Uploaded April 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
An interview with Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston, author of the book 'The Future Loves You: How and Why We Should Abolish Death'. We begin by discussing how best to define death, focusing on the idea of death as the permanent disruption of psychological identity, and how such identity is constituted by our personality, desires, and memories. We then consider the science of brain preservation, including the recently-developed technique of Aldehyde-Stabilized Cryopreservation, and how it could be used to indefinitely preserve the brain structure that encodes or personal identity. Ariel argues that such a preserved brain could potentially be used to construct a digital simulation of our brains, essentially allowing us to survive the biological death of our bodies. We conclude by considering some potential challenges of implementign such a technology, and whether it would achieve widespread social acceptance.
Ariel's book:
amazon.com/Future-Loves-You-author/dp/0241655897
More on brain preservation:
brainpreservation.org/how-much-protein-structure-loss-is-there-following-glutaraldehyde-crosslinking
brainpreservation.org/large-mammal-announcement
Mapping the Drosophila brain:
science.org/doi/10.1126/science.add9330
An interview with Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston, author of the book 'The Future Loves You: How and Why We Should Abolish Death'. We begin by discussing how best to define death, focusing on the idea of death as the permanent disruption of psychological identity, and how such identity is constituted by our personality, desires, and memories. We then consider the science of brain preservation, including the recently-developed technique of Aldehyde-Stabilized Cryopreservation, and how it could be used to indefinitely preserve the brain structure that encodes or personal identity. Ariel argues that such a preserved brain could potentially be used to construct a digital simulation of our brains, essentially allowing us to survive the biological death of our bodies. We conclude by considering some potential challenges of implementign such a technology, and whether it would achieve widespread social acceptance.
Ariel's book:
amazon.com/Future-Loves-You-author/dp/0241655897
More on brain preservation:
brainpreservation.org/how-much-protein-structure-loss-is-there-following-glutaraldehyde-crosslinking
brainpreservation.org/large-mammal-announcement
Mapping the Drosophila brain:
science.org/doi/10.1126/science.add9330
