The use of employee perks is an extremely important strategy for any company that wants to attract candidates with impressive credentials. We’ve heard free yoga classes, an in-house gym, paid for meals and even something as stupendous as an indoor climbing wall, but this artificial intelligence tech firm has really gone the extra mile.
Cryonic freezing is probably the most advanced kind of benefits which Numerai – a hedge fund – is giving to their employees. There is a slight bit of a problem though – you won’t be able to use it until you’ve died. That’s right. Cryonic freezing relies on the use of advanced technology to deep freeze a clinically dead body to a temperature of about -190°C.
In their slightly bizarre but unique job advertisement, the hedge fund company claims at the very bottom of the page, “Numerai cares about its employees beyond their legal deaths.” Founder Richard Craib admitted that cryopreservation was supposed to be a running gag in the company but soon gained momentum and support from employees.
The benefit was listed on the description of a Full Stack Engineer who would be working on Numerai’s stock market app, the requisite skills are a degree in mathematics and statistics.
Once an employee manages to get a job at Numerai (which is not easy by the way), all they have to do is sign up a life insurance policy and upon their legal deaths, their bodies will be handed over to Alcor, the company responsible for cryonic freezing.
The skepticism which many employees have about the entire idea of cryonic preservation are not too unfounded either. The technology is currently in its nascent stages and revival of cryonic patients will depend upon the advancement of many scientific frontiers, primarily molecular nanotechnology. As it stands, it is impossible to repair, (much less) regrow new tissues and organs in a cryonic patient.
Craib is practicing what he’s teaching and has will also one day join his future dead employees in a cryogenic lab – thawed and frozen to -190°C. Anti-freeze chemicals will be injected into their bodies to prevent their cells from getting permanently damaged on the off-chance that somehow the science of tomorrow will be able to work miracles.
The reason why we found this perk to be extremely cool is because Alcor, the company which will handle the preservation of the human body, charges up to $200,000 for their services. Least to say, not many employees have the financial freedom or the vested interest for undertaking such an ambitious operation.
Medical experts argue that the chances of a successful revival are next to zero. Complex organs such as the heart and kidneys may have been successfully frozen and thawed before, but they’ve never quite been able to perform their primary functions after they were brought back to room temperature.
The perk will likely attract individuals who would like to become more ‘future proof’ and who place a significant amount of trust in the capabilities of modern science. As it stands however, cryonic body preservation serves to be just a gimmick.
