Whenever I give a public talk - after I’ve finished explaining how neuroscientists can now selectively manipulate or erase a mouse’s memories, or how patients sometimes have their heart and brain activity entirely stopped during surgery by cooling them below 20°C - and I’ve finished making the case for preserving...
As a neuroscientist, I became fascinated by the supposed phenomenon of 'terminal lucidity', where people with severe dementia suddenly become lucid again shortly before death. It sounds impossible given how catastrophically damaged their brains are, but it keeps being reported across cultures and centuries. If it's real, it could suggest...
Note: While this article presents one possibility for how the future may play out, it should not be taken as a specific prediction by either the author or the Brain Preservation Foundation. Amy Robertson-Wong August 18, 2085 ‘My husband had only died because saving his life would have been too...
Whenever I give a public talk - after I’ve finished explaining how neuroscientists can now selectively manipulate or erase a mouse’s memories, or how patients sometimes have their heart and brain activity entirely stopped during surgery by cooling them below 20°C - and I’ve finished making the case for preserving the brains of dying people so as to give them a chance of future revival, I’m inevitably asked the following question during Q&A:
“OK, but what do your colleagues think?”
It’s a good question.
When I say ‘brain preservation may be able to stop people from dying’, I’m making a weird, bold claim. Weird, bold claims are mostly wrong. Still, if the claim is being... (read 598 more words →)
As a neuroscientist, I became fascinated by the supposed phenomenon of 'terminal lucidity', where people with severe dementia suddenly become lucid again shortly before death. It sounds impossible given how catastrophically damaged their brains are, but it keeps being reported across cultures and centuries. If it's real, it could suggest new treatment methods for Alzheimer's (not just another ineffective amyloid-clearing antibody), yet it's shockingly understudied.
Note: While this article presents one possibility for how the future may play out, it should not be taken as a specific prediction by either the author or the Brain Preservation Foundation.
Amy Robertson-Wong
August 18, 2085
‘My husband had only died because saving his life would have been too weird.’
Annabel Walker had this realisation earlier this year after watching a video of Marcus Chen, a retired primary school teacher, sitting on a bed. His face is slack with relief, and teary-eyed family members are seated all around him. The scene is striking, but not particularly shocking - unless one surmises that Chen has recently been revived from preservation, after having been legally dead for... (read 1512 more words →)