71–80 of 123 posts
What makes you think no one wants to die? No one knows for sure if there's anything on the other side, but I definitely don't want to stick around this world forever. Immortality would be a curse.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sounds a lot like Pascal's wager; small cost, high benefit, equally ridiculous probability of a payoff...
Well, at least cryo tanks are tangible.
The probability that, in the unlikely case your dead frozen head isn't thrown away at some point in time, you can be revived from it is so extraordinarily remote that I don't see the point.
It is way more likely that at some point technology will allow to simulate famous personalities from their writings, photos, etc than from a frozen piece of meat.
When you're dead, you're dead. Get over it, most people who have been are dead, too. And like the saying goes, cemeteries are full of indispensable men.
These visionary geniuses and hackers' most brilliant breakthrough was the realization of the inevitable fact that sooner or later, we all die. The trick is in channeling that truth as a motivator. We must strive to achieve as much as possible today, because there might not be a tomorrow. Steve Jobs: No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destinat…
This is a false dichotomy. You can strive to achieve as much as possible today, as well as attempt a second chance at life through cryonics.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, at least cryo tanks are tangible.
The probability that they stay in shape for even a couple of centuries is abysmally low (how many companies survive that long?). The probability that, in the unlikely case your dead frozen head isn't thrown away at some point in time, you can be revived from it is so extraordinarily remote that I don't see the point. It is way more likely that at some point technology will allow to simulate famous personalities from…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have discovered a way of extending anyone's life. I will extend yours if you send me 25k via paypal. You can find my email in my profile. Note that this is a non-zero chance.
There's an astronomically high probability that you're saying this to make a point, not because you have secret information. That fits perfectly with my model of expected human behavior. The question would be why your model of expected cryobiology/physics/future scientific development places its chance of success in anything like a similarly low category.
I don't think cryopreservation is that likely to work. Even its proponents are not that confident in it. I've collected some estimates: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ajn1LpstEUO_dE0...
1) Access failure: an external event prevents the initiation of your cryo-preservation, such as your relatives and/or your hospital insisting on your death taking place as scheduled, or other things preventing you from having access to the facilities needed. - These dangers are substantial. I'd wager that the majority of society is against even simple life extension, and thus even more opposed to cryo. There is also no way to mitigate this risk, since people tend not to die in circumstances under their direct control. Your best bet is probably to convince a close family member to act on your behalf when the time comes, because family has a lot of authority with... you know, the authorities.
2) Persistence failure: things that cause your preserved brain to be destroyed, such as war, system outages, economic trouble, or global catastrophes (including new laws or a radical culture shift). - The probability of just one of these occurring is pretty high, but there is simply no way to accurately estimate this risk. However, the probability of these events leading to your demise is lowered if more people adopt cryo preservation.
3) Preservation/restauration failure: some technical reason prevents your pattern from being restored into a working copy. These include excessive tissue damage before or during storage, or technical problems in reconstructing your brain back into working order. - Compared to the other risks, this one is probably very low. If you're in cryo, time is on your side. While I think that biological reanimation is most likely not on the table when it comes to brains conserved with current technologies, digital restauration looks like a very promising avenue.
4) Religious/philosophical problems: as failure modes go, these certainly stand out. Technically, they don't belong here, nevertheless some variant of religious reasoning is included in many of these lists. - I'm going to discard these points though (including the "probability" that our minds are not entirely based on a material substrate), because if those matter to someone the discussion is already over.
There are far too many easily identifiable things that could go wrong in the process for me to even consider dumping money into such hokum. These are the same type of people that were insisting the world double up on alchemy research two thousand years ago.
The choices already exist. Dennis Ritchie and Steve Jobs could certainly have cryopreserved themselves if they wanted to. It's not like Alcor is unknown, especially in the circles Ritchie and Jobs were in. What do you (since this is a self post) think we as society should do about it?
Good question. Here are some possible answers: * Better social networking for cryonics participants. * More persuasive essays on the topic. * New blood in the movement. * Stronger associations to stronger movements. * Different or more aggressive marketing/promotion tactics. * Prizes similar to the X-Prize for demonstrating reversible cryopreservation on a small scale (e.g. organs) * (Maybe unrealistic?) Government f…
solution: the next generation.
I don't think cryopreservation is that likely to work. Even its proponents are not that confident in it. I've collected some estimates: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ajn1LpstEUO_dE0...
Some of these are quite interesting though the "probabilities" are completely arbitrary, of course. From what I can gather the reasons against cryo can be clustered into these: 1) Access failure: an external event prevents the initiation of your cryo-preservation, such as your relatives and/or your hospital insisting on your death taking place as scheduled, or other things preventing you from having access to the fac…
Your "3" doesn't include the chance that restoration is impossible, overly expensive, or not done for some other reason (no one is interested in you).