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Comment by Jach | Hacker News Reader

If we found a crypt of a hundred well-preserved mummies from a few thousand years ago who for all we could tell were basically peasants in their lifetimes, not grand or interesting people, and we had the ability to revive them into the modern world, I still think we would. The "interest" factor of future generations reviving cryonics customers when it's possible to do so is like the weakest factor in trying to predict whether cryonics will work at all.

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Because one crypt and some humans would be a curiosity. But a cluster of crypts containing thousands or even millions of those old weird people who will be likely just a burden to a way more advanced society? I am sceptical.

Large groups of people in society already hate immigrants. What makes you think they would welcome useless old and sick people from long ago? They're like immigrants, but worse!

Face reality: when you've been on ice long enough that your friends and immediate family are dead, nobody wants you anymore. You will never be defrosted, and if you're lucky at some point your remains will be given a burial. It's more likely you'll be unceremoniously cremated like medical waste.

> were basically peasants in their lifetimes, not grand or interesting people

What are you saying - the lives of ordinary people are the holy grail in archaeology and history as they are more difficult to investigate and construct. A king's remains and belongings tell you little about the actual society.

We're not talking about remains and belongings, we're talking about people. Bringing back a king, who was likely literate and learned, would be more valuable to me than a random peasant or slave, though I'd still want to bring them back too. I'd also have someone like Archimedes over a king. But anyway, it sounds like you don't disagree that there'd be plenty of motivation to bring even the peasants back.

(You're probably familiar with the book Montaillou? For passersby, it's a neat insight into the minds of ordinary people from hundreds of years ago.)

> Bringing back a king, who was likely literate and learned

A king would know about his society as much as how much do the Ivy League educated, WASP US presidents would know about the actual US society.

That's probably a motivating factor for defrosting your first few hundred/thousand mummies, but would the "interest" factor still be there for the millionth mummy?

I think it would. No, probably not the highest priority for the society doing it, but something that would continue along regardless. A quick google tells me that over 11,000 dinosaur fossils have been found so far, people still seem interested in finding more. But there are other reasons besides direct interest of the present society, especially at that scale. A few: interest of those having been revived now wanting to revive their waiting friends/family/time-mates, humanitarian reasons (Europe alone has absorbed millions of refugees in the last several years), and, turning a little from pure thought experiment of mummies to currently frozen people, potential contractual reasons. (Though notably Alcor only has a couple hundred frozen corpses/brains, and less than a couple thousand members signed up for the procedure.)

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