Trevor_Blake comments on Non-standard cryo ideas - Less Wrong

11 Post author: DataPacRat 09 November 2013 05:42PM

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Comment author: [deleted] 09 November 2013 11:22:39PM *  2 points [-]

Would you rather wake up with hundreds of years of debt or wake up to be the most wealthy man in the world? If the later, put money in a savings account, drawing compound interest, payable to yourself. If the former, do nothing.

An aside: H. G. Wells wrote 'The Sleeper Awakes' in 1910 (serialized in 1898 and 1899). In it a man falls into a drugged sleep for 200 years. A bank account established by his friends and family draws compound interest, a committee is established to guide his wealth, the committee gets wealthy and gains global political power, and the rest you can read for yourself. A quick search of LW finds no previous mention of 'The Sleeper Awakes.'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sleeper_Awakes

Comment author: gwern 09 November 2013 11:31:48PM 8 points [-]

This topic of compound interest has been discussed on OB extensively; search for 'compound interest' and 'perpetuities'. There are serious reasons why the strategy is highly unlikely to work in the real world; Hanson covers some on OB and I cover some more in http://www.gwern.net/The%20Narrowing%20Circle

Comment author: DataPacRat 09 November 2013 11:31:25PM 3 points [-]

It's a bit more complicated than that; there's a common-law concept, usually called the rule against perpetuities, to prevent exactly that sort of permanent interest-gathering account. There are ways to try to get around that rule, such as setting up a very specialized trust; but even making the attempt requires a bit more than just opening a bank account.

That said, if a cryonicist is up to making the effort, it's at least potentially worth the effort.

Comment author: ikrase 12 November 2013 10:52:00PM 0 points [-]

I have my doubts about this. You're optimizing for a very narrow gap between societies with insufficient revivification tech and societies that are either too post-scarcity or Singularified or have undergone enough cultural or political drift that the money is worthless. And both the slow and fast routes to revivification seem like they would involve a LOT of that.