Icy Dead People: Inside a Michigan Cryogenic Storage Facility
Add another frigid feather to the cap of the Great Lakes State: Michigan, Capital of Cryogenics! Detroit, Michigan is home to the Cryogenic Society of America. Michigan also happens to have one of the highest populations of frozen humans in the country. The Cryonics Institute, located in Clinton Township, Michigan, has at least 206 frozen bodies as of June 2021, according to the New York Times.
The Cryonics Institutes Founders 'Chilling' Beliefs
Robert Ettinger, the man behind the Cryonic Institute, believed that death is not the end, but just a temporary inconvenience. A New Jersey native, Ettinger spent much of his life in Detroit and with a Masters's Degree in both math and physics, he began teaching at universities, including Wayne State and Highland Park Community College.
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He became fascinated with the prospect of freezing human beings to near death only to revive them later, after reading science fiction at a young age. That fascination led to a pursuit of the science behind Cryogenic beliefs.
The Science Doesn't Exist to Properly Thaw a Human-sicle...Yet
While cryonics may sound like science fiction, the Cryonics Institute, and others like it in Michigan and around the world take it very seriously. Over 200 people spent a minimum of $28,000 (payment plans available) to be put on ice (-320 degrees Fahrenheit), in the event that perhaps maybe someday they could be brought back to life. And what then you ask? Do we just pull them out of the freezer and thaw them like a pork chop?
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The truth is, and even the cryogenic faithful will tell you: no one knows how to safely thaw and reanimate a human.
Yet.