Cryonics - Why not?

[Bizmark13]

Hal Finney, the person who developed the precursor to Bitcoin called reusable proof of works (RPOWs) is now cryogenically preserved. Both Wei Dai and Nick Szabo (developer of Bit Gold - the direct precursor to Bitcoin) were Extropians who contributed to discussions in the Cryonics Mailing List and are likely to have cryonics plans in place for them in the event that their health deteriorates to the point where current medicine can't sustain them:

http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/dsp.cgi?msg=1400

I wouldn't be surprised if Satoshi also has a cryonics plan in place since he appears to fit the demographic.

Looking at the prices, there is the Cryonics Institute which offers a $28,000 contract where you can preserve the whole body and Alcor which offers a brain-only option and a full-body option although both are more expensive than CI. This is only about four times as expensive as a traditional funeral and it is possible to purchase this using a life insurance policy that only amounts to several dollars a week.

The preservation process minimizes the cellular damage from ice crystals by using a vitrification solution. This means that the structure of the neural connections are preserved and so the structures that represent all your thoughts and memories aren't damaged.

Ray Kurzweil has written a lot of books about nanotechnology and the trend of accelerating progress which suggests that one day we will be able to revive cryogenically preserved bodies. Furthermore, there is also something called the Singularity which will occur when the abilities of computers exceed that of humans. Computers will be able to improve upon themselves and accelerate the progress of technology even further to the point where it is a certainty that cryonics patients will be revived.

What do you think? Is this a good idea?

[AtheistAKASaneBrain]

I dont know.. ive been thinking about it lately. It's pretty mind blowing. Like, how would you experience being "reanimated"?
And if you had a sickness, like a degenerative sickness... then what would happen?
I dont know, we can't even cure baldness yet, so how are we supossed to aim for this?
If they can reanimate the bodies, it would only mean that humanity has advanced enough to achieve immortality.

I find it's useless to preserve only the head. What for? thats creepy as hell. Might as well preserve the whole thing, but preserving the whole thing is too expensive.. whats the exacty price for that?

How much do you pay monthly?

What the hell would happen if the company goes bankrupt? what would they do with all the heads/bodies?

[bitbunnny]

Strange idea, don't like it.

[elliwilli]

Its interesting. to be honest. i have thought about it and think its quite a cool idea and would take the chance and do it if i could.

[Lauda]

Strange idea, don't like it.

Your life view is wrong and limited.

There is nothing that you could not like about it.

I dont know.. ive been thinking about it lately. It's pretty mind blowing. Like, how would you experience being "reanimated"?
And if you had a sickness, like a degenerative sickness... then what would happen?
I dont know, we can't even cure baldness yet, so how are we supossed to aim for this?
If they can reanimate the bodies, it would only mean that humanity has advanced enough to achieve immortality.

I find it's useless to preserve only the head. What for? thats creepy as hell. Might as well preserve the whole thing, but preserving the whole thing is too expensive.. whats the exacty price for that?

How much do you pay monthly?

What the hell would happen if the company goes bankrupt? what would they do with all the heads/bodies?

Well i think it works as a 'pause' button. Humanity wouldn't achieve immortality at all. This doesn't make your life longer in years, rather it makes your life span longer.
Theoretically you aren't alive while preserved.

How about you ask the company? Their employees will probably eat the bodies for breakfast.

[Lauda]

What about the soul? I'm not even talking about the concept Christians believe in, but it has been proven that our bodies have certain energy that disappears after death. We have to remember that our memories are stored in our brain cells and accessed by energy impulses, so it's possible these cells keep the images only as long as the impulses are flowing, thus people, who were revived late sometimes suffer from amnesia or became disabled.
IMO there's very high probability that these people will be just empty shells after revival.

Nobody has proven that such energies are this so called 'soul'.
There's none.

[Braedo]

Humans are already over running and destroying the Planet. Let's hope for this technology to never be possible.

[BlindMayorBitcorn]

The links all fit. And it gets me to thinking about the generational inflation curve in Bitcoin.

Very thoughtful OP

[u9y42]

What about the soul? I'm not even talking about the concept Christians believe in, but it has been proven that our bodies have certain energy that disappears after death. We have to remember that our memories are stored in our brain cells and accessed by energy impulses, so it's possible these cells keep the images only as long as the impulses are flowing, thus people, who were revived late sometimes suffer from amnesia or became disabled.
IMO there's very high probability that these people will be just empty shells after revival.

Nobody has proven that such energies are this so called 'soul'.
There's none.

That's true; but I think what he is saying is that the normal processes that keep our brain working - and by extension perhaps our memories, personality, and so on - would be interrupted, leading to damage in whomever is revived from this state. As far as I know, our brains don't exactly shut down, even during sleep or unconsciousness, so that doesn't seem inconceivable.