Topic 1.1
Definitions and concepts
This topic builds the conceptual foundation you need to think clearly about cryopreservation. It establishes core definitions, resolves common confusions between related fields, and explains the information-theoretic framework that makes the whole endeavor coherent. By the end, you'll have the vocabulary and mental models necessary to evaluate both the science and the practice on their actual merits.
What is biostasis (aka Cryonics) ?Biostasis is the foundation of everything we do: what it is, why pausing biology after legal death beats throwing the information away, the real challenges that remain, and why preserving the structure that encodes you is an engineering problem rather than an article of faith.Why cryonics makes sense? by Tim UrbanEXTERNALA brief history of cryonicsThe sixty-year story of cryonics, told honestly: Ettinger's one good idea, the first patient who is still preserved today, the 1970s failures that forced the field to grow up, the institutions that endured, and the vitrification breakthrough that turned crude freezing into a standardized procedure.What is the biostasis concept of death?Cryonics works from a stricter definition of death than the law uses. Clinical, legal, biological and information-theoretic death are different events, and everything cryonics does happens in the window between the last two.What is the difference between cryonics, cryogenics and cryobiology?Three cold-related words that mean different things: cryogenics is the physics of low temperatures, cryobiology is how life responds to them, and cryonics is the two applied to preserving a person after legal death.Why is cryopreservation at -196 degrees Celsius?Cold is the method, not the goal. Here is why preservation lands on -196 degrees Celsius: ice versus glass, the safety margin below the glass transition temperature, and the boiling point of liquid nitrogen that doubles as a free, electricity-proof thermostat.What is SST and why it’s important?SST stands for Standby, Stabilization and Transport, the emergency-medicine operation that runs in the hours after legal death. Because preservation quality is set by how fast it starts, SST is where cryonics is won or lost.In which cases can’t you be cryopreserved?The honest limits of cryonics: too much time since death, physical destruction of the brain, prior burial or cremation, and the avoidable failure of not being prepared in advance.Critical glossaryA plain-language glossary of the core cryonics vocabulary, from biostasis and vitrification to the cryonics window and information-theoretic death, with links to the full articles.