X-Message-Number: 1850 From: (Nick Szabo) Subject: CRYONICS Reservations Date: Sun, 28 Feb 1993 22:25:44 -0800 (PST) I'm currently considering signing up for cryonics and perhaps some folks might be interested in what's going through my mind. Now, most people in the decision stage probably don't read CryoNet, so not all these points are representative. Also, I'm at low risk of death at this point in my life, so (rationally or not) feel I should take some time to sit back and ponder this radical change before I plunge in. With those caveats, and apologizing in advance for dwelling on the negative, here are my reservations: * The technical status of cryonics. I've read most of _Nanosystems_, studied some neurobiology, etc. Cell repair machines to restore function seem too ill-defined at this time to assess the odds. I'd be much more confident if a mammal could be frozen to LN temperatures and recovered. This may be well beyond current technique, but if possible it would be worth $millions in advertising in signing up new members. * The organizational risks seem very large. I've heard some folks from a now-defunct cryonics group ended up being thawed out. Alcor seems to get the main coverage on this list, so not to pick on them but it seems rather vulnerable. Is the Patient Care Fund immune from lawsuits against Alcor for non-storage reasons (eg botched suspensions, angry relatives, etc.)? If so, there is little chance that it will be available for storage and reanimations costs fifty years from now. If storage could be unbundled from the other operations, rendering its legal exposure as low as possible, this might greatly lower the risk of being prematurely thawed. In general an unbundled, decentralize system of cryonics seems far less risky than the single, central dominant organization we seem to have now. Many things inspire my confidence as well, first of all knowing some of the people involved, but what really stands out is Alcor's reputation for caring about and fighting for their suspendees. I hope that's a long-lasting cultural tradition that other cryonics organizations share and can maintain for decades to come. Some technical progress is also encouraging, eg cryobiology can now freeze & thaw 50,000-cell Drosophia embryos with differentiated muscles, nerves, etc. and damage apparently low enough to not effect genetics and other biology studies. In closing, I hope I will owe a major debt to those who have built cryonics to where it is today. Even with the reservations cryonics seems to be a reasonable version of Pascal's Wager, and I most likely will sign up one of these days, as I become more knowledgeable about the subject. Cryonics is a quite exciting possibility, but is so radical I don't want to just jump in. My thanks to those doing the hard work, and I hope I can contribute in the future. Nick Szabo Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=1850