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Become Your Own Heir After Being Frozen
destinyland writes "A science writer discovered it's possible to finance your cryogenic preservation using life insurance — and then leave a huge death benefit to your future thawed self. From the article, 'Most in the middle class, if they seriously want it, can afford it now. So by taking the right steps, you can look forward to waking up one bright future morning from cryopreservation the proud owner of a bank account brimming with money!' There's one important caveat: some insist that money 'will have no meaning in a future dominated by advanced molecular manufacturing or other engines of mega-abundance.'"
On the other hand, it appears that investing my cash in these companies in the business of bilking the terminally optimistic of their earnings *could* be a fine way to ensure my comfortable retirement. Thank you stupid wealthy people!
The fact that no one understands you doesn't mean you're an artist.
More likely the criminals running the "deep freeze" will run off with your money and leave you to thaw out and rot in a mini-storage unit when all the LN2 in your dewer escapes.
They need to think about taking these people and placing them deep in a glacier or something, then maybe you have a chance of lasting for a while.
The future will likely disallow this kind of inheritance. The main problem with cryogenics right now is that it is not possible to undo the damage caused by the cryogenic procedure. People who have invested in companies like Alcor have done so in the belief that a solution will soon be available. As soon as that happens the world will see a new set of laws that take care of all these loopholes. I would image that they will make sure you don't wake up with an advantage you do not deserve x years into the future. It will be more about people wanting to experience the future than benefiting from it
"some insist that money 'will have no meaning in a future dominated by advanced molecular manufacturing or other engines of mega-abundance."
Uh huh, sure. And we'll all have flying cars, and we won't need to work because we will have created new ways produce food. And there'll be no wars, and free ice-cream.
On the other hand, people in their 20s often pick up and go somewhere they know nobody, where the culture is very different and they have to pick up a whole new set of assumptions. It's called "college".
I think people in general are far more resilient than you give credit for, especially with the benefit of what would likely be advanced counselling methods.
Perhaps it's not to your liking, that's fine. Some people are more embedded in their world than others. I think I would manage fine, a whole new world to learn would be fascinating! Besides, you could likely still make the decision at that time that you didn't want to continue, no need to make it *now*!
The fact that no one understands you doesn't mean you're an artist.
My answer- "yes". I would give anything to experience the world 200 years from now even if it means starting off with nothing. And if I'm that disappointed with "social issues" there's always the option that exists today to end it. Don't generalize.
Shouldn't this same line of logic apply to corporations and copyrights? Because right now, I would say the system is definitely breaking this "rule against perpetuities"...
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
...and with the way inflation works, your 4.3 billion dollars will buy you half a slice of bread once you've been thawed.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
Life without meaning? A new world with a new culture and new politics and new sciences and new games to learn?! Are you kidding! That would be the greatest thing ever.
Make new friends. Form a new family. Only this time if they can resuscitate a head then I'm probably nearly immortal so I have at least 10k years before I'm statistically killed in an accident. That's more than enough time to learn a few hundred lifetimes of insights.
So what you're saying is that if your family and friends all died in an accident you would want to die with them and no live your life? If you were orphaned and adopted by a foreign family you think life wouldn't be worth living or have meaning?
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And yet, they'll still be able to vote. How interesting.
Life is not for the lazy.
"The largest cryonics organization today, in terms of membership, was established as a nonprofit organization by Fred and Linda Chamberlain in California in 1972 as the Alcor Society for Solid State Hypothermia (ALCOR)" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcor_Life_Extension_Foundation
The easy "out" would be that you weren't dead, and you owe them for unpaid premiums.
Heroscape, it's like legos combined with anachronistic wargames.
Convert what you can to gold and hide it somewhere, hopefully some place that won't be discovered for the next 1000 years, I guess that would be the difficulty.
I predict that there will be a bank, maybe in Switzerland, maybe some place else, that will provide services helping the folks like that to hide their money, including from the law of other countries, for a percentage of annual interest perhaps.
You can't handle the truth.
Has there yet been a bank or currency which has lasted that long?
Gold. Plus, if you get gold coins rather than bullion there's a chance that that they will acquire rarity value over 1000 years (due to the milling, engraving etc) over and above the value of the base metal itself and so enhance your rate of return. Ancient coins still have a high value attached to them despite the empires to which they belonged being long-dead.
id sooner expect them to argue that if youre freezing yourself with the intent of thawing out, you arent actually dead and, as such, are not eligible to collect the life insurance monies.
By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth. -- George Carlin
Of course it is a bad scam preying on old people.
How is it any different from the graveyard scam? What's the difference between paying someone to mow the grass over your coffin and polish your tombstone compared to paying someone to power and maintain a freezer?
Cell walls? Are you reviving a plant?
I don't know what bank you use, but from my perspective the entire industry seems bent on making sure that there is no such thing as perpetual wealth. On top of the annual membership fees most banks charged for credit accounts, there are now fees for non-use. The way things are going, I fully expect that that next fee will be one for crediting your deposit account with the interest earned on the principle.
We freeze cells and keep them at -80C for future use. Most of the cells turn out to be viable and usable after the freeze/thaw cycle. I realize freezing a body is very different then cells, however, I would hesitate to say freezing a body or head is "impossible".
The whole scheme is being run by the same banks and insurance industries that have served all of us so well?
Pull the other one.
It's got bells.
Why do you want to come back, anyway. You've wasted 20-35 years of your life in vanity and no real effect, so far. What makes you assume this will change after napping on ice for 150 years?
Then you have an eternity of half-finished Lego projects and failed relationships to look forward to - without every really wondering why you exist at all.
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
Not anymore. Current cryonics procedures are based on vitrification, which preserves tissue with relatively little damage. As I understand it, much of the inability to revive a vitrified being comes from the fact that the chemicals used to facilitate the vitrification process are toxic, and as of yet we lack a good way to extract them from the system. http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/michael/blog/2009/10/this-is-your-brain-on-cryonics/
freezing tissue destroys all the cells and turns everything into mush
Right, that's why if you freeze an embryo, you can't revive it and implant it and expect it to develop into a fetus and later a baby. It's just dead, because it was destroyed in the freezing process.
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
A bunch of stupid apes running around using tools they barely understand.
Dude, you just described 95% of America, including yourself.
-FL