Honestly, I would say all (or almost all; extremes tend to be tricky) discussion of "why cryonics" is just incentivizing seeing the future contrasted with the disadvantages of signing up or not signing up. So far as I can think, any reason given for signing up, no matter how trite, involves an incentive to see the future.
Want to be cured from a disease (be it AIDS or death)? See the future. Want to experience a post-Singularity world? See the future. Want to not be utterly annihilated for eternity? See the future.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying your point is bad. I think we should take time, when discussing cryonics, to emphasize the good reasons for sticking around for the future. Most of us probably aren't signing up just cause we're afraid of death and we want a teddy bear to hold when we die. Cryonics isn't just an alternative to believing in an afterlife, and treating it as such is fatal. So, I think we should discuss the incentives for seeing the future. We already do that around here quite a bit.
Cryonics isn't just an alternative to believing in an afterlife, and treating it as such is fatal.
I think cryonics as highest-probability afterlife is the biggest reason. That does dwarf everything else.
I just learned of The Future Library project. In short, famous authors will be asked to write new, original fiction that will not be released until 2114. First one announced was Margaret Atwood, of The Handmaiden's Tale fame.
I learned of this when a friend posted on Facebook that "I'm officially looking into being cryogenically frozen due to The Future Library project. See you all in 2114." She meant it as a joke, but after a couple comments she now knows about CI, and she didn't yesterday.
What's one of the most common complaints we hear from Deathists? The future is unknown and scary and there won't be anything there they'd be interested in anyway. Now there will be, if they're Atwood fans.
What's one of the ways artists who give away most of their work (almost all of them nowadays) try to entice people to pay for their albums/books/games/whatever? Including special content that is only available for people who pay (or who pay more). Now there is special content only available for people who are around post-2113.
Which got me to thinking... could we incentivize seeing the future? I know it sounds kinda silly ("What, escaping utter annihilation isn't incentive enough??"), but it seems possible that we could save lives by compiling original work from popular artists (writers, musicians, etc), sealing it tight somewhere, and promising to release it in 100, 200, maybe 250 years. And of course, providing links to cryo resources with all publicity materials.
Would this be worth pursuing? Are there any obvious downsides, aside from cost & difficulty?