Cryonics

August 31st, 2011
cryonics, future, transhumanism
You can sign up to have your head frozen when you die. The idea is that at some point in the future, we may have the technology to reanimate you, either physically or as software. If reaimated, you could potentially live a very long time. It would cost me about $240 annually [1]. So should I sign up? I think it comes down to:
  • what are my chances of being revived?
  • what would my quality of life be if revived?
  • how long would I expect to live after being revived?
  • what else could I do with $240/year?
I don't have a good way to estimate the first three. The fourth I have a good understanding of, both in terms of the good it could do in general [2] and how I could spend it on myself. I think if I did sign up, it would need to come out of my self-spending budget; it's almost certainly not cost competitive with international development in maximizing happiness.

Does it make sense to sign up?

[1] $120 for a yearly membership, $120 for life insurance. Life insurance costs would go up dramatically as I got older, for example $460 if I signed up 30 years from now. So we have $600/year for a 55 year old me.

[2] about one life saved every two years via village reach

Comment via: google plus, facebook, substack

Recent posts on blogs I like:

On Apologizing To Kids

Everyone is so weird about apologizing to children.

via Thing of Things August 25, 2025

Against the Teapot Hold in Contra Dancing

The teapot hold is the most dangerous common contra dancing figure, so I’ve been avoiding it. The teapot hold, sometimes called a "courtesy turn hold,” requires one dancer to connect with their hand behind their back. When I realized I could avoid put…

via Emma Azelborn August 25, 2025

Little Puppy

She's very little and she likes to do stuff with me. She also likes to bark around and run around and jump around. She also likes to go to places with me and that's all I have.

via Nora Wise's Blog Posts August 23, 2025

more     (via openring)