I've always had mixed feeling about cryonics: on the one hand they're the oldest and most established Transhumanist branch; on the other, I can't believe that the unfreezing process will ever work, and that if it does the post-Singularity 25th century (or whenever) will be a friendly place for 21st century primates. That said, Nelson's book gave me a lot more sympathy for the movement.

It was not science, it was bunch of 1960s lunatics and optimists who had read a book (The Prespect of Immortality-Robert Ettinger) and thought that they might stave off death. Nelson, a 30 year old TV repairman without even a high-school education, but with plenty of charisma, was elected President of the California Society for Cryonics. It was his optimism that lead to disaster, as his ramshackle organization froze several people that they could not keep on ice. Nelson ran himself ragged filling jury-rigged capsuls with dry ice and liquid nitrogen, depleting his bank account and destroying his marriage. Finally, in the early 70s the capsules failed entirely and Nelson abandoned the business, only to be dragged through a torturous lawsuit by the children of some of his former clients.

Nelson's book is obviously favorable to his side of the lawsuit, and much of the 'he-said-she' back and forth has been documented elsewhere, particularly on a recent episode of This American Life. Personally, I don't judge Nelson too harshly: he was operating at the frontiers of knowledge (and financial organization), and I believe his claim that his participants signed over their bodies under medical donation laws which should've protected him from liability with a competent lawyer. That said, terrible mistakes were made.