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Comment by Prolorn | Hacker News Reader

... sign up for cryonics?

That's what I was going to write.

Here's the problem I have with cryonics: in what future do they need to defrost people from the past for another other than freak show/historical novelty? There are so many problems the defrosted will have:

* no skills for their new environment * no money * billions of warm-bodied, warm-blooded other humans already there * suffering from lonliness knowing everyone you've ever known is dead

Unless the defrosting process is great and there's going to be gene therapy, and it won't be for maybe the first few hundred/thousand people, you'll be disabled, diseased or still suffering from whatever killed you in the first place.

You could spend all days coming up with possible reasons for not defrosting cryonics patients in the future. However you need to remember that no matter how low a probability you assign to your successful defrosting, this will be strictly greater than the probability of successfully being alive in the future if you go with the default, non-cryonics option of irrevocable destruction.

Ay, me... so little confidence in reincarnation within HN ;)

"The body of B. Franklin, Printer (Like the Cover of an Old Book, Its Contents torn Out And Stript of its Lettering and Gilding) Lies Here, Food for Worms. But the Work shall not be Lost; For it will (as he Believ'd) Appear once More In a New and More Elegant Edition Revised and Corrected By the Author. " --Benjamin Franklin (self-authored epitaph)

Edit: updated to show his final version.

If instead of investing into cryonics you invest time, effort, and money into extending your life span by one year -- that would increase your chances of living long enough to have life extension technologies developed. The chance of it is small, but still much better, than almost zero chance of ever surviving through cryonics procedure.

Just make sure you know COBOL.

I'm only half-joking.

http://www.exit109.com/~ghealton/y2k/y2k_humor/Cobol.html

The people doing the reviving will be the same ones who have been maintaining the dewar flasks the whole time. Alcor doesn't just toss corpsicles into a vault. They use the interest from investments to pay for research and indefinite maintenance.

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