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This is a blog on why we believe and do what we do, why we pretend otherwise, how we might do better, and what our descendants might do, if they don't all die.
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Eliezer and I posted last fall on cryonics, and someone connected with the cryonics firm Alcor recently told us that 7-8 recent signing-up customers, a notable fraction of the total, mentioned Eliezer, I, or these posts! OB reader Fortune Elkins was apparently also instrumental.
I'm proud to have had some influence, though it is still sad that the numbers are so low that our modest effort could make such a difference. I'll post more on cryonics soon.
More Getting Froze
Patri, on odds see my latest post. For a lower price, see CI.
Ebonmuse, I find the trail-for-crimes scenario pretty unlikely. But if that happened, well wouldn't it most likely be a good thing to make myself available to stand trial?
Hopefully, the gains to med research from donated brains are pretty small. I actually doubt most get used.
Mitchell, that could add some value, but at a pretty large cost, so no I wouldn't bother.
Kaj, yes, we seem to see a lot of far-thinking rejection, which wouldn't translate into near opinions.
Eliezer: However, this only equates to the question of whether you would spend $28,000 to avoid certain death.
But it isn't spending $28K to avoid certain death, it is spending $28K for a small shot at avoiding death. And that's very different. That $28K can do good things for the lives of people I care about - like my kids. If it's a 1% shot, than I am taking $2.8M away from my kids to live instead of dying. I don't know that I have enough money for that to be a good deal.
And the insurance funding takes money out of my pocket in the worlds in which I live a long and healthy life and don't need cryo, because the singularity comes first.
Also, $28K? Alcor's FAQ tells me at least $150K for whole-body, and $80K for head-only.
Robin: Patri, when considering the cost of financial payments, you must weigh both when they happen, and in what state of the world they happen. Cryo costs are low until the time and state in which you would have died, at which point you likely have no better uses for your money, at least if not much poorer than I think you are.
What do you think the odds of revival are? There are lots of useful things I can think of doing with my money when I am dead, that matter to me now. Cryo is expensive - Alcor says $80K. If we are optimistic and think revival is 10%, that's $800K to live. If it's 1%, that's $8M to live. I value my life at somewhere in that range, so it really matters to me what the odds are.
BTW, I find it kind of baffling that I am a cryo-resister because I disagree violently with pretty much every anti-cryo comment I read here on OB. When I hear things like There is no "reason" why I want to live except that it is hardwired into me by evolution, the same way the sex drive is hardwired into me. I roll my eyes and laugh. Yeah, there is no reason for a nihilist to sign up for cryo...or to ever do anything else in life, so, whatever, let's move on to those of us who have goals and motives and believe life matters.