I'm considering signing up with the Cryonics Institute. Are you signed up? I'd be interested to hear your reasons why or why not. It does of course sound crazy, but when you press past that initial reaction to find out why it's crazy, I haven't heard a really satisfactory argument yet, and I'm interested to hear what people think. There are many reasons it might not work, but are there reasons to think it's really unlikely to work? How likely does recovery need to be for it to be worth it?
Jan. 21st, 2010
Anti-cryonics links
Jan. 21st, 2010 11:14 pmI may not reply to everything in that 159-comment thread but thanks to everyone who participated. I hope people don't mind if I carry on asking for your help in thinking about this. I might post articles on specific areas people raised, but first I thought to ask this: my Google-fu may be failing me. I'd appreciate any links anyone can find to good articles arguing against signing up for cryonics, or pointing out flaws in arguments made for cryosuspension. I don't mean South Park, thanks :-) I'm looking for something that really intends to be persuasive.
thanks again!
Update: here's some I've found
thanks again!
Update: here's some I've found
- Ebonmuse, On Cryonics
- Ebonmuse, Who Wants to Live Forever?
- Why we'll never be downloaded
- Why Minds Are Not Like Computers - actually there's quite a lot of scholarly writing arguing that the idea of simulating a brain on a computer is not merely impractical but impossible in principle.
- Michael Shermer on cryonics
- Skeptic's Dictionary on cryonics
- Cryonics–A futile desire for everlasting life
- Quackwatch - Is Cryonics Feasable?
- Ben Best - Debates about Cryonics with Skeptics (Best is President/CEO of the Cryonics Institute, but this is a snapshot of a debate on the James Randi forums, with a link to the original forum debate)
- Frozen Stiffs, Ruth Holland, BMJ 1981