Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by cmn32480 on Monday March 19 2018, @04:11PM   Printer-friendly
from the is-this-one-from-Abby-Normal? dept.

Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd

The startup accelerator Y Combinator is known for supporting audacious companies in its popular three-month boot camp.

There's never been anything quite like Nectome, though.

Next week, at YC's "demo days," Nectome's cofounder, Robert McIntyre, is going to describe his technology for exquisitely preserving brains in microscopic detail using a high-tech embalming process. Then the MIT graduate will make his business pitch. As it says on his website: "What if we told you we could back up your mind?"

So yeah. Nectome is a preserve-your-brain-and-upload-it company. Its chemical solution can keep a body intact for hundreds of years, maybe thousands, as a statue of frozen glass. The idea is that someday in the future scientists will scan your bricked brain and turn it into a computer simulation. That way, someone a lot like you, though not exactly you, will smell the flowers again in a data server somewhere.

This story has a grisly twist, though. For Nectome's procedure to work, it's essential that the brain be fresh. The company says its plan is to connect people with terminal illnesses to a heart-lung machine in order to pump its mix of scientific embalming chemicals into the big carotid arteries in their necks while they are still alive (though under general anesthesia).

The company has consulted with lawyers familiar with California's two-year-old End of Life Option Act, which permits doctor-assisted suicide for terminal patients, and believes its service will be legal. The product is "100 percent fatal," says McIntyre. "That is why we are uniquely situated among the Y Combinator companies."

Source: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610456/a-startup-is-pitching-a-mind-uploading-service-that-is-100-percent-fatal/


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by Bobs on Monday March 19 2018, @08:01PM (2 children)

    by Bobs (1462) on Monday March 19 2018, @08:01PM (#655094)

    Is there a free 30-day trial option?

    Asking for a friend.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 4, Funny) by DannyB on Monday March 19 2018, @08:06PM (1 child)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 19 2018, @08:06PM (#655100) Journal

    Is there a money back guarantee that it is 100% fatal?

    If your mind were reconstructed with some future technology, would there be copyright issues because of the music and movies that you can remember?

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 19 2018, @11:28PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 19 2018, @11:28PM (#655186)

      Too funny. Your brain is inspected and found to contain some pop song so you can't be resurected. I love it.