To freeze or not to freeze? That is the question. Should late baseball great Ted Williams remain cryogenically-frozen at Alcor Life Extension Labs or should he removed and cremated?

You thought you thaw it all, eh?

Whatever finally happens in the Williams case, one thing is for certain: the science of cryonics will be put under a microscope like never before. Still a mystery to most, the technique-which involves having your body lowered into a vat of liquid nitrogen for future preservation-has already been around for a number of decades.  

We felt it was our duty to find out more (after all what's more "retrofuture" than immortality itself) so we decided to contact the ultimate authority on the subject-Robert Ettinger (pictured right). In a series of emails, the so-called "father of the freeze" reported interest in cryonics had "improved markedly" and that interest in suspended animation was growing by leaps and bounds.

It was Ettinger who jumpstarted the cryonics revolution in the 1960s with his book The Prospect of Immortality. In the groundbreaking tome, Ettinger argued that freezing our bodies before death and then having them thawed, cured and restored to health was our clearest chance of cheating the grim reaper in the near future. 

"Freeze, wait, reanimate" went the rally cry as Ettinger fired imaginations and launched a thousand sci-fi plots. Advocates were soon agitating for greater research. A philosophical debate was sparked as well. "Death is an imposition on the human race and no longer acceptable," declared Alan Harrington in 1969's The Immortalist.

Despite the far-fetched odds, there is serious science behind the cryonics movement although important stumbling blocks, like avoiding tissue damage, still exist. But why wait, advocates argue.

Robert Ettinger is not waiting. To prove his belief in cryonics, Ettinger had his own mother subjected to the technique when she died (she is currently stored with 31 other bodies in a state of cryo-suspension at the nonprofit Michigan-based Cyronics Institute). 

The oldest patient on record is Dr. James Bedford, who was suspended in 1967. Thousands of others have looked into the possibility.

Even though the cost is often prohibitive (it ranges from $28,000 to $120,000 with no guarantee of success), supporters feel there is little or no choice. As Ettinger put it in The Prospect of Immortality, "the freezer is more attractive than the grave."

Obviously not everyone agrees. Beyond a whole host of religious and social questions, many consider the idea of "raising the dead" just a bit ghoulish, particular techniques such as neurosuspension-the practice of only freezing a patient's head. Even Ettinger, himself, rejects the "heads only" approach as unnecessarily gruesome.

And what about the future? In the classic comedy Sleeper, Woody Allen wakes up from cyronic suspension confused about what kind of world he's living in. "Tobacco is good for you," a character tells him, "take a deep breath."

The question remains: what if you wake up in a world you don't want to live in? A world where loved ones and friends don't exist? "So rot in good health," jokes Ettinger. "If you don't like it, you can always check out." He dismisses doubters and cynics with the moot point: "Ask yourself what your youthful, healthy self would choose."

Asked to describe what he looks forward to, Ettinger says he expects "lots of interesting and enjoyable things." He's currently in his mid-80s and hopes the answer doesn't come too soon.

As for the risk of having yourself lowered into a vat of liquid nitrogen? "Life has always been risky," Ettinger argues, "and now even death is risky...any reasonable reading of history suggests that, by and large, the future will be better."