61–70 of 172 posts
It's fascinating that this is so close to reality, at least in terms of preserving the information that encodes our memories and identities. Of course there is the issue of reviving the person, either biologically or digitally. As computing power grows, I don't see any barrier to simulating an entire human brain. Sure it will take time: according to this[0] and applying Moore's law, it will take about 60 years before…
Which Greg Egan story is that?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cryonics is pretty unlikely to succeed! I'm signed up for cryonics through Alcor, and I am not confident at all that there's much chance that I'll be revived post-vitrification. I do it because there's an infinitely greater chance of life after vitrification than there is of life after burial, or life after cremation. I see it as a low-percentage last-chance life support. It's early and underdeveloped and flawed in m…
>I do it because there's an infinitely greater chance of life after vitrification than there is of life after burial, or life after cremation. Except that there are other things you could do with the money, some of which could potentially even give you a much greater chance of not vitrifying in the first place.
Now if you would divert all cryonics resources towards existential risk mitigations, AI or rejuvenation research, that would be a different story. But pretty soon we'd have to discuss how other resources are allocated right now, and next thing we know, we're talking politics.
If you ask me, the world can probably finance cryonics for everyone and AI research and anti-ageing research and existential risk mitigation and many other things I didn't think of, while preserving and improving our standards of living at the same time. The (huge) problem is getting our act together.
Why are we so scared of death, to be nothing. Why do we have to cling on to someone's memories,is it because it gives some sense of security? It is just bizarre to reduce the beauty of life to some some little affair of holding on to someone's memories. Death is as beautiful as birth. We should break past the ridiculous taboos surrounding death and discuss it openly as to what it means to die. Edit: Jiddu K on death,…
What about medicine if you say death is good why postpone it by eating well, taking medicine and being safe? I don't see why we humans should die I think if all science put their efforts together (as done in world wars) we could extend human life quite a bit. The only concern I have is the difference in culture for example imagine a 20 year old versus a person 200 years old. Even today the generation gap between 20 a…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>I do it because there's an infinitely greater chance of life after vitrification than there is of life after burial, or life after cremation. Except that there are other things you could do with the money, some of which could potentially even give you a much greater chance of not vitrifying in the first place.
Like, living long enough to benefit from other life-extension procedures? I'm not sure how a few hundred dollars a years are going to hasten those processes. (I'm assuming that losing this money wouldn't prevent someone to live a healthy life in the first place.) Now if you would divert all cryonics resources towards existential risk mitigations, AI or rejuvenation research, that would be a different story. But prett…
You say "talking politics" like it's a bad thing!
>If you ask me, the world can probably finance cryonics for everyone and AI research and anti-ageing research and existential risk mitigation and many other things I didn't think of, while preserving and improving our standards of living at the same time. The (huge) problem is getting our act together.
Well yes.
Cryonics is one of those things that's hard to evaluate. On the face of it, it seems insane. You're essentially making a bet that someone will find something useful to do with a frozen brain -- and that your estate will be able to afford the procedure -- before the company you've entrusted your brain to either makes a mistake or collapses. Given the near-total lack of progress on the former front (there's been consid…
Cryonics is another version of Pascal's Wager. Logic and reason assures that it almost certainly is not going to work, but the value of the potential upside is effectively infinite to that individual, so it still may be a rational investment.
Life does not have infinite value. People, including atheists, sometimes give their own life for some higher purpose (another life, freedom, a better standard of living for their village…).
Of course, this would be different if you seek to escape Hell. (You might be religious, and guilty of some mortal sin.)
Cryonics is one of those things that's hard to evaluate. On the face of it, it seems insane. You're essentially making a bet that someone will find something useful to do with a frozen brain -- and that your estate will be able to afford the procedure -- before the company you've entrusted your brain to either makes a mistake or collapses. Given the near-total lack of progress on the former front (there's been consid…
> that your estate will be able to afford the procedure -- before the company you've entrusted your brain to either makes a mistake or collapses You've misunderstood the business structure of modern cryonics. A cryonics org like ALCOR is actually two organizations: one is a commercial organization which charges for storage and for the messy business of cryopreservation, and the second is a nonprofit trust which 'owns…
Is it likely to happen? Honestly I have a very hard time imagining the probabilities. Financial collapse versus deliberate destruction versus horrible accident versus actually getting revived? They all seem unlikely, but once your brain is in deep freeze, its fate is one of those.
Cryonics is one of those things that's hard to evaluate. On the face of it, it seems insane. You're essentially making a bet that someone will find something useful to do with a frozen brain -- and that your estate will be able to afford the procedure -- before the company you've entrusted your brain to either makes a mistake or collapses. Given the near-total lack of progress on the former front (there's been consid…
> You're essentially making a bet that someone will find something useful to do with a frozen brain Something is deeply wrong with this way of thinking: it doesn't value human life at all. Here's another version. Someone comes to you seeking for help. He's dying. He could be saved by some recently devised miraculous medical procedure, which would return him to full health. The catch is, that procedure is relatively e…
Edit: > In what kind of bleak world would no one be willing to pay for a probable return to full health?
This one. People die of totally curable conditions all the time in the real, modern world.
Cryonics is one of those things that's hard to evaluate. On the face of it, it seems insane. You're essentially making a bet that someone will find something useful to do with a frozen brain -- and that your estate will be able to afford the procedure -- before the company you've entrusted your brain to either makes a mistake or collapses. Given the near-total lack of progress on the former front (there's been consid…
> that your estate will be able to afford the procedure -- before the company you've entrusted your brain to either makes a mistake or collapses You've misunderstood the business structure of modern cryonics. A cryonics org like ALCOR is actually two organizations: one is a commercial organization which charges for storage and for the messy business of cryopreservation, and the second is a nonprofit trust which 'owns…
Cryonics is one of those things that's hard to evaluate. On the face of it, it seems insane. You're essentially making a bet that someone will find something useful to do with a frozen brain -- and that your estate will be able to afford the procedure -- before the company you've entrusted your brain to either makes a mistake or collapses. Given the near-total lack of progress on the former front (there's been consid…
It's not that insane when compared to the alternative.
Dying in the jungle in pursuit of the fountain of youth or bathing in the blood of the young rightfully comes off as bonkers to healthy people.
Cryonics is one of those things that's hard to evaluate. On the face of it, it seems insane. You're essentially making a bet that someone will find something useful to do with a frozen brain -- and that your estate will be able to afford the procedure -- before the company you've entrusted your brain to either makes a mistake or collapses. Given the near-total lack of progress on the former front (there's been consid…
Cryonics is another version of Pascal's Wager. Logic and reason assures that it almost certainly is not going to work, but the value of the potential upside is effectively infinite to that individual, so it still may be a rational investment.
Shambling about like some lonely museum piece come to life sounds pretty worthless to me, personally. The value of a human life is in its context of family and society.