Cryonics

[dents]

After seeing the amount of discussion on suicide around the forums, I am wondering what you guys think of cryonics. It's pretty much the exact opposite of killing yourself, since the contents of your brain are preserved in a way that they can be retrieved later. Does the thought that you can stash your brain away for the future ever come up when thinking about death? And if not, now that the possibility is there, does it change anything?

 

[Mars]

worth doing to meet Walt Disnep.

but seriously, waste of my time. I was born into this time and I will be cheated of cheat it and conversely I will not be cheat it of me, whatever use I may be.

However debate can rage of whether or not my time is to be suspended in animation as I call it. But, seems boorish. I mean, it's like dying at any rate leaving all behind and cheating people out of a clean death. They'd always need to keep contingency for if you awaken until nobody could relate to you anymore, only way I'd go about it was If I could not relate to anyone and nobody relate to me, that'd be what would happen after the cryo anyway. Then it'd be to hell with them and I'd beat my own path, a rolling stone waiting to gather moss.

 

[severus]

I once wanted it, but now I find it impractical.
I don't think I'd be able to adapt to the future I'd be brought into. Think of the old people who can't understand cell phones and such--that'd be me.
Also, it's too expensive.

 

[Artifice Orisit]

The lazy mans attempt at immortality in my opinion, even if future generations could repair damaged brain cells (an extremely difficult task) why would they?

Perhaps the future will have a dire shortage of naive people... actually that makes a lot of sense when you consider that such people are used as lubricant in the cogs of an economy.

 

[dents]

The lazy mans attempt at immortality in my opinion, even if future generations could repair damaged brain cells (an extremely difficult task) why would they?

The premise right now is that some of your life insurance pays for it (~$80k) and the rest gets invested. Then while you're dead, your money grows in value until society gets to the point where they can bring you back and it can be used to pay for your "return".

They don't really need to repair damaged neurons, just read their contents. If they can scan your brain and "simulate" it (the figure I hear thrown around is 50 years before we can simulate a human brain, give another 20 until it's easy), that's all you really need. Cryonics is at the point now where the information in your neurons gets preserved, so with sufficient technology they *can* bring you back.

And if you are told that you have 6 months to live, are you really going to scoff at the possibility? It's here, right now. Would you really choose to not use it? Might wanna set up some life insurance early on though, it might be hard to get when you really need it.

 

[Artifice Orisit]

The premise right now is that some of your life insurance pays for it (~$80k) and the rest gets invested. Then while you're dead, your money grows in value until society gets to the point where they can bring you back and it can be used to pay for your "return".

When dead people are involved morality is the first thing that goes out the window, shortly followed by 70 year old contracts written and authorized by people who are also dead. Don't underestimate the ingenuity of a bank when money is involved; anyway there's always the possibility that the bank will not exist in 70 years, society changes, empires rise and fall.

And of course there will always be religious types who don't want the dead returning to life since it kinda fits in with the whole apocalypse meme.

 

[dents]

I suppose pessimism is healthy ... You would pass on getting frozen then?

 

[Artifice Orisit]

I have other arrangements planned, and even if I didn't the money would be better used for setting up a special funeral; if I traumatize them enough I'll be immortal in the "never forgotten" kind of way. Also I want my functional organs to be given to people who need them and my brain donated to science, specifically a roboticist like Kevin Warwick. Lastly I want my skull to be preserved and made into a family heirloom; the idea of looking down upon my descendants from the mantle with the grin only a skull can achieve greatly appeals to me.

 

[QSR]

Your best bet is to try to live long enough to have your brain downloaded into a computer. Should be possible in roughly 40 years or so.

If you want to learn more about the wonders of cryonics, you should listen to this program.

 

[Tyria]

I wouldn't mind cryonics. Time would be relative.

 

[dents]

By the way, I finally found the original article that I learned about all this from: http://lesswrong.com/lw/wq/you_only_live_twice/

It certainly changed *my* outlook.