This Startup Preserves Your Brain For Just Rs 6.5 Lakh, So You Die But Still Live On Forever
Nectome can preserve your brain in near-perfect condition for hundreds of years, until scientists have a way to upload it to the digital world.
In science fiction, the idea of preserving the human mind by uploading its consciousness to the digital universe is prevalent. It¡¯s how humanity can exceed the bounds of a mortal body, and live forever in corporeal form.
Now, there¡¯s a startup trying to do that, but it has a heavy price.
Supported by startup accelerator Y Combinator, Nectome touts itself as a breakthrough concept. It¡¯s cofounder and MIT graduate Robert McIntyre asks the simple question, ¡°What if we told you we could back up your mind?¡±
And that¡¯s the basic idea behind Nectome, they attempt to preserve your brain using a combination of cryonics and high tech embalming, so that one day future scientists will be able to develop a method to upload brains to the cloud, and your mind will be ready and waiting. You¡¯d be dead, but at least someone like you would be able to live on forever.
However, there¡¯s quite the macabre twist to this digital fairytale. It runs out that, for the preservation procedure to effectively take, Nectomee needs the brain to be fresh. And by that we mean blood-still-warm fresh.
Yeah, in order to freeze-dry your brain and preserve it, Nectome needs to pump your arteries full of embalming chemicals while your still alive.
Of course they¡¯re not complete sadists, the person being turned into a human popsicle would be under general anesthesia. But because of the loss of live involved to complete the process, Nectome plans to connect with people suffering a terminal illness, who are prepared to volunteer for a possible second chance.
The startup has already consulted with lawyers on California¡¯s End of Life Option Act, which allows doctor-assisted suicide for terminal patients, and believes its service will be legal. ¡°The product is 100 percent fatal,¡± McIntyre says. ¡°That is why we are uniquely situated among the Y Combinator companies.¡±
It¡¯s not any kind of rip-off scam either, Nectome seems to be the real thing. For one, it won a large US Federal grant, and is collaborating with Edward Boyden, a top neuroscientist at MIT. In addition, their technique is different from cryogenic freezing proposed by other startups before. Where those largely just use liquid nitrogen to freeze bodies, which scientists believe may irreparably damage them, Nectome uses a combination of cryonics and embalming.
Brain Preservation Foundation
It¡¯s a process they¡¯ve won an $80,000 science prize for, after they demonstrated the ability to preserve a pig¡¯s brain so well every synapse could be seen with an electron microscope. The brain is preserved at the nanometer level, including the connectome¡ªthe interlinked synapses that connect neurons.
Unfortunately, Nectome doesn¡¯t have any storage space on sale just yet, and there¡¯s already a few ahead of you on the signup list, including one of Y Combinator¡¯s creators, investor Sam Altman. For a refundable deposit of $10,000 (if you change your mind) you can join the Nectome waiting list.
In addition, though their preservation technique is excellent, there¡¯s no proof yet that memories can be retained in essentially dead tissue. So if this doesn¡¯t work, we¡¯re just going to have to wait until the memory upload technique is perfected decades from now, so we can shift to our digital selves directly on from our deathbeds.
