Ms. Suozzi (Photo: Venturist.info)

Back in August, a 23-year-old woman named Kim Suozzi took to Reddit armed with a painful story. While studying neuroscience in college, Ms. Suozzi was diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor that gave her a six to 10 month median survival rate. Ms. Suozzi had an avid interest in cyronics and the life-extension possibilities it promised. So she posted to the r/Athiesm subreddit asking users to contribute donations so that she might be able to afford cryopreservation.

Now, according to the organization that helped solicit donations for Ms. Suozzi, she passed away earlier this month and went into cryopreservation on January 17th.

"Unfortunately the most interesting thing [I've done] is get a terminal disease at a young age,” Ms. Suozzi wrote in her original Reddit post, published back in August.

Many Redditors, wary of scam artists that take advantage of the community's good intentions in order to make a quick buck, were initially skeptical of Ms. Suozzi's arguments. Others argued that successful cryopreservation is not necessarily proven by scientific fact. But futurists from communities across the web, including Less Wrong, KurzweilAI and r/Futurism, picked up on her story and began to organize to help make her dying wish a possibility.

Soon, an Arizona-based nonprofit called the Society for Venturism--which had already funded two other cryopreservation requests--spearheaded a charity effort for Ms. Suozzi. Along with help from Redditors and members of the futurist community, Ms. Suozzi was able to successfully raise enough funds to ensure she would be cryogenically preserved following her death. Ms. Suozzi is currently cryogenically suspended at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, where she will remain until it becomes scientifically possible to "reanimate" her.

According to the Society for Venturism:

Kim Suozzi reportedly deanimated in a hospice in Scottsdale, AZ, and went into cryosuspension at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation on January 17, 2013, funded mainly by the donations many people have made to the Society for Venturism. On behalf of Miss Suozzi, we wish to thank you for your compassion and generosity.

May science speed you, Miss Suozzi. We look forward to having you alive and whole amongst us again, no matter how long it takes.

The Society for Venturism has already begun collecting donations for another man, named Aaron Winburn, who is also suffering from a fatal condition and hopes to be cryogenically preserved.

(Photo: Piccsy)

Perk up, Peter Thiel: if our brains aren't transplanted into robot bodies some time soon, we can always bank on human immortality. Researchers at Kiel University in Germany believe they've discovered a gene that is linked directly to the aging process. This opens up new opportunities for research focusing on how to prolong human life.

According to KurzweilAI, the scientists were studying a freshwater animal called the polyp Hydra, unique because its plethora of stem cells make it "capable of continuous proliferation," rendering it effectively immortal. By studying the FoxO gene (also called the "longevity gene") in animals, scientists now know that the gene has an impact on the production of stem cells:

The study has two major conclusions: It confirms that the FoxO gene plays a decisive role in the maintenance of stem cells, and thus determines the life span of animals; and it shows that aging and longevity of organisms depend on two factors: the maintenance of stem cells and the maintenance of a functioning immune system.

If scientists can figure out how to effectively maintain both stem cells and a functioning immune system, we'd be one step closer to realizing our longevity dreams.

In layman's terms: fucking eternal youth, brah.

Now we just need those longevity orgasm-giving sex bots to truly arrive.