Iain (sometimes M.) Banks is dying of terminal gall bladder cancer.
Of more interest is the discussion thread on Hacker News regarding cryonics. There's a lot of cached responses and misinformation going around on both sides.
Great point I saw in the discussion:
Look at it like a cryptographer: Is putting a brain in liquid nitrogen a secure erasure method against all future attacks from a determined opponent with lots of resources? Would you trust your financial data to such a method of data erasure?
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.