As someone that has frozen cells down many times successfully, I don’t think this will ever work for bodies.
If you could save your DNA and a few cells and be cloned at a later date is that good enough for you? No memories but the same code. Is that still “you”? It’s like being an identical twin of yourself.
No, that's not good enough, software (beyond epigenetics) is what matters here. I would say, that personality is the key thing that one might want to preserve. Ideally, memories as well, the more intact they are, the better.
If possible, running it on the original hardware (i.e. the same brain) will satisfy people who believe in continuity of consciousness. (People hesitant to use a teletransporter[0])
Even a computer-simulated mind based on a scan of the original brain would I think be more 'me' than my clone.
For me, I think it might help ease the pain of death. I like my code, I want it to continue on. The more we see twin studies the more we see that code is maybe all there is.
Sure my clone will have different experiences but I think it would think just like I do. It has different memories and experiences but I will have different experiences from here on out too. It’s the reaction to them that makes me, me.
Yes, any experiment that freezes down something large and multicellular like an organ and thaws it and it works.
The reason freezing cells works is that they have no large 3d structure and the surface area to volume works with the slow freeze down process (1 deg. C per min.) and rapid thawing (as fast as possible) necessary for them to survive.
If you could save your DNA and a few cells and be cloned at a later date is that good enough for you? No memories but the same code. Is that still “you”? It’s like being an identical twin of yourself.