Eliezer_Yudkowsky comments on Welcome to Less Wrong! (July 2012) - Less Wrong

20 Post author: ciphergoth 18 July 2012 05:24PM

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Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 22 March 2013 06:18:36AM 9 points [-]

Anders Sandberg who does get the concept of sufficiently advanced technology posts saying, "Shit, turns out LTM seems to depend really heavily on whether protein blah has conformation A and B and the vitrification solution denatures it to C and it's spatially isolated so there's no way we're getting the info back, it's possible something unknown embodies redundant information but this seems really ubiquitous and basic so the default assumption is that everyone vitrified is dead". Although, hm, in this case I'd just be like, "Okay, back to chopping off the head and dropping it in a bucket of liquid nitrogen, don't use that particular vitrification solution". I can't think offhand of a simple discovery which would imply literally giving up on cryonics in the sense of "Just give up you can't figure out how to freeze people ever." I can certainly think of bad news for particular techniques, though.

Comment author: shminux 22 March 2013 03:54:55PM *  1 point [-]

I can't think offhand of a simple discovery which would imply literally giving up on cryonics

OK. More instrumentally, then. What evidence would make you stop paying the cryo insurance premiums with CI as the beneficiary and start looking for alternatives?

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 22 March 2013 10:25:44PM 3 points [-]

Anders publishes that, CI announces they intend to go on vitrifying patients anyway, Alcor offers a chop-off-your-head-and-dunk-in-liquid-nitro solution. Not super plausible but it's off the top of my head.

Comment author: shminux 23 March 2013 04:27:24AM 3 points [-]

No pun intended?

Comment author: Kawoomba 22 March 2013 04:57:43PM *  -1 points [-]

Can you name currently available alternatives to cryonics which accomplish a similar goal?

Apologies, misinterpreted the question.

Comment author: shminux 22 March 2013 05:09:16PM 3 points [-]

Not really, but yours is an uncharitable interpretation of my question, which is to evaluate the utility of spending some $100/mo on cryo vs spending it on something (anything) else, not "I have this dedicated $100/mo lying around which I can only spend toward my personal future revival".