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This would be difficult with the current legal system in most of the United States because of the rule against perpetuities[0]. Of course, jurisdiction shopping

by wl 9y ago

This would be difficult with the current legal system in most of the United States because of the rule against perpetuities[0]. Of course, jurisdiction shopping makes this easier in certain locales. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_against_perpetuities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_against_perpetuities

hyperpallium 9y ago
According to Larry Niven (Rammer), the courts will find the dead cannot own property. I observe there's a certain prejudice, in that law is written by the living. The other ideas of cryptocurrency/escrow/private keys would escape the law... until you tried to spend it legally. You might as well bury gold in a chest.
- DonHopkins 9y ago
  According to Douglas Adams, Hotblack Desiato once spent a year dead for tax reasons. http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Hotblack_Desiato http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Hotblack_Desiato
  - hyperpallium 9y ago
    DNA is strangely relevant here (as he often is): [...] I don't know what this great think I'm meant to be doing is, and it looks to me as if I was supposed not to know. And I resent that, right? "The old me knew. The old me cared. Fine, so far so hoopy. Except that the old me cared so much that he actually got inside his own brain - my own brain - and locked off the bits that knew and cared, because if I knew and cared I wouldn't be able to do it. I wouldn't be able to go and be President, and I wouldn't be able to steal this ship, which must be the important thing. "But this former self of mine killed himself off, didn't he, by changing my brain? OK, that was his choice. This new me has its own choices to make, and by a strange coincidence those choices involve not knowing and not caring about this big number, whatever it is. That's what he wanted, that's what he got. "Except this old self of mine tried to leave himself in control, leaving orders for me in the bit of my brain he locked off. Well, I don't want to know, and I don't want to hear them. That's my choice. I'm not going to be anybody's puppet, particularly not my own." Zaphod banged the console in fury, oblivious to the dumbfolded looks he was attracting. "The old me is dead!" he raved, "Killed himself! The dead shouldn't hang about trying to interfere with the living!"
- empressplay 9y ago
  Couldn't you just put it in your will? EG that I leave $X to whoever supplies the right password? You would also need to leave money to your new self I suppose.
  - tibbetts 9y ago
    The law against perpetuity means you can’t have an open ended bequest like that. Someone living has to get it, and in bounded time. You can mess around a bit, like leaving money in trust to your youngest living descendent, to pay out on their 65th birthday, unless someone revives you. Which also starts to sound like a movie plot.
- DKnoll 9y ago
  I wonder if you could use a trust corporation to do this... I don't know anything about law though.
  - TheOtherHobbes 9y ago
    Corporations have more personhood - certainly more legal agency - than many people do. Uploads aren’t even the biggest worry. If it turned out to be possible to upload analyse and upload personalities, it would also become possible to synthesize new personalities on demand to a required spec. How much value does organic personality actually have?
- wmf 9y ago
  I observe there's a certain prejudice, in that law is written by the living. Until the "dead" uploads outnumber the living, at which point they vote in a bloc to expropriate and enslave the meat-humans, as in the novel The Uploaded.
  - hyperpallium 9y ago
    We have a saying up here, life is wasted on the living. A. thanks for the suggestion, great, terrific, wonderful (was flux good?) but B. The dead shouldn't hang about trying to interfere with the living!
- icefox 9y ago
  So I memorized my private key. Revive me and I will tell you and you will get all my coins.
  - taneq 9y ago
    Presumably if they can revive you as you are now, there's a fair chance they'll be able to just directly dump your memories and search for hex strings without ever actually running you.
keithnz 9y ago
perhaps we need to classify people as not dead but "heisen" :)

by wl 9y ago

hyperpallium 9y ago

According to Larry Niven (Rammer), the courts will find the dead cannot own property. I observe there's a certain prejudice, in that law is written by the living. The other ideas of cryptocurrency/escrow/private keys would escape the law... until you tried to spend it legally. You might as well bury gold in a chest.

DonHopkins 9y ago
According to Douglas Adams, Hotblack Desiato once spent a year dead for tax reasons. http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Hotblack_Desiato http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Hotblack_Desiato
- hyperpallium 9y ago
  DNA is strangely relevant here (as he often is): [...] I don't know what this great think I'm meant to be doing is, and it looks to me as if I was supposed not to know. And I resent that, right? "The old me knew. The old me cared. Fine, so far so hoopy. Except that the old me cared so much that he actually got inside his own brain - my own brain - and locked off the bits that knew and cared, because if I knew and cared I wouldn't be able to do it. I wouldn't be able to go and be President, and I wouldn't be able to steal this ship, which must be the important thing. "But this former self of mine killed himself off, didn't he, by changing my brain? OK, that was his choice. This new me has its own choices to make, and by a strange coincidence those choices involve not knowing and not caring about this big number, whatever it is. That's what he wanted, that's what he got. "Except this old self of mine tried to leave himself in control, leaving orders for me in the bit of my brain he locked off. Well, I don't want to know, and I don't want to hear them. That's my choice. I'm not going to be anybody's puppet, particularly not my own." Zaphod banged the console in fury, oblivious to the dumbfolded looks he was attracting. "The old me is dead!" he raved, "Killed himself! The dead shouldn't hang about trying to interfere with the living!"
empressplay 9y ago
Couldn't you just put it in your will? EG that I leave $X to whoever supplies the right password? You would also need to leave money to your new self I suppose.
- tibbetts 9y ago
  The law against perpetuity means you can’t have an open ended bequest like that. Someone living has to get it, and in bounded time. You can mess around a bit, like leaving money in trust to your youngest living descendent, to pay out on their 65th birthday, unless someone revives you. Which also starts to sound like a movie plot.
DKnoll 9y ago
I wonder if you could use a trust corporation to do this... I don't know anything about law though.
- TheOtherHobbes 9y ago
  Corporations have more personhood - certainly more legal agency - than many people do. Uploads aren’t even the biggest worry. If it turned out to be possible to upload analyse and upload personalities, it would also become possible to synthesize new personalities on demand to a required spec. How much value does organic personality actually have?
wmf 9y ago
I observe there's a certain prejudice, in that law is written by the living. Until the "dead" uploads outnumber the living, at which point they vote in a bloc to expropriate and enslave the meat-humans, as in the novel The Uploaded.
- hyperpallium 9y ago
  We have a saying up here, life is wasted on the living. A. thanks for the suggestion, great, terrific, wonderful (was flux good?) but B. The dead shouldn't hang about trying to interfere with the living!
icefox 9y ago
So I memorized my private key. Revive me and I will tell you and you will get all my coins.
- taneq 9y ago
  Presumably if they can revive you as you are now, there's a fair chance they'll be able to just directly dump your memories and search for hex strings without ever actually running you.

keithnz 9y ago

perhaps we need to classify people as not dead but "heisen" :)