What are your thoughts on cryonics as a strategy for radical life extension?
20-year ALCOR member here. As a 69 year old, I consider it my Plan A. Working on the other stuff, of course.
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I see it more as a last resort. There are other ways that are being developed I think can be more successful, and safer. I’d rather not put all my eggs in one basket.
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Awesome, I personally agree with @veganposthuman as it being a “last-resort” option like a the last plan/plan Z in a thoughtfully developed “longevity portfolio” so I am able to spread and diversify my risk. I see regenerative therapies and advanced in current medical technology as more of a plan A.
Does it even work? the companies usually just go bankrupt and put the bodies somewhere else before anything happens, or at least that’s what I’ve heard, haven’t done any research on it.
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The original companies had a loose structure and did not have separate councils and a separate patient care trust and reintegration trust but they did transfer the patients(in most cases) if they went bankrupt.
I’ve looked at the structure models between TransTime and other companies compared to Alcor, Cryonics Institute, and Tomorrow Bio and I have a very high confidence that they can not go bankrupt(at least from what I see on paper). They can not pull more than 2% a year from their Patient Care Trust and about 80% of what you(or life insurance pays) goes to those trusts and very little(the rest) goes to the actual procedures themselves.
The maintenance of the liquid nitrogen topping off of the dewars is relatively cheap and does not require electricity(they are like thermoses) and can last(in emergencies or liquid nitrogen shortage) up to 6 months(I believe) which is why heads are placed down.
The revival/reintegration is not solved; even remotely!!!
But there is a lot of recent projects and research they are doing(think CRYORAT and Alcor’s research projects) to get things in the right direction. Putting theoretical philosophy aside(things that are unknowable: eg. supernatural dieties, afterlives, simulation hypothesis, etc) I would rather have a small chance than no chance at all if Cryonics is the last-resort.
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You are putting yourself in a very good position, props to you!
@Peak. Here in Michigan the state legislature actually got involved a while ago. I don’t know exactly when but it’s been a couple of decades or so. They passed various laws requiring the Cryonics Institute to be licensed as a cemetery so that just like a cemetery, a trust had to be set up to ensure continued operating expenses were covered. There was likely no need for it as the Cryonics Institute had already been doing this (someone else could open shop I suppose for pure greed purposes) but basically a portion of the dues we pay as members as well as portions of the money they receive for preservation services is required by law to go into a regulated investment portfolio so the interest is used to continue funding operations indefinitely. This way the organization doesn’t run out of money. I suppose in theory if the government or society collapses there could be problems but I guess cryonics won’t matter at that point then.
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