Question:
What are your thoughts on cryogenic preservation and the idea of medically treating aging?
His response:
A marvelous way to just convince people to give you money. Offer to freeze them for later. I'd have more confidence if we had previously managed to pull this off with other mammals. Until then I see it as a waste of money. I'd rather enjoy the money, and then be buried, offering my body back to the flora and fauna of which I have dined my whole life.
That's quite a leap to go from "he disagrees with me on one issue" to "[he's] no wiser outside the laboratory [than an average person]."
From his reply I suspect that cryonics is something he hasn't thought about very much, whereas he has thought quite a lot about other important (arguably more important) issues. For a celebrity scientist, I am actually quite surprised how insightful and independent his thinking is on a wide range of topics.
Cryonics is very expensive, and I would guess there's only about a 1% chance of it working as currently performed. Seeing it as a potentially rare and worthwhile opportunity, or as a waste of money both seem like reasonable positions depending on a persons values and finances to me...
I said that because it seemed he was giving the pat, standard, "I haven't thought about this" answer. I don't know if Tyson is sloppy in all thinking outside the lab, but he seemed to be sloppy here. I wouldn't mind if he disagreed with cryonics after having examined the issue in detail, but he's giving an answer (seemingly) without having thought about it very much.
In short, I think I mostly agree with you.