Would YOU apply? Hedge fund job advert offers to cryogenically freeze employees’ dead bodies so they can be brought back to life one day
The benefit was listed by Numerai, a hedge fund based in San Francisco
The firm's founder admitted it was initially a joke, but is now a real benefit
He decided to offer it to attract 'interesting people' to work at his firm.
Cryopreservation is the deep freezing of a body to -196°C (-321°F)
By SHIVALI BEST FOR MAILONLINE
12 May 2017

Forget standard health insurance or a good pension plan,

One company has gone a step further in its benefits plan by offering employees the ability to be brought back from the dead.

Numerai, a US hedge fund, has posted a new job listing, in which the only benefit is whole-body cryopreservation.

The firm claims to offer the service because it 'cares about its employees beyond their legal deaths.'


Numerai, a US hedge fund, has posted a new job listing, in which the only benefit is whole-body cryopreservation. The firm claims to offer the service because it 'cares about its employees beyond their legal deaths'

The bizarre benefit reads: 'Whole-body preservation cryonics through Alcor. Numerai cares about its employees beyond their legal deaths.'

It was listed on the job description for a Full Stack Engineer working on Numerai's stock market app.

Richard Craib, founder of Numerai, said the idea for cryopreservation initially started as a joke, but decided to offer it to attract 'interesting people' to work at his firm.

The preservation itself will be handled by Arizona-based Alcor Life Extension Foundation, which charges $200,000 (£161,000) for whole-body preservation.

Cryopreservation is the deep freezing of a body to -196°C (-321°F).

Anti-freeze compounds are injected into the corpse to stop cells being damaged, with the hope that medical science will advance enough to bring the patient back to life.


WHAT IS CRYOPRESERVATION?

The deep freezing of a body to - 196C (-321F). Anti-freeze compounds are injected into the corpse to stop cells being damaged. The hope is that medical science will advance enough to bring the patient back to life. Two main US organisations carry out 'cryonics' – Alcor, in Arizona, and Cryonics Institute, Michigan.

HOW IS IT MEANT TO WORK?

The process can only take place once the body is legally dead. Ideally, it begins within two minutes of the heart stopping – and no more than 15. The body must be packed in ice and injected with chemicals to reduce blood clotting. At the cryonics facility, it is cooled to just above OC and the blood is replaced with a solution to preserve organs. The body is injected with another solution to stop ice crystals forming in organs and tissues, then cooled to - 130C. The final step is to place the body into a container which is lowered into a tank of liquid nitrogen at - 196C.

WHAT'S THE CHANCE OF SUCCESS?

Many experts say there is none. Organs such as the heart and kidneys have never been successfully frozen and thawed, so it is even less likely a whole body – and the brain – could be without irreversible damage.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

Charges at the Cryonics Institute, start at around $35,000 (£28,000) to 'members' for whole-body cryopreservation. The girl was charged £37,000, which may include costs such as transportation. Rival group Alcor charges $200,000 (£161,000) for whole-body preservation.

HOW LONG BEFORE PEOPLE CAN BE BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE?

Cryonics organisations claim it could be decades or even centuries. However medical experts say once cells are damaged during freezing and turned to 'mush' they cannot be converted back to living tissue, any more than you can turn a scrambled egg back into a raw egg.

The process can only take place once the body is legally dead, and ideally, it begins within two minutes of the heart stopping – and no more than 15.

Cryopreservation hit the headlines last year, when a 14-year-old child with terminal cancer won the right to be cryogenically frozen after her death following a UK court battle.

In a letter to the judge, the child wrote: 'I think being cryo-preserved gives me a chance to be cured and woken up, even in hundreds of years' time.'


Cryopreservation is the deep freezing of a body to -196°C (-321°F). Anti-freeze compounds are injected into the corpse to stop cells being damaged, with the hope that medical science will advance enough to bring the patient back to life

But her father was not happy about the judge's decision.

Speaking through an interpreter to the Mail on Sunday, he said: 'I am not religious and I don't believe in the afterlife.'

'None of the hospital doctors were in favour of her being cryopreserved – none of them think it will ever work.

'I am no expert, but I am a rationalist, and I put my trust in their medical opinion.

'If there is any good that can come of my daughter's death, and this interview, it is that funds are raised for Cancer Research UK, so we can eventually cure cancer.

'To me, that is much more logical than spending money on cryopreserving those who have died.'


In a letter to the judge, the child wrote: 'I think being cryo-preserved gives me a chance to be cured and woken up'


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