I enjoyed this opportunity to spend more time thinking about EA and cryonics. It was not obvious to me when I began writing what conclusion I would come to, as cryonics is something I had been putting off considering. I say this to counteract the discussion about "writing the bottom line first." One can participate in such contests without writing the bottom line for oneself. Of course this changes the expected value of spending resources on participating, as there is now some probability that you will come to the opposite conclusion and thus not be considered for the prize. But you are still getting paid to think, even if the EV is low, which is awesome. I think prizes are pretty awesome and usually find the results meaningful. I greatly enjoyed the quantified health prize and am glad that material, which would not otherwise exist, is now available. So thanks to Isparrish for putting this on, thanks to Mel for providing emotional support while thinking about death, and thanks to Pepe and Colby for providing detailed feedback.
Thank you to each of the five contestants who entered an essay into the contest that was started a little over a week ago to explore cryonics as a prospective target for effective altruism. The five entries (listed chronologically) are:
All five of essays show evidence of much thought and hard work. Based on multiple readings of each, here are some brief impressions from each essay:
Each of these impresses me as incredibly valuable in its own right, for its own reasons. I would encourage the authors to expand them into top-level posts now that the contest is over.
Prize Winner: The essay that that I think best makes its points is the one by RomeoStevens, which encompasses significant breadth and depth on this topic. Well done, RomeoStevens!