Cryonics

[ciphergoth]

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?

Comments

I'm reminded of "belief in belief".

[grendelkhan.livejournal.com]

Late to the party, yes, but...

This whole business reminds me somewhat uncomfortably of "belief in belief" (http://lesswrong.com/lw/i4/belief_in_belief/). People who aren't religious themselves will wax rhapsodic on the merits of spiritualism and such; likewise, people who aren't actively seeking death themselves will explain that death is really a good thing. (I freely admit that djm4's desire to get a DNR while perfectly healthy blows a significant hole in this explanation.)

I suppose entertaining the idea that death (at least from aging) isn't inevitable or won't be for our descendants brings up an uncomfortably intense sense of injustice. For now, no matter the inequality that exists in life, at least the Reaper gets everyone in the end, but if that's taken away, what then?

Re: I'm reminded of "belief in belief".

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Hello! Are you a Less Wrong reader? What's your ID there?

Only occasionally.

[grendelkhan.livejournal.com]

I have some old comments (http://lesswrong.com/user/grendelkhan/) there. I write under this name in most places; there's a pretty big though not entirely complete collection here (http://www.backtype.com/url/grendelkhan.livejournal.com).

I started reading it when it was "Overcoming Bias", though I've moved away from there as Robin Hanson has gone Full Choad (http://ciphergoth.livejournal.com/348677.html?thread=3566853#t3566853). (I've commented in some of the same places as you, though I don't think I've every actually introduced myself.) I keep thinking to myself that I should actually read it in a systematic fashion, but the archive panic (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ArchivePanic) gets in the way.

I find myself to be a fan of a lot of stuff he writes, but I'm frankly a bit extra cautious around anyone who Eric Raymond thinks is the bee's knees. Add that to my caution about all-encompassing metaphysical systems derived largely from first principles, especially math, and, well, I hesitate to consider myself an acolyte.