Amongst the most interesting of futurists in the world, is a man by the name of Robert Ettigner and his work poses the undeniably intriguing question: What if we were immortal? Ettinger’s life work centered around a process called cryonics. The term “cryonics” was coined by Ettinger in 1976 to describe a process he invented that involves immersing people in liquid nitrogen that has a temperature of close to -200 degrees celcius in order to preserve the human body and mind after death. Ettinger believed that death could potentially be a reversible process, therefore he began experimenting with cryonics to reach the point scientifically that one day people will be able to be resurrected. Since he proposed his ideas in the 1960s, Ettinger passed away and froze himself in a cryochamber alongside his first and second wife and his mother. To this day over 300 people in the U.S. have been frozen in their dead states.
Furthermore, Ettinger’s prediction of achievable immortality can be evaluated by the success of the science of it. If his research and inventions are able to successfully resurrect a human from the dead, cryonics could then be considered a huge success. However, I think it would be a true success if cryonics could keep the body from degrading and if it doesn’t alter the person as a whole, including the mind.
As we have learned throughout this course, technology often brings out ethical implications. Cryonics poses the age-old question of immortality and whether or not it is ethical. One dilemma being that if everyone can live forever, will people still have children since there is no need to further generations. Also if someone is unhappy with their life, should they be resurrected to prolong their unhappiness. Overpopulation and age gaps are both big issues that could arise in the possibility of immortality. It could also pose a societal and economic dilemma in the future of if cryonics will be accessible to everyone from all incomes, with it being such an expensive process it is likely that only the wealthy would be able to live forever. Although living forever sounds fantastic, I think that there are too many serious consequences that can result from it and therefore shouldn’t be pursued.
Paige Rosynek 
I find Ettinger’s immortality challenge very intriguing. Personally, I think it would be nice if we could achieve immortality. I believe that as long as things can still die in ways other than old age, it could be a pretty cool thing to have.
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I love how you related futuristic ideas and ethical questions in your article. Immortality is something i believe humans have always struggled with. Death is a scary idea because no one knows what comes next. Cryonics is quite interesting because of the idea of freezing a body to prevent decomposing is a strange but interesting idea. I like how you touched base on the problems that can arise with immortality. There are so many problems that may arise which i agree immortality shouldn’t be pursued.
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