In what direction should we update, though? The total absence of decent criticism of cryonics is to a certain extent evidence in its favour, but it doesn't tell us much about how good the criticism would be if our critics would engage properly. Now we know a little more about that. Overall this paper is about as good as I'd expect from sincere, intelligent, knowledgable people who made a real effort to engage properly with the arguments but didn't come away convinced, so my confidence in cryonics is about the same.
Overall this paper is about as good as I'd expect from sincere, intelligent, knowledgable people who made a real effort to engage properly with the arguments but didn't come away convinced, so my confidence in cryonics is about the same
Shouldn't that sort of thing make one less confident given that one cryonic meme is that people who grapple with the arguments become convinced?
Luke Parrish points me to what is clearly by far the most serious critique of cryonics ever written: a 57-page treatment by Evelina Martinenaite and Juliette Tavenier, presented as a 3rd semester project at Roskilde University in Denmark supervised by Ole Andersen.
Full paper