Configurations

abstract:

This article relies on theoretical work on cryopolitics and feminist rhetorical analyses within science studies to investigate how artificial cold becomes persuasive. This is accomplished by empirically foregrounding the marketing material and online presence of four cryopreservation companies: Quick Cryo and Kryo X (cryotherapy), as well as the Cryonics Institute and Alcor Life Extension (cryonics). Artificial cold is made to appear persuasive by drawing upon metaphors of “frontier,” “superheroes,” and “biohackers,” while metonymically engaging in a relationship between the past and the present as well as between space and time travel. Rhetorically positioned as a “rescue,” “colonizing,” “kinship preservation,” and “time travel” technology, artificial cold is shown in the material to be akin to everyday communication and information technologies. The study testifies to the importance of studying how new technologies such as artificial cold achieve persuasiveness in different settings.