Q&A: Peter Tsolakides, 69, cryonics pioneer

Cryonics pioneer Peter Tsolakides is building Australia’s first body-freezing facility.

Peter Tsolakides. Picture: Steve Baccon

Your non-profit organisation Southern Cryonics will soon begin building Australia’s first cryonics facility, where dead “patients” will be stored long-term at -196ºC with a view to one day being revived. Your 18 investors have each kicked in $50,000 to get it built — and to buy themselves the chance of a second life. What sort of people are they? They range from a bus driver to very wealthy people. They’re all interested in science, and optimistic about the future. Only three are women. Cryonics is mainly attractive to men; I don’t know why, maybe they’re more adventurous and risk taking.

Can you describe the facility? It’ll essentially be a warehouse with large vacuum flasks known as cryostats, which are filled with liquid nitrogen coolant. Four patients can be stored in each one, upside down (that’s a failsafe: if the coolant were to leak, the brain would be the last bit to thaw). It’ll be in Holbrook, in southern NSW; we plan to start construction later this year.

What are the technical challenges of cryonics? You have to start the process very quickly once death is pronounced. Initially you cool the patient down to 10ºC, then you replace their blood with liquid “cryoprotectant”, a medical grade antifreeze. Next, you bring them down to about –80ºC, which gives you about two weeks to get them to the facility, where the final cooling to –196ºC is done. The big challenges are to avoid cracking in the brain and to avoid the formation of ice crystals, because that’s what destroys cells. You’re aiming for vitrification, where the patient ends up in a glass-like state.

Where did you learn all this stuff? From the three cryonics facilities in the US; also, a lot of research is going on at the moment into the cryonic storage of organs for transplant.

How about numbers? We expect to get three or four clients a year once we’re up and running; a full-body suspension will cost close to $150,000. Until now Australians have had to go to the US; around a dozen are in cryonic suspension over there.

Alcor in the US offers “neuropreservation” — cryonic suspension of the head only — at a discount. Will you, too? Well, we’ll keep it simple at first with full-body suspensions only. We’ll consider doing neuro later, on a case by case basis.

How long will patients last? Thousands of years, if looked after. But my estimation is that in 200 years’ time science will have advanced to the point where you can be revived.

Will it be a life worth living, though? You’ll still be in an old body, your friends will be long gone, the world might be a hellish place… Well, no: you’ll be in a young, fit body. That’s the point. In 200 years’ time, say, developments in cloning, AI, nanotechnology and robotics will enable whole new bodies to be created. This isn’t pseudo science, it’s proto science: the beginnings of it are already there. All we’re doing with cryonics is giving people time for all this research to catch up.

In a long career as a marketing executive for ExxonMobil, you travelled the world with your wife at your side. She won’t be joining you on your final journey though, right? No, she isn’t interested in cryonics at all. After 40-something years together I’d love for her to be with me in the future, but it’s her decision. I’m working on it though, slowly, slowly!