The brief viability of organs creates a logistical nightmare. Surgeons fly on chartered jets to retrieve organs, while recipients must remain within a small radius of the hospital, unable to travel. Cryopreservation's immediate impact would be to remove time as a variable, allowing for scheduled surgeries and a more humane patient experience.

The core scientific challenge in cryopreservation isn't achieving low temperatures, but avoiding the formation of ice. When water freezes, it expands and shatters cells. The goal is vitrification: cooling tissue so rapidly that it turns into a stable, glass-like state without forming destructive ice crystals.

AI apps creating interactive digital avatars of deceased loved ones are becoming technologically and economically viable. While framed as preserving a legacy, this "digital immortality" raises profound questions about the grieving process and emotional boundaries, for which society lacks the psychological and ethical frameworks.

The problem is unique because engineering improvements, like faster temperature modulation, can lessen biological hurdles. For instance, more rapid cooling reduces the time spent in the 'danger zone' for ice crystal formation, thereby lowering the required concentration of potentially toxic cryoprotectant agents. This creates powerful leverage not common in biology.

Beyond hardware issues, VR's primary adoption barrier is its isolating, 'antisocial' nature. While gaming trends toward shared, social experiences, VR requires users to strap on hardware and disconnect from their physical surroundings, creating a fundamental conflict with modern user behavior.

The initial, highly valuable application for reversible organ cryopreservation is not futuristic hibernation but solving the urgent logistical crisis in organ transplantation. Extending an organ's viability from a few hours to days transforms an emergency process involving private jets into a schedulable, cost-effective operation.

Reversible cryopreservation is already a reality for human embryos, which have remained viable after 30 years in storage. The central challenge for companies like Until is not a fundamental scientific breakthrough, but rather solving the complex engineering problems of applying this proven concept to larger biological systems like organs.

Instead of tackling whole-body cryopreservation directly, Until focuses on the tangible market of organ transplantation. This provides a clear product roadmap, addresses an immediate medical need, and serves as an essential technological proof point. Success here is a non-negotiable prerequisite for the more ambitious long-term mission.

The core mission is to pause a patient's biological clock, giving them a chance to access treatments that might become available months or years later. This reframes a futuristic concept into a practical, urgent form of critical care for the terminally ill, bridging the gap to a future cure.