"Unresearched suspicions regarding the ethics and business practices of cryonics organizations."

I consider this to be a real issue. There just isn't much transparency among the handful of players, and sentiments like yours aren't making them any less opaque.

A few comments that might not be too popular.

1. It occurs to me that people with an impaired social awareness and capabilities are less likely to be aware of their impairment, much like the Anosognosic’s Dilemma. As the Wired survey is a self-diagnosis, I would not place too much confidence in its scores, at least as conventionally interpreted. High scores might suggest a high degree of self-awareness that there is a problem (which is good!)

2. I also wonder if 'AS' is some innate and unchangeable characteristic of a person, beyond his ability to control, or if it is more like a learned behavior shaped by experience. This whole 'diagnosis' mentality suggests AS is a medical condition, but if it is not, then we are not helping those who might be able to change, and instead encouraging them to see it as a natural and permanent characteristic of themselves.

I love LW - its one of my favorite reads, though I don't quite fully appreciate some of the more advanced rationality posts yet. Thank you all for making a great community.

Chinese cryonics? There are rumors, but nothing concrete. http://www.cryonics.org/immortalist/january05/letters.htm

There are better results searching for "人体冷冻法 ", "人体冷冻学" or "人体冷冻技术": An article about Alcor ("ah-er-ke") http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2005-12/13/content_3913137.htm

On a related note, prospects for AGI research in China: http://www.hplusmagazine.com/articles/ai/chinese-singularity

Someone with working knowledge of hiragana/katakana might try the same for Japanese cryonics?

Think Global Soreff.

Japan and China have huge aging populations. Their incentive to develop life extension treatments will be much greater than the biodeathicists ability to impede the same in the United States.

China is facing a huge aging problem. They are probably the first country to get old before getting rich. if i were in the chinese politburo, I'd be POURING money into life extension research.

Though why Japan already hasn't done so seems surprising from this viewpoint. Any ideas Why Japan hasn't poured money into healthspan extension?

Thanks Mitchell. This actually raises a dilemma for me, do I sign up for US cryonics now, or wait and see if the Australian facility pans out? I'm in my 20s so the odds of me dying in the next decade are pretty slim, so I could afford to wait for a few years at least. Preservation in Australia would increase the odds of successful revival.

On the other hand, the odds of my death in that time isn't zero and nothing might come of an Australian facility, meaning I could be risking my future existence for nothing.

Because the optimal solution would be to sign up for cryonics in the US now, and switch to Australia at a later time if that becomes an option. How easy is it to break a cryonics contract?