(Cross-posted from here.)

If you read even a tiny bit about brain preservation, you will pretty quickly find people saying things along the lines of “they can’t even freeze a mouse and bring it back to life” and thereby dismissing people in the field as hopelessly deluded.

It will not surprise you to hear that I think that they are wrong. The whole point of brain preservation is that while we are not able to reverse the process of long-term preservation today (trust me, if we could, you would know), we can still attempt to preserve the information in the brain so that if powerful technologies do arrive in the future (which many expect), people in the future might be able to use those technologies to revive people preserved today. An actual argument against this being technically possible requires an argument that (a) the important information cannot be preserved [...]

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First published:
September 12th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/SMxaSjohsq2AdbKuq/why-i-m-not-trying-to-freeze-and-revive-a-mouse

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.17274; (ignore the confusing 2030-2040 timeline differential, it’s due to one participant only answering the 90% confidence part)

Graph showing predicted timeline for reversible cryopreservation of laboratory animals.

Violin plot comparing revival feasibility across three technological approaches, showing probability percentages.

Nine histograms showing estimated emulation probability timelines for C. elegans, mouse, and human.

The graphs display projected years for achieving 10%, 50%, and 90% probability of successful emulation for each species, with medians ranging from 2035 (C. elegans) to 2200 (human).

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“Why I’m not trying to freeze and revive a mouse” by Andy_McKenzie

LessWrong (30+ Karma)

“Why I’m not trying to freeze and revive a mouse” by Andy_McKenzie