A young American launches into the cryogenicization of pets

Kai Micah Mills set up his start-up to cryogenically freeze pets… His goal: to bring them back to life when science allows it. A first experience, before attacking humans.

His name is Kai Micah Mills. He is 24 years old, looks like a teenager, has blonde hair that goes down to his shoulders… What interests this young man, raised among the Mormons, is defying death. “Eternal life, he said, is not the fruit of faith, but of science“. With his start-up founded last year, Cryopets, he wants to create a network of veterinary clinics where, from his last breath, your beloved cat, dog or iguana will be sent straight to the freezer.

It will then be shipped to a specialized warehouse in Utah – of course respecting the cold chain. Stored in a metal tank full of liquid nitrogen for as long as necessary. And the day science allows it, if you’re still there, defrost and resurrection, it’s that simple. 500 animals are already registered on the waiting list.

A scholarship of 100,000 dollars

For the moment his program looks more like a far-fetched idea than a scientific project. But it turns out that a certain number of Americans believe in it… Notably Peter Thiel, an eccentric tech billionaire who has already financed reusable rockets and floating cities. And also Donald Trump – but that’s not our subject.

His foundation, The Thiel Fellows, selected 20 young entrepreneurs and offered them a grant of $100,000 over two years so that they could give their all to their project. The only condition: stop studying. Which is no problem for Kai Micah Mill, who dropped out of college at 14 and made money running Minecraft servers out of his basement. Its objective for this year is to recruit its first veterinarian and improve its knowledge on organ warming methods.

After pets, humans

If Kai Micah Mills begins with animals, it is in memory of his cat (which he called “the Cat”) but above all because it is technically easier, less expensive and less complicated from a legal point of view, than to attack humans. In the United States and Russia, it is also possible and legal to be cryogenically frozen after death. Three companies around the world offer this service, at home or in hospital. China is conducting research. In France we are interested in it, but we can only choose between burial, cremation or the donation of our body to science.

Cryonics is at the heart of transhumanism, which claims to use scientific progress to enable humans to push back their physical and intellectual limits. 300 to 500 people are currently cryogenically frozen around the world and more than 4,000 other interested people are on a waiting list. This can obviously only be done after the death of the applicant.

Kai Micah Mills comes at the right time as insurance companies and venture capital firms are beginning to show interest in this market. It must be said that cryogenically freezing a body costs around 200,000 euros. And the worst part is that we’re not even sure we’ll see the result.