Are you a science fiction fan? Do you like Interstellar, Avatar, Alien and Star trek? This seems like a random sequence of movies, but they have one thing in common. In all the movies people go in a cryosleep to be able to wake up in another time. This is a really cool thing for movies, but it is said that cryosleep is not just science fiction anymore! NASA unveiled plans to dramatically change the way we travel through space by the use of cryosleep. This would be one of the biggest innovations in history, because you could see this technology as killing somebody and being able to bring him back to life. But why would you want to do this?
First of all, how does it actually work. Scientist found a way with the use of a short-term hibernation, which is actually found in nature a lot. This is a state of inactivity of metabolism. Take for instance bears who sleep for periods of 8 months. There are actually 2 ways to go in a cryosleep. One is reducing body temperature, inject nutrition’s, drain urine and use electromagnetic muscle stimulation to prevent muscle break down. The second way is totally freezing a body. The total body is actually conserved. With this technology their isn’t a way yet to wake the body up without damage. However scientists expect that in 35 years the technology will advance so much that frozen bodies could be ‘resurrected’ and any damage could be healed. So the second way is really on long terms.
Often an innovation is introducing an existing technology in a new market or introducing an new technology in an existing market. For instance using robotics in healthcare respectively introducing self-driving cars in the car industry. In this case it is using a new technology in a new technology. Which means it is really groundbreaking. Where could we use this groundbreaking technology for? The main purpose is using it for space travel. Because our planet is getting less and less livable astronomers are searching for a new planet to live on. If such a planet would be found, cryosleep is needed to bridge the time-gap of the travel.
However this technology would be a very radical innovation, so what are the consequences of this technology? If you are frozen and you get woken up in 40 years first of all the chance is huge that you are mentally or physically not right. Secondly everything and almost everybody you know disappeared. You wake up in the future as a nobody. You have no history or connections with that place. I think it wouldn’t be a thing living for. For me it wouldn't be worth waking up.