X-Message-Number: 32999
References: <>
From: Gerald Monroe <>
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2010 14:02:25 -0500
Subject: Re: CryoNet #32991 - #32996

--0016e6460746be63890493b1fc86

> Any rational billionaire would be on this in a heartbeat.  Nothing else
> > makes any sense from a rational view.  What irrational reasons are
> > preventing this from happening?
>
> First, the idea that this is a predominantly rational process should be
> dismissed. Except for atheists, the balancing of costs vs. benefits will
> never occur. The person will have an emotional response to any thought
> related to their own death and that will suppress any further consideration.
> My reanalysis of the Badger data posted here earlier explains this in
> detail. The conclusion was that current marketing targets atheist
> millionaires.
>
> We also know that existential concerns are resolved in middle age. Since
> wealth tends to increase with age, it is likely that many billionaires have
> already made up their minds on the issue.
>
> Second, the individual-oriented marketing strategy fails to take into
> account what guides most people's decisionmaking process in this area. The
> approach fails to deal with the relational objections - loss of friends and
> family, etc.- and doesn't consider the role of sub(culture) in influencing
> decisions of this type.
>
> Finally, many believe in overpopulation, global warming, energy and
> resource shortages, etc. and feel that it would be immoral not to 'make
> room' for the new generation.
>
>
> So, there are several factors that can account for the seeming
> irrationality of the rich.
>
>
> dss
>
>
It just seems like a form of Pascal's dilemma that is supported by direct
scientific evidence.  While we have no decent evidence showing an afterlife
does exist, we can readily see that death is permanent and not a desirable
state of affairs.  10 minutes in the presence of a human 'cadavar' will
convince almost anyone of that.  While the 'experience' of being dead might
not be that bad, it also precludes any future good experiences.  Death is
hugely bad, and cryonics has a non-zero chance of mitigating this bad thing.
 Thus, it's safer to invest in cryonics than not, even if the probability of
success were extremely small.  That's why a rational billionaire would at
least buy a minimum policy, because the cost to a billionaire is vanishingly
small and the potential rewards are huge.

The reason the potential rewards are huge is that a world that has the
technology to revive a cryonics patient and the motivation to do revivals
would almost certainly have other related technology that could result in
enjoyable life experiences.  Virtual reality, space travel, and the ability
to swap entire bodies around for cosmetic reasons would all be technically
possible.  I will say that on the down-side, if you were to be 'reborn' into
a randomly chosen resident of this planet today, the odds are that you would
end up among the majority of the world's population : poor and without good
prospects for advancement.  It's quite plausible that the successful
cryonics patients might awaken into a world where wonderful things exist,
but they cannot afford any of them and they lack the mental capacity as a
mere unmodified human to earn the resources needed to pay for them.

Overpopulation and energy shortages are all based upon the capacity of old,
cheap methods for extracting energy and making living space.  A gargantuan
amount of energy and available matter in total is available, and it only
takes a few hundred watts of energy to keep a human alive, or the output of
a solar panel less than square meter.  (photosynthesis is a lot less
efficient than that, which is why it takes quite a bit more cropland than
that with today's methods)

So essentially you're saying that older humans stop fearing death due to
genetically programmed neurological mechanism, and they use (irrational)
mechanisms to prevent serious thought on the subject as well.

The rare person that does consider cryonics has difficulty signing up any of
their friends and relatives, putting a stop to their personal consideration
of the subject.  Thus, mainly loners end up actually staying signed up?

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