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SilasBarta comments on Open Thread: July 2010 - Less Wrong
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While I'm not planning to pursue cryopreservation myself, I don't believe that it's unreasonable to do so.
Industrial coolants came up in a conversation I was having with my parents (for reasons I am completely unable to remember), and I mentioned that I'd read a bunch of stuff about cryonics lately. My mom then half-jokingly threatened to write me out of her will if I ever signed up for it.
This seemed... disproportionately hostile. She was skeptical of the singularity and my support for the SIAI when it came up a few weeks ago, but she's not particularly interested in the issue and didn't make a big deal about it. It wasn't even close to the level of scorn she apparently has for cryonics. When I asked her about it, she claimed she opposed it based on the physical impossibility of accurately copying a brain. My father and I pointed out that this would literally require the existence of magic, she conceded the point, mentioned that she still thought it was ridiculous, and changed the subject.
This was obviously a case of my mom avoiding her belief's true weak points by not offering her true objection, rationality failures common enough to deserve blog posts pointing them out; I wasn't shocked to observe them in the wild. What is shocking to me is that someone who is otherwise quite rational would feel so motivated to protect this particular belief about cryonics. Why is this so important?
That the overwhelming majority of those who share this intense motivation are women (it seems) just makes me more confused. I've seen a couple of explanations for this phenomenon, but they aren't convincing: if these people object to cryonics because they see it as selfish (for example), why do so many of them come up with fake objections? The selfishness objection doesn't seem like it would be something one would be penalized for making.
I -- quite predictably -- think this is a special case of the more general problem that people have trouble explaining themselves. You mom doesn't give her real reason because she can't (yet) articulate it. In your case, I think it's due to two factors: 1) part of the reasoning process is something she doesn't want to say to your face so she avoids thinking it, and 2) she's using hidden assumptions that she falsely assumes you share.
For my part, my dad's wife is nominally unopposed, bitterly noting that "It's your money" and then ominously adding that, "you'll have to talk about this with your future wife, who may find it loopy".
(Joke's on her -- at this rate, no woman will take that job!)
Sometime ago I offered this explanation for not signing up for cryo: I know signing up would be rational, but can't overcome my brain's desire to make me "look normal". I wonder whether that explanation sounds true to others here, and how many other people feel the same way.
I'm in a typical decision-paralysis state. I want to sign up, I have the money, but I'm also interested in infinite banking, which requires you to get a whole-life plan [1], which would have to be coordinated, which makes it complicated and throws off an ugh field.
What I should probably do is just get the term insurance, sign up for cryo, and then buy amendments to the life insurance contract if I want to get into the infinite banking thing.
[1] Save your breath about the "buy term and invest the difference" spiel, I've heard it all before. The investment environment is a joke.
You mentioned this before and I had a quick look at the website and got the impression that it is fairly heavily dependent on US tax laws around whole life insurance and so is not very applicable to other countries. Have you investigated it enough to say whether my impression is accurate or if this is something that makes sense in other countries with differing tax regimes as well?
I haven't read about the laws in other countries, but I suspect they at least share the aspect that it's harder to seize assets stored in such a plan, giving you more time to lodge an objection of they get a lien on it.
For a variety of reasons I don't think cryonics is a good investment for me personally. The social cost of looking weird is certainly a negative factor, though not the only one.