What happened to the first cryogenically frozen humans? • Hacker News Board

Re: What happened to the first cryogenically frozen humans?

#231

Post by epicureanideal » Tue, Dec 20, 2022, 7:44 AM UTC

ramraj07 wrote: post #200

epicureanideal wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may find this organization (working on extending healthy human lifespan) interesting. https://www.levf.org/ I'm not involved with that organization, but I find their work very interesting. As a backup plan, there's Alcor. https://www.alcor.org/

As much as I’d like to live forever, I couldn’t in good conscience monetarily support research that’s explicitly focused on extending the life span of the privileged (including me) when more resources are needed in finding how to lift up everyone else left behind today.

There are many arguments for longevity, even if it were temporarily for the rich, or those in advanced economies.

For example, people who live much longer would probably think about the environment on longer time scales. That includes climate change, pollution, resource exhaustion, and so on. They might consider helping to improve their society, because even if it took several generations they might live to see the benefits.

People who live longer can afford to make better long term investments, instead of trying to cash in on short get rich quick schemes.

They might take better care of their health, knowing that they're not just risking the usually healthy 20s-60s range, but a 20s-200s range, when doing risky activities. Those risky activities sometimes affect others.

People may care to invest in research to cure other diseases because more people will live long enough to suffer from them.

And so on...

Re: What happened to the first cryogenically frozen humans?

#232

Post by sangnoir » Tue, Dec 20, 2022, 7:45 AM UTC

epicureanideal wrote: post #195

chrisfosterelli wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In case it's insightful, I've correspondingly never understood the common contentment with death. The world is an incredible place, and there's so much to experience and do. If I had the time there's hundreds of careers I could spend a lifetime in each trying to develop mastery. I think I could live a thousand lives with the people I care about and not be done. I've had to choose one life, and it's a nice one, but if…

I'm absolutely shocked that more money and time is not spent researching how to cure death by aging. (Note that for those who discuss this semi-regularly, that's understood to be very different than seeking a cure for any particular age related disease, which usually we attempt to address when it's too late.). There are groups like https://www.levf.org/ doing some early work like Robust Mouse Rejuvenation (in mid-lif…

> I'm absolutely shocked that more money and time is not spent researching how to cure death by aging.

Faced with their own mortality, a bunch of aging billionaires and multimillionaires tend to pour money into longevity research. I'd be very upset if governments increased spending on fighting senescence today, instead of lower-hanging fruit .

Re: What happened to the first cryogenically frozen humans?

#233

Post by nathias » Tue, Dec 20, 2022, 7:46 AM UTC

wintorez wrote: post #168

Never understood the quest for immortality. We are the children of our time. When our time passes, we will live as strangers in a strange land, drowning in the sea of nostalgia. Death will simply takes us back to where we came from before our birth. Don’t fear the reaper.

if that was a concern we'd all kill ourselves at 30

Re: What happened to the first cryogenically frozen humans?

#234

Post by UberFly » Tue, Dec 20, 2022, 7:49 AM UTC

I wanted to know the state of Ted William's head, so I did a search. This is what I found:

In "Frozen," Larry Johnson, a former executive at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Ariz., writes that Williams' head was abused at the facility. Johnson claims a technician took baseball-like swings at Williams' frozen head with a monkey wrench.

What?

Re: What happened to the first cryogenically frozen humans?

#235

Post by c22 » Tue, Dec 20, 2022, 7:49 AM UTC

tgv wrote: post #229

chrisfosterelli wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In case it's insightful, I've correspondingly never understood the common contentment with death. The world is an incredible place, and there's so much to experience and do. If I had the time there's hundreds of careers I could spend a lifetime in each trying to develop mastery. I think I could live a thousand lives with the people I care about and not be done. I've had to choose one life, and it's a nice one, but if…

Infant mortality is quite different: we know that infants are supposed to live. Extending life is the opposite: death is the normal, even unavoidable end. The comparison is misplaced. > I could spend a lifetime in each trying to develop mastery No, you couldn't. You would still be your aged brain, not capable of learning hundreds of professions, and your frail body, not capable of replacing its cells any longer. It r…

A spider might have up to 1000 babies of which only a small percentage survive. Are the unlucky hundreds of spiderlings that perish supposed to live?

Re: What happened to the first cryogenically frozen humans?

#236

Post by Self-Perfection » Tue, Dec 20, 2022, 7:50 AM UTC

Mistletoe wrote: post #224

As someone that has frozen cells down many times successfully, I don’t think this will ever work for bodies. If you could save your DNA and a few cells and be cloned at a later date is that good enough for you? No memories but the same code. Is that still “you”? It’s like being an identical twin of yourself.

Can you imagine any experiment that will adjust your belief? Show you that there is a chance it might work for bodies?

Re: What happened to the first cryogenically frozen humans?

#237

Post by scarygliders » Tue, Dec 20, 2022, 7:53 AM UTC

If one of the reasons for wishing to be frozen, is to see what the future looks like, then there is an alternative; Einstein to the rescue!

Just strap yourself into a spaceship capable of reaching within a few % of the speed of light, and fly around for a bit.

No need to wait till you're at death's door and turned into a corpsicle. Just head on out there for a few years at relativistic speed. By the time you slow down and return, you'll be having pina coladas with your new Felidae-Sapiens masters ;)

Re: What happened to the first cryogenically frozen humans?

#238

Post by pkrotich » Tue, Dec 20, 2022, 7:53 AM UTC

elliotec wrote: post #198

dcow wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we don’t die we don’t evolve. If we had many lives then each one would be less meaningful. I do feel the pull on my heartstrings in your comment (wouldn’t that be wonderful), but an engineer will expand to fit as much time as you give them. We’d at least need to put age limits on political participation.

> If we don’t die we don’t evolve. Not as a species though. We just have to keep reproducing more of us that are good at staying alive and also reproducing to evolve. You and I theoretically could live forever in the same state, and still, our species would evolve via our offspring and theirs and so on.

I think the OP has a point - look at the cycle of innovation e.g in physics - happens almost every 100! I think it’s not an accident - as older generation die out the new ones can easily question the wisdom of the death vs living giants!

Re: What happened to the first cryogenically frozen humans?

#239

Post by yreg » Tue, Dec 20, 2022, 7:54 AM UTC

Mistletoe wrote: post #224

As someone that has frozen cells down many times successfully, I don’t think this will ever work for bodies. If you could save your DNA and a few cells and be cloned at a later date is that good enough for you? No memories but the same code. Is that still “you”? It’s like being an identical twin of yourself.

No, that's not good enough, software (beyond epigenetics) is what matters here. I would say, that personality is the key thing that one might want to preserve. Ideally, memories as well, the more intact they are, the better.

If possible, running it on the original hardware (i.e. the same brain) will satisfy people who believe in continuity of consciousness. (People hesitant to use a teletransporter[0])

Even a computer-simulated mind based on a scan of the original brain would I think be more 'me' than my clone.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletransportation_paradox

Re: What happened to the first cryogenically frozen humans?

#240

Post by JakeAl » Tue, Dec 20, 2022, 7:55 AM UTC

chrisfosterelli wrote: post #174

wintorez wrote: post #168

Never understood the quest for immortality. We are the children of our time. When our time passes, we will live as strangers in a strange land, drowning in the sea of nostalgia. Death will simply takes us back to where we came from before our birth. Don’t fear the reaper.

In case it's insightful, I've correspondingly never understood the common contentment with death. The world is an incredible place, and there's so much to experience and do. If I had the time there's hundreds of careers I could spend a lifetime in each trying to develop mastery. I think I could live a thousand lives with the people I care about and not be done. I've had to choose one life, and it's a nice one, but if…

The notion that immortality is a good idea fades with age. Youth is more important, because as you age opportunities and options vanish and ailments and limitations arise. If you can give me immortality, health and my youth, I may reconsider.