Document Detail


Extreme life extension: investing in cryonics for the long, long term.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  20455144     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
This article explores American conceptualizations of finance, the future, the limits of biological time, and the possibilities of biotechnoscience through an investigation of the social world of cryonics-the freezing of the dead with the hope of future revival. I describe some of the cosmologies of life, death, time, and the management of the future that circulate within cryonics communities, and I draw out relationships between cryonics practices and discourses and more common forms of personal future management prevalent within American neoliberal capitalism. I also illustrate similarities and differences between cryonics and more mainstream biomedical technologies. In doing so, I argue that cryonics is one American manifestation of anxieties about aging, time, and the future. I investigate the impact of biotechnologies on self-making and biosociality, and argue that crafting of selves can be deeply entwined with practices of investment or hope in the future of biomedicine and technology.
Authors:
Tiffany Romain
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Medical anthropology     Volume:  29     ISSN:  1545-5882     ISO Abbreviation:  Med Anthropol     Publication Date:  2010 Apr 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2010-05-10     Completed Date:  2010-08-17     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  7707343     Medline TA:  Med Anthropol     Country:  England    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  194-215     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. tromain@stanford.edu
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Aging / psychology*
Anxiety
Biotechnology / ethics,  methods*,  trends
Cryopreservation / trends*
Death
Humans
Time
United States

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