I don’t feel like HJPEV comes across as much of a cryonics fanboy compared to EY. He always has to think for at least a few seconds to think about cooling a corpse—and it’s cooling rather than full-blown suspension. He’s obviously aware that cooling is a helpful way to avert the risk of permadeath, but he doesn’t seem like he’s precommitted to signing up for cryonics as soon as he can legally do so. Which, knowing this Harry, probably means he hasn’t heard much about it.
Granted, he’s a candle next to a fire, and it was a very new thing in 1992. But remembering the best temperature is the sort of thing he’d do, even having only heard it once.
I wonder if Eliezer is just being cautious, trying to steer the story away from anything that people would dismiss as blatant cryonics propaganda, and instead just plant enough of a hint to get the normals reading HPMoR, how should I say it, emotionally interested in the idea that a freshly dead person might be preserved, and revived later when we know more.
I’d believe it. I don’t think he’s going to go propagandist, I just think that “Someone I love is dead, better freeze them just in case it can be fixed” is a natural thought path for EY. It’s possibly not even a conscious propaganda attempt, that’s just how smart and thoughtful people are supposed to act.
(IRL, I think it’s a bit different because of the cost involved. But these spells are basically free, so why not try?)
There’s also that Harry shouldn’t freeze, he should transmute (as was suggested somewhere above) (or perhaps he should freeze and then transmute). Freezing is rather disastrous if it gets warm again. Even if the transmutation goes off it’s relatively fine as long as he arranges it so that the transmutation can be redone quickly.
A cryonics fanboy writing a story about a cryonics fanboy with access to a spell that can freeze a corpse? Specificity is to be expected.
I don’t feel like HJPEV comes across as much of a cryonics fanboy compared to EY. He always has to think for at least a few seconds to think about cooling a corpse—and it’s cooling rather than full-blown suspension. He’s obviously aware that cooling is a helpful way to avert the risk of permadeath, but he doesn’t seem like he’s precommitted to signing up for cryonics as soon as he can legally do so. Which, knowing this Harry, probably means he hasn’t heard much about it.
Granted, he’s a candle next to a fire, and it was a very new thing in 1992. But remembering the best temperature is the sort of thing he’d do, even having only heard it once.
I wonder if Eliezer is just being cautious, trying to steer the story away from anything that people would dismiss as blatant cryonics propaganda, and instead just plant enough of a hint to get the normals reading HPMoR, how should I say it, emotionally interested in the idea that a freshly dead person might be preserved, and revived later when we know more.
I’d believe it. I don’t think he’s going to go propagandist, I just think that “Someone I love is dead, better freeze them just in case it can be fixed” is a natural thought path for EY. It’s possibly not even a conscious propaganda attempt, that’s just how smart and thoughtful people are supposed to act.
(IRL, I think it’s a bit different because of the cost involved. But these spells are basically free, so why not try?)
There’s also that Harry shouldn’t freeze, he should transmute (as was suggested somewhere above) (or perhaps he should freeze and then transmute). Freezing is rather disastrous if it gets warm again. Even if the transmutation goes off it’s relatively fine as long as he arranges it so that the transmutation can be redone quickly.