Alan Sinclair is taking a gamble on a second life (Picture: James Clarke/Cryonics Institute)
A pensioner signed up to go into cryopreservation after his legal death has taken a look into the future he hopes to wake up in.
Alan Sinclair, who turns 86 on Thursday, admits he is taking a long shot at a second life but says it is ‘better than being fed to the worms’.
The great-grandfather is a member of the Cryonics Institute (CI) in Michigan, where he is due to be ‘suspended’ in liquid nitrogen at –196C.
He spoke ahead of a week when he plans to celebrate his birthday with his new partner by going out for a Thai meal near his home in East Sussex.
Contemplating life after a reawakening, Alan says: ‘I’ll just enjoy being alive.
‘I’d like to learn about all the new technologies, which I’ve always been interested in, especially technology and medicine.
‘I don’t think time travel will ever be possible but I expect there will be improvements in the way energy is used in transport.
‘Otherwise I will just enjoy sitting down watching television, messing around with old vintage cars and the simple things in life, that will be fine if that can continue. If the capability of reviving someone exists then the science should also be there to revive them in good health, so I should be healthy and well enough to carry on with these things.’
Alan Sinclair at home in Sussex (Picture: James Clarke for Metro.co.uk)
Alan, who has four children, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, is the only person in his family signed up to the $28,000 (£22,990) scheme.
But he may have a reunification with his first wife Sylvia, who went into cryopreservation in May 2013 after her clinical death from cancer.
‘It’s something I would look forward to,’ Alan says of their possible future reacquaintance. ‘If it happens it happens.’
His long-term partner Janet, who was not signed up to a cryonics scheme, died on Christmas Eve 2023, also from cancer, aged 83.
Alan, from Peacehaven, has since found a new partner who is not taking the almighty gamble but approves of his wishes.
If the ‘moonshot’ pays off, he will have a wealth of first-hand history to impart to future generations of his family.
The allure of a second life has led more than 2,000 people to sign up with the Cryonics Institute (Picture: Cryonics Institute)
‘It would be nice to meet future generations of the family, I suppose it would be the same as it is now and I would give them money and take them out for meals,’ he says.
‘It would be very exciting, I would love to meet my great-grandmother now but obviously it’s not possible.
‘It’s always nice to meet family, whenever it happens.’
The vintage car enthusiast has been restoring a 1925 Buick but won’t be able to take his long-term project with him.
‘You can’t take anything with you as it’s the same as a legal death,’ he says.
‘And I doubt they have the facilities to store the car at the cryonics centre.’
Alan founded a support group, Cryonics UK, for people wanting a second life after watching a TV show about the process in the 1980s.
He remains a member of the group, which helps with the complicated process of cooling and freezing bodies before they are flown to the US and transferred to Michigan.
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‘I would guess cryonic storage is a minimum of 50 or more than likely 150 years away,’ Alan says.
‘They can’t even cure most cancers at the moment, so the idea of bringing someone back was always going to be a very long-term possibility.
‘It’s not a case of wanting to go into suspension, as I don’t want to die, it’s just something you can’t avoid.
‘The only thing I’m happier about is that I’m not going to be burnt or fed to the worms and I’ve got a chance of coming back.
‘Who wants to die? What is good about getting old?
‘On the other hand, it’s unavoidable. I’m just getting on with life and enjoying it and I feel very lucky, I’ve got a new partner and we’re getting on very well, so life continues.’
Alan is looking to the distant future (Picture: James Clarke for Metro.co.uk)
In the scenario of being reawakened in a transformed world, the retired mechanic and electrician expects to take it in his stride.
‘The technology will be different but I don’t think the human personality or brain will be that much different,’ he says.
‘It’s not that different now to three or four hundred years ago, we’re still killing one another, except it’s with an explosion rather than a spear.
‘But quite seriously, people adapt to change.
‘The idea of texting or instant messaging around the world didn’t exist when I was young but I’ve grown into it now.
‘There may be a bit of a learning process when people wake up but who knows, it may be that they’ll be able to download information into the brain.
‘What we can be certain of is in years to come this technology will become more and more advanced.’
The Cryonics Institute has members around the world who have placed their faith in future technology to revive them (Picture: Cryonics Institute, cryonics.org)
The prospect of ‘reanimation’ after being frozen in a cryostat cylinder will need radical advances in science — along with cures for the medical conditions behind many of the patients’ deaths.
Critics of cryonics view the process as fanciful pseudoscience, with Dr Miriam Stoppard, a journalist and doctor, having previously said the process ‘robs the dying of their dignity’.
However many customers have shown a decades-long commitment to the process, with growing interest in the CI from around the world.
Of the living 1,975 members worldwide, 128 who are interested in having their bodies, body tissue or pets deep frozen are British.
Only the US is better represented, with 1,374 residents signed up, according to figures released by the CI in December.
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