See the Longecity Cryonics comparisons and information page at longecity.org/cryonics
Information from the Cryonics Institute website:
Cryonics is a technique intended to hopefully save lives and greatly extend lifespan. It involves cooling legally-dead people to liquid nitrogen temperature where physical decay essentially stops, in the hope that future technologically advanced scientific procedures will someday be able to revive them and restore them to youth and good health. A person held in such a state is said to be a "cryopreserved patient", because we do not regard the cryopreserved person as being really "dead".
We believe that revival is a real possibility because:
(1) Many biological specimens have been cryopreserved, stored at liquid nitrogen temperature where all decay ceases, and revived; these include whole insects, vinegar eels, many types of human tissue including brain tissue, human embryos which have later grown into healthy children, and a few small mammalian organs. Increasingly more cells, organs and tissues are being reversibly cryopreserved.
(2) The repair capabilities of molecular biology and nanotechnology increasingly point to a future technology that can repair damage due to aging, disease and freezing.
Dr. Ralph Merkle, examining the plausibility of cryonics in his essay 'The Molecular Repair Of The Brain', observes, "Interestingly (and somewhat to the author's surprise) there are no published technical articles on cryonics that claim it won't work...A literature search on cryonics along with personal inquiries has not produced a single technical paper on the subject that claims that cryonics is not feasible. On the other hand, technical papers and analyses of cryonics that speak favorably of its eventual success have been published. It is unreasonable, given the extant literature, to conclude that cryonics is unlikely to work."
Notable technical papers which provides scientific evidence for the feasibility of cryonics are: ANNALS OF THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES; Lemler,J; 1019:559-563 (2004) and REJUVENATION RESEARCH; Best,B; 11(2):493-503 (2008).
No one can guarantee success, because no one can guarantee the future. No one can predict scientific progress with certainty, but we believe a strong case can be made for the probable success of cryonics. But that doesn't mean that social disruptions aren't possible. Nuclear war, economic collapse, political strife, terrorism, are all possible, and they could end the lives of cryopreserved patients just as easily as they can end the lives of those outside it.
Edited by brokenportal, 27 March 2012 - 12:16 AM.