4 ms·

I view current cryonics as a bit like playing the lottery. If you don't play, you will not win. If you do play, you have a minuscule but nonzero chance of winni

I view current cryonics as a bit like playing the lottery. If you don't play, you will not win. If you do play, you have a minuscule but nonzero chance of winning. Over 30 years ago, I joined others to sit with a friend while he died way too young. He had arranged for cryonic preservation. AFAIK, he's still chilling. And he has a minuscule but nonzero chance of someday resuming his prematurely interrupted life. While that seems to me extremely unlikely to happen, I wonder if it felt just as unlikely to somebody in the 3rd century that people would someday fly through the air...or talk to a friend who was beyond shouting distance...or live to 90 years of age...etc. We've sequenced DNA from dinosaurs, and 30 years ago I would have bet strongly against that. I've learned to avoid underrating the power of exponential increments in knowledge and capability.

dennisgorelik 11y ago
I think lottery is a good analogy here. 1) Extremely low chances to win (if at all). 2) The change that the winner is going to regret being revived is quite high (dysfunctional body, totally new environment, being a subject of historians' research).
- gboudrias 11y ago
  > being a subject of historians' research I might be narcissistic but that seems like a good thing to me. Imagine being able to tell future people what the present was really like.
  - dennisgorelik 11y ago
    It is more likely to look like extracting bits of information from rat's brain in a laboratory setting than as an interview. Would you still like to try?
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
cLeEOGPw 11y ago
> If you do play, you have a minuscule but nonzero chance of winning. This is what I don't get it. Why people think this? You have exactly ZERO chance to win. Even if cryonics will be a thing in the future, nobody is going to unfreeze you or put you in some body. I'm not even counting technological aspects, where your brain would be incorrectly frozen/lack of some key chemicals that has to be used that don't exist yet/tissue not preserved well enough. Even if they COULD make you live, future people wouldn't do it. Reason is that your brain has no value of any kind besides cryonics experimentation - means same value as a cow or a pig. Maybe even less, because your brain might bring trouble to ethicists who would be upset. Cryonics for smart people is money spending equivalent of fortune teller for less smart people. Even if you explain to them it is not worth it, it doesn't work like they think it works, etc., they will still be convinced they are right. If this helps you psychologically then good for you, fortune tellers sometimes helps people in certain areas too.

dennisgorelik 11y ago

I think lottery is a good analogy here. 1) Extremely low chances to win (if at all). 2) The change that the winner is going to regret being revived is quite high (dysfunctional body, totally new environment, being a subject of historians' research).

gboudrias 11y ago
> being a subject of historians' research I might be narcissistic but that seems like a good thing to me. Imagine being able to tell future people what the present was really like.
- dennisgorelik 11y ago
  It is more likely to look like extracting bits of information from rat's brain in a laboratory setting than as an interview. Would you still like to try?
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]

cLeEOGPw 11y ago

> If you do play, you have a minuscule but nonzero chance of winning. This is what I don't get it. Why people think this? You have exactly ZERO chance to win. Even if cryonics will be a thing in the future, nobody is going to unfreeze you or put you in some body. I'm not even counting technological aspects, where your brain would be incorrectly frozen/lack of some key chemicals that has to be used that don't exist yet/tissue not preserved well enough. Even if they COULD make you live, future people wouldn't do it. Reason is that your brain has no value of any kind besides cryonics experimentation - means same value as a cow or a pig. Maybe even less, because your brain might bring trouble to ethicists who would be upset. Cryonics for smart people is money spending equivalent of fortune teller for less smart people. Even if you explain to them it is not worth it, it doesn't work like they think it works, etc., they will still be convinced they are right. If this helps you psychologically then good for you, fortune tellers sometimes helps people in certain areas too.