right carotid arteries
to drain the blood and water from your body.
At the same time,
a cryoprotectant agent
will be inserted to stop ice crystals
from forming inside you.
This will help maintain
the structural integrity of your body.
Once complete,
the body will be sutured shut.
Over about a week,
your corpse will be cooled
to -196 °C (-320 °F)
and moved into a special insulation pouch
filled with nitrogen to keep you frozen.
You will then be moved
to a long-term storage unit
known as a cryostat.
As promising as cyropreservation sounds,
we might not know if it actually works
for a hundred years or more.
That's a long time to be asleep.
Speaking of which,
could we actually survive
without any sleep whatsoever?
Well, If you're wide awake
and eager to find out,
keep watching How to Survive.