[SEQ RERUN] We Agree: Get Froze
Today’s post, We Agree: Get Froze was originally published on December 12, 2008. A summary:
Despite disagreement about AI FOOMs, Robin Hanson and Eliezer Yudkowsky both agree that cryonics is worth investing in.
Discuss the post here (rather than in the comments to the original post).
This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we’ll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky’s old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Not Taking Over the World, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.
Sequence reruns are a community-driven effort. You can participate by re-reading the sequence post, discussing it here, posting the next day’s sequence reruns post, or summarizing forthcoming articles on the wiki. Go here for more details, or to have meta discussions about the Rerunning the Sequences series.
Why exactly is it better than, say, cutting brain into into pieces and preserving them with formaldehyde? (And/or other cross-linking preservatives). Freezing really shreds everything cryoprotectants do not reach, and possibly dissolves protein oligomers in places cryoprotectants do reach. Either can cause loss of information.
There is a disheartening article about marital problems that some cryonicists face because of wives who vehemently oppose the whole idea. If I sign up for cryonics, to what extent am I limiting my marital prospects to people who don’t think cryonics is a terrible idea?