I have a conviction about the potential for cryonics research that is similar in some respects to de Grey's regarding antiaging research. I think that perhaps if we funded research into cryobiology, there would be breakthroughs that would lead to being able to put people's vital status on hold, preventing them from aging or feeling suffering.



Contemporary cryonics is not quite like that because of the requirement of legal death beforehand (which often involves an extended agonal period), and because the great uncertainty of ever coming back means that most people would not want to enter such a state until in the late stages of terminal illness anyway. True medical suspended animation would consist of something that does no damage beyond our ability to repair, and could be entered much earlier in the process (or even be used for non-terminal illnesses that are otherwise a strain on resources such as a flu pandemic).



On the other hand, the hope of reanimation and anticipation of actually seeing the future does add something positive and irreplaceable for current cryonics cases -- enlivening an otherwise hopeless terminal illness. This hope of seeing the future (space travel, world peace, and so forth) is one of the things about life extension that I find thrilling, in addition to the hope of escaping near-term death.