PARIS — “For €50 a month, you can be cryogenically frozen and then awakened in 300 years.” Last January, entrepreneur Anthony Bourbon, star of the show Qui veut être mon associé ? (“Who Wants to Be My Partner?,” France’s take on Shark Tank), stunned his interviewer Guillaume Pley, creator of Legend media, by admitting that he had signed a contract with German start-up Tomorrow Biostasis. Upon his death, the investor’s body will be recovered by a dedicated medical team, cooled down, and then stored in a huge tank in Switzerland at -196 °C.
“It’s certain that technology will allow us to wake up, through some kind of microwave. And then you’ll come back in a robot made by Elon Musk,” says the 37-year-old businessman.
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A month after this interview, Bourbon, the founder of Feed, announced that the Blast investment club — which he co-founded with Samuel Guez — had injected €1.5 million into Tomorrow Biostasis.
Bourbon, a staunch technophile, has put the spotlight on this science fiction-like technique. With the first instance of cryopreservation in the European Union taking place back in March 2023, this hypothetical solution seems more within reach than ever for the French. Le Figaro went to meet those who have taken the plunge, driven by futuristic hopes, fear of death, and a desire for eternity.
When French people rate their satisfaction with their current lives, the score is pretty good: 7.1/10 on average, according to a study by INSEE published at the end of 2023. But some people like it so much that they would like it to never end. Like Éric, a psychiatrist at the Assistance publique-Hôpitaux de Marseille (APHM). “I think there are so many projects to implement, so many trips to take. All that takes much more than 80 or 90 years,” says the 50-year-old. Passionate about “science fiction and extraterrestrials,” but also “astrophysics and geopolitics,” he dreams of being able to spend “a century or two studying.” A colorful character, proud of his convictions, he discovered the theme of cryogenics in his youth through movies such as Star Wars, Star Trek, and Alien.
Earth orbit and nitrogen leaks
Cryogenics actually has its roots in fiction. In 1962, American academic Robert Ettinger, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants from Detroit, published The Prospect of Immortality. In it, he laid out the basic principles of an alternative to death through cold preservation. The physicist was inspired by a short story by writer Neil R. Davis, in which a man’s body is sent into Earth’s orbit at a temperature close to absolute zero (-273.15 °C). It is then found several million years later by another civilization, and revived. The book was a huge success and sparked a movement across the Atlantic that brought hope for this supposedly revolutionary technique. Five years later, James Bedford, a psychology professor in California, became the first human to be cryogenically frozen. On the day of his death at the age of 73, his body was placed in a bed of ice and cooled using dry ice. A few days later, he was transferred to a metal insulated container filled with liquid nitrogen at -196 °C. The process was rudimentary: the cylinder leaked nitrogen and was kept by an amateur cryonicist for several years.
The company has cryogenically frozen 248 patients to date.
Although degraded, Bedford’s body was repatriated in the 1980s to the grounds of what is now the largest company in the sector: Alcor Life Extension. Founded in 1972 by Fred and Linda Chamberlain, the company has cryogenically frozen 248 patients to date and counts 1,442 to-be-frozen members. “I had been watching what they were doing for a long time, but if you sign a contract with them, the time it takes to transport your body across the Atlantic, the plane, the borders… It seemed difficult to achieve,” says Éric. Then cryopreservation arrived in Europe: first in Russia, via KrioRus, then in Germany with Tomorrow Biostasis, in 2019. Two years ago, our witness took the plunge and signed a contract with the start-up created by Dr. Emil Kendziorra, a former Alcor employee, and Fernando Azevedo Pinheiro, a civil engineering graduate. His dream was clear: “To be able to be revived in the future, rejuvenated, and go explore other planets and solar systems in a spaceship.” “ His wife was convinced, ”but her reasons are a little different,” he says. “She hopes that cryogenics will make it possible to heal entire civilizations. “
60,000 euros for the brain
Like Eric and his wife, Franco-Quebecois Taya signed a cryopreservation contract. In 2010, she signed with the American company Cryonics Institute, before discovering Tomorrow Biostasis. Director of a Montessori school and dance teacher, this “lover of life” wants to be able to enjoy it more in the future. “A long time ago, I was badly stung by a jellyfish. That day, I really almost died, and it triggered something in me. It made me want to live even more, knowing that we take risks every day without even realizing it.” As president of the Cryonics Society of France, an association for “those interested in longevity through technology,” she says she knows about 20 people in France who have made the same choice. “There are few of us today, but it is becoming more and more a topic of interest to the general public,” she says.
It’s pure science fiction — only, in real life.
Eric was convinced by the process after visiting the premises in Berlin. “I’m optimistic, the hypothesis behind this project is plausible, but I’m aware that it’s not certain.” Taya, also a client, admits on her association’s website that cryonics remains ”highly experimental“ and that it ”offers nothing more than access to a very low probability of resuscitation in what is likely to be the very distant future.” Jean-Marc Lemaître, research director at Inserm and co-director of the Institute of Regenerative Medicine and Biotherapies in Montpellier confirms the uncertainty: “Nothing has been proven. It’s pure science fiction — only, in real life.” The expert adds, “There have been attempts at freezing tissue, cells, and organs. We know how complex it is to keep them alive and the damage that it can do.”
Since James Bedford’s homemade cryogenics — his freezing caused ice crystals to form, irreversibly damaging his brain — the process has evolved. Tomorrow Biostasis uses vitrification, but the effectiveness of the products injected into the bodies of the deceased to better preserve tissue remains uncertain. “What these people are selling is simply hope,” says Lemaître.
A chance to live?
With €5 million raised in early 2025, the company aims to prove its credibility. “Cryogenics sounds like science fiction, but it is based on modern science,” reads its website. According to the start-up, “there are no known laws or biological principles that fundamentally prevent the long-term preservation and eventual reanimation of human beings at cryogenic temperatures.” Thus, the progress seen in the cold preservation of human sperm, eggs, organs, and embryos would make it possible to consider the “feasibility of biostasis.” Arguing that heart transplants were viewed with skepticism only a few years ago, she believes that the obstacles are “technical rather than biological, suggesting that with advances in nanotechnology, molecular repair, and regenerative medicine, awakening from cryopreservation could eventually become not only possible, but commonplace.”
“It would be a shame not to buy a lottery ticket that might make you immortal.”
But beyond the technical challenge, cryogenics raises highly philosophical questions. As a non-believer, Eric thinks that at the end of life, there is nothingness. “So, between having a chance to live and zero chance, my choice is easy,” he says. Taya, for her part, acknowledges that the idea of being cryogenically frozen is “like a seatbelt.” Lemaître sees it as another way to die, as French law only allows two methods: burial and cremation. “In a coffin, after a few months, there is significant deterioration. Perhaps those who make this choice find it reassuring that their bodies remain intact,” says the researcher. In 2002, the Council of State rejected a family’s request to keep their mother’s body in a freezer in the basement of their home. For investor Anthony Bourbon, however, this method is in line with the course of history. “We need to bet on disruptive technologies. If we’re not opposed to the philosophical principle, I would find it surprising if people didn’t do it, considering how much they can spend on parties, alcohol, etc. It would be a shame not to buy a lottery ticket that might make you immortal.”
