{"items": [{"author": "Paul", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/325805964146942?comment_id=325812687479603", "anchor": "fb-325812687479603", "service": "fb", "text": "I suspect that it will not work. I think it is not our brains so much as the activitiy in our brains that makes us who we are. Freezing would extinguish that and even if you could restart it, would it be the same person? If you blow out a candle and relight it, is it the same flame?", "timestamp": "1332940675"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/325805964146942?comment_id=325813497479522", "anchor": "fb-325813497479522", "service": "fb", "text": "@Paul: I think the extinguishing of electrical activity in the brain is actually one of the smaller problems. We've already seen people recover from having the electrical state of their brain fully disrupted.", "timestamp": "1332940816"}, {"author": "Todd", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/112947709146257842066", "anchor": "gp-1332941954484", "service": "gp", "text": "From a sufficiently selfish standpoint, it doesn't really matter what the odds are- you do it because you want to live, and anything you can do to boost that is worthwhile. You're obviously not that selfish, and you're probably right (though it's somewhat disheartening to admit) that a given person isn't worth the resources we'd have to spend to create the possibility of bringing them back hundreds of years from now, evaluating from a non-selfish perspective. The harsh way to put it is that it's cheaper and more efficient to just create more people, then to work that hard to preserve the ones we've got.", "timestamp": 1332941954}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/103013777355236494008", "anchor": "gp-1332945600670", "service": "gp", "text": "@Todd\n Even if you're entirely selfish, if you think the chances of revival are sufficiently low you'd probably rather spend your money on making your current self happy.", "timestamp": 1332945600}, {"author": "Todd", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/112947709146257842066", "anchor": "gp-1332946742346", "service": "gp", "text": "Perhaps. But the cost to you of freezing your brain probably isn't very high, relative to the overall cost. A lot of the maintenance costs for keeping your brain frozen that you mentioned aren't going to be paid by you (I'm sure that cryonics companies try to price based on the long-term costs, but it's hard to see how they could avoid needing to pay for current members with future members' fees). And on a personal level, even if the odds of success are very low, there's infinitely higher expected utility in giving yourself that small chance to go on living (assuming 0 or negative utility if you're just dead). It's going to depend on how that weighs against what else you might do with the money, of course.\n
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\nBut my point is more that if you're NOT very selfish, there's not much of a conversation- those resources are clearly better spent on other people. If you are selfish, it might make sense.", "timestamp": 1332946742}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/103013777355236494008", "anchor": "gp-1332951361436", "service": "gp", "text": "@Todd\n Cryonics organizations try to have each member pay their full long-term cost. Most of the cost (~$100K) is in the freezing, especially the getting you frozen promptly, and the long term costs are ~$100/year. Which means the long term costs can be covered with investment income on ~$10K of principle.\n
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\nAn argument based on \"infinitely higher expected utility in giving yourself that small chance to go on living\" makes you do silly things. I tell you \"if you give me $100 I'll technobabble you to a future after you die where you'll be infinitely happy and live forever.\" No matter how little you believe me, if there's even a sliver of a chance that I'm right then you should pay up.\n
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\nWe're all selfish to some degree. I don't know anyone who doesn't spend quite a bit of money on themself that isn't \"clearly better spent on other people\".", "timestamp": 1332951361}, {"author": "Frederic", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/118156077148469167305", "anchor": "gp-1333144251597", "service": "gp", "text": "Really this just suggests that you should come up with a line of immortality patter and take $100 from just about everyone", "timestamp": 1333144251}]}