What about preserving a person’s body?

Your brain contains the vast majority of your life’s memories about how your body moves and feels. From studying patients with Locked-In Syndrome, which happens after a massive brainstem stroke, we know that a person who has total loss of sensation and control of their body remains a normal, conscious person, someone who is patiently awaiting the arrival of medical science or technology that will “re-embody” them. They have lost whatever physical skills they may have learned, but they still have detailed memories of those skills, and normal thoughts and emotions.

In the future, the DNA in any cell may be used to reconstruct a body. But whether or how often body reconstruction will occur for any preserved person in the future is a question for future science. A robotic body, or the simulation of body and brain in a computer, may be a much earlier and more practical option for reanimation.

While the BPF focuses on brain preservation, companies that use the technology may combine it with other techniques to preserve the rest of the body, in accordance with the preferences of each individual.