Academics pay to be cryogenically preserved

The belief that death is the only certainty in life is a concept senior academic staff at an Oxford University institute are hoping to dismantle, by paying to be cryogenically preserved and brought back to life in the future, writes Heather Saul for The Independent.

Nick Bostrom, professor of philosophy at the Future of Humanity Institute and his co-researcher Anders Sandberg have agreed to pay an American company to detach and deep freeze their heads in the advent of their deaths. Colleague Stuart Armstrong is instead opting to have his whole body frozen. Preserving the full body is technically more difficult to achieve and can cost up to £130,000 (US$203,000).

Bostrom, Armstrong and Sandberg are lead researchers at the institute, a part of the prestigious Oxford Martin School, where academics complete research into problems affecting the globe, such as a climate change. The researchers have set up life insurance policies costing up to £45 a month in premiums that will provide the funds needed to preserve them upon their death.
Full report on The Independent site