A Bet I’d Have Lost
Three and a half years ago I made my largest personal donation ever to the Brain Preservation Foundation, to help fund their Brain Preservation Prizes. Just now they’ve announced that 21st Century Medicine has won their $26,735 Small Mammal Brain Preservation Prize, using a more cryonics-based approach. The other main competitor, Mikula, used the “plastination” approach I favored back then:
I offer to bet up to $5K that plastination is more likely to win this full prize than cryonics. (more)
Good thing for me no one accepted my offer; now it looks more like I’d have lost it. Next we’ll see who wins the Large Mammal Brain Preservation Prize, and when.
Is this a big deal? Does it really change anything about the costs/benefits of cryonics?
It seems to me that a big watershed moment is when scientists manage to extract memories from a cryopreserved dog/cat/mouse, such as recognizing a person or place, or some other learned behavior.
Amazing news!