How to turn into a tree after you die

Same here. My immediate response to the headline was "design a metamorphosis virus like the Descolada."

Having just read a particular Philip K. Dick short story, that's what came to mind here.

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Of_Withered_Apples

I'm probably being too prosaic, but do note that plants don't actually use any matter from the soil they grow on besides water plus some minerals and micronutrients. The carbon that constitutes most of the plant matter is literally taken out of thin air via photosynthesis. Also, most of the molecules that were a part of you a year ago are already a part of something or someone else.

As long as they got a few pieces of me in there, I'm cool with that. Maybe the best way to look at this is "Turn yourself and a bunch of other nice dead people into a tree".

>>As I understood it, the "ashes" you receive post-cremation are actually the ground remains of bones from all cremations that took place that day

While that is, unfortunately, pretty common for pet cremations it not supposed to be that way for humans.

http://caringcremations.com/frequently-asked-questions-crema...

It's weird only if you start from being human. If you start from being, to reference the famous quote, a star, it gets rapidly less weird.

Or more weird.

Since you mentioned coping mechanisms, a genuine but slightly OT question:

I wonder what the grieving process like for the surviving friends and family of a deceased, cryopreserved person? Do they try to ignore the negative aspects of the death because of the possibility that the deceased will be brought back to life in the future? Or feel as sad as they would if cryonics had not been used, because revival is unlikely and/or even if it did occur would almost certainly happen in the far future? Or is there no difference.

I wonder because grief, while unpleasant, is important when dealing with the death of others. Failure to grieve can cause long-term psychological problems.

Zero chances of being reanimated as a zombie, from another point of view.

Personally, I specify scattering ashes to the wind or over the water. Can't be too sure.

Then you could cremate the tree and use it's ashes to grow another

We planted a tree (from seed) when each of our kids were born. Being the superstitious, symbol creating species that we are it was a little stressful for the first year or so in case the trees didn't make it and so foretold our childrens fate.

Yeah, this is awful. Someone forgets to water the sapling, deer chews on it, etc, etc... BAM! You've just killed dad again.

That's a good point, you should use Soil IQ [1] to make sure that doesn't happen.

[1] http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/10/soil-iq/

According to [1] its mainly pulverised bone, salts, and minerals. This appears to provide some nutrition for plants - in the UK peoiple are being urged not to scatter ashes in upland/moorland areas because the minerals are changing the local soil composition and plant ecology [2].

[1] http://www.cremationsolutions.com/All-About-Cremation-Ashes-...

[2] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1508784/Cremation-ash...

Hm. People actually die slowly. If you planted a tree every time someone was born, it would be far more effective!

Totally! For those who missed it, in the movie there's a story about how a civilization used to bury their people and they'd plant a seed in the deceased's body/chest so it could grow from the inside and take the persons' soul, or whatever there was in it, to the sky, to ascend it. And that's somehow part of the plot of the movie too. Something like that, IIRC.