devices. Molecular damage due to oxygen and nutrient starvation (ischemia), freezing, and even aging is repaired by nanocomputer-directed repair enzymes. Independent DNA copies are obtained from many different cells, and DNA in these cells is restored to the damage-free sequence of youth inferred by nanocomputer comparison. As repairs proceed, virtually no cellular defects escape the detection and correction of the repair system. While repairs proceed inside cells, disrupted external structures are restored on the basis information obtained during the ice removal process. Torn membranes are mended, disrupted cell connections restored, and gross fractures are repaired by microscopic surgeons which operate at a level a million times finer and more sophisticated than surgeons today. Where cells have been lost due to aging or other injury, new ones are fabricated and proper connections made. Gradually, over the course of several months, the patient's brain is restored to a healthy state. As repairs near completion, larger devices are removed, capillary membranes are repaired, and the network of nanocomputers and communications fibers is disassembled. A blood supply grown from the patient's own cells by the revival unit now begins to circulate, and the temperature is stabilized at 37øC (98.6øF). Cell metabolism is restarted by selective unblocking of enzymes inhibited during the repair process, although consciousness is still suppressed by circulating chemicals which inhibit critical steps in nerve cell metabolism. The patient -- an exposed pearly white brain floating within the womb of the revival unit -- is now ready for the final phase of the revival process. On the surface of his brain a single cell begins to divide. Unlike the cancer which threatened the patient's life, the division of this cell is orderly and planned to restore life. A layer of dividing cells covers the restored but unconscious brain. The cells begin to differentiate, and slowly, like a newly conceived child, a body begins to take shape within the revival unit.
Awakening Just a little over a year from the start of the revival procedure, the patient awakens in his hospital bed. He returns to consciousness slowly, suffused in a warmth and sense of security which seems strangely at variance with his remembered prognosis. His ----------------------------------------------------------------------(37)
last memory is of going to sleep a few days before his suspension over a century ago. He slowly opens his eyes and is greeted by a face that seems strangely familiar but which he cannot quite place. A familiar voice calls out his name. Instantly there is recognition. It is his wife. But she is not as she was. She is young and beautiful again. More beautiful even than he remembered. An instant before he was trapped in a dying body. Now, he is alive and well and looking into the eyes of someone he loves. He glances down at has his hands and at the contours of the sheet covering his body. He too is young again. He has made the trip successfully. In an instant, in the blink of an eye he has found his way into the future. An open-ended future of unlimited lifespan and unbounded