6 ms·
As the procedure has not been proved to be reversible, it suggests to me that finding a future cure for the original ailment is the easiest assumption to make i
by placebo 9y ago
As the procedure has not been proved to be reversible, it suggests to me that finding a future cure for the original ailment is the easiest assumption to make in this field. I'm more interested to get better answers to the myth that "Cryonics is not a belief that the dead can be revived" than those presented in the article.
I'd be hard pressed to say that there are things I think are impossible, but there are a great many things I think are very improbable. In the movie A.I., there's a part where advanced aliens temporarily restore the life of the hero's "mother" using a lock of her hair and some pseudoscientific stuff about information they managed to retrieve from the space-time continuum. All this without even having access to her brain! Impossible? I don't know - perhaps having the theoretical ability to retrieve a specific configuration which maybe exists at some dimension, somehow holographically stored in the fabric of universe combined with an unimaginably advanced intelligence and technological ability might make it doable. Do I believe there's a non zero probability if it being possible? Yes. Do I believe it will ever happen? No. Although cryonics is far less presumptuous than reviving back a personality from a lock of hair and information extracted from the "spacetime continuum", the complete lack of evidence for any sort of reversibility of the process makes me extremely skeptical in the wisdom in paying for such a procedure, regardless of how well intentioned it might be.
- reasonattlm 9y agohttp://dx.doi.org/10.1089/rej.2014.1636 http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/rej.2014.1636 "Can memory be retained after cryopreservation? Our research has attempted to answer this long-standing question by using the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans, a well-known model organism for biological research that has generated revolutionary findings but has not been tested for memory retention after cryopreservation. Our study's goal was to test C. elegans' memory recall after vitrification and reviving. Using a method of sensory imprinting in the young C. elegans, we establish that learning acquired through olfactory cues shapes the animal's behavior and the learning is retained at the adult stage after vitrification. Our research method included olfactory imprinting with the chemical benzaldehyde (C6H5CHO) for phase-sense olfactory imprinting at the L1 stage, the fast-cooling SafeSpeed method for vitrification at the L2 stage, reviving, and a chemotaxis assay for testing memory retention of learning at the adult stage. Our results in testing memory retention after cryopreservation show that the mechanisms that regulate the odorant imprinting (a form of long-term memory) in C. elegans have not been modified by the process of vitrification or by slow freezing."
- placebo 9y agoThank you, that's news to me. While I still remain skeptical due to the orders of magnitude of complexity in the gap between C. elegans and humans, it definitely calls for a reassessment of the probability I have previously attached to it. This is why I like HN...
- Wh1zz 9y agoEven if the probability is astronomical, isn't a non-zero probability better than null? Sure there is a cost, but is it that high that you couldn't justify taking the chance, and instead just blowing it on a couple other fancy things or whatever?
- icegreentea2 9y agoA lot of people don't like playing along with Pascal's wager type arguments.