What plans could a prospective cryonicist try out, beyond simply signing up, that could increase the odds of eventually having a pleasant re-animation experience?
If one has Alzheimer, then one could sign up to a cryonics organisation (if not done yet) and then go to the nearest hospital to this organisation, call the organisation to tell them they will die, call the hospital telling them where they will commit suicide, and then commit suicide (by minimizing the damages to his/her brain). This will stop the Alzheimer to deteriorate their memory further and therefore having a more pleasant re-animation experience.
Note that I am not saying this is necessarily the best thing to do because I don’t know what are the chances that cryonics will work, I am just saying that it would probably be a more pleasant re-animation experience.
If you actually could commit what is legally considered suicide and not have your brain damaged in an autopsy, why would Alcor advocate VSED? Why not just let people figure it out for themselves? Or hinted at suicide in a non-explicit, non-illegal way? VSED strikes me as the last thing you would ever advocate if you were just interested in PR.
I’ve heard life insurance doesn’t pay for suicide, so if you have it set up so life insurance pays for your cryonics, you’re going to have to abandon that and pay for it yourself.
It depends on the insurance plan. According to one plan I’m familiar with, it doesn’t pay out if you suicide within two years of having initially acquired the policy. Presumably this is to prevent the more obvious forms of shenanigans while avoiding the bad PR that would result from someone who develops major depression twenty years later not having their insurance pay out.
DataPacRat is correct. In US, most insurances pay out even in the event of suicide, but only after a certain term. For some policies it’s as short as 1 year.
If one has Alzheimer, then one could sign up to a cryonics organisation (if not done yet) and then go to the nearest hospital to this organisation, call the organisation to tell them they will die, call the hospital telling them where they will commit suicide, and then commit suicide (by minimizing the damages to his/her brain). This will stop the Alzheimer to deteriorate their memory further and therefore having a more pleasant re-animation experience.
Note that I am not saying this is necessarily the best thing to do because I don’t know what are the chances that cryonics will work, I am just saying that it would probably be a more pleasant re-animation experience.
If only it was that simple.
It makes sense that Alcor would say that, to avoid getting into legal trouble.
If you actually could commit what is legally considered suicide and not have your brain damaged in an autopsy, why would Alcor advocate VSED? Why not just let people figure it out for themselves? Or hinted at suicide in a non-explicit, non-illegal way? VSED strikes me as the last thing you would ever advocate if you were just interested in PR.
They already had people who did VSED and it didn’t get into any legal trouble. However, they had three cases of assisted death which caused some controversy, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcor_Life_Extension_Foundation#Controversies
I’ve heard that many places have laws requiring suicides to be autopsied...
You’re right. So I would add one step. Go to a state (or a country) where the laws don’t require autopsy.
For example, you can sign a “Religious Objection to Autopsy” in these five states: California, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Ohio (http://www.alcor.org/Library/html/certificateofreligiousbelief.html).
And of these five states, I’d chose California since it’s near Arrizona where there’s a cryonics organisation (ie. Alcor).
EDIT: or Ohio, since it’s near Michigan where there’s also a cryonics organisation (ie. Cryonics Institute).
I’ve heard life insurance doesn’t pay for suicide, so if you have it set up so life insurance pays for your cryonics, you’re going to have to abandon that and pay for it yourself.
It depends on the insurance plan. According to one plan I’m familiar with, it doesn’t pay out if you suicide within two years of having initially acquired the policy. Presumably this is to prevent the more obvious forms of shenanigans while avoiding the bad PR that would result from someone who develops major depression twenty years later not having their insurance pay out.
DataPacRat is correct. In US, most insurances pay out even in the event of suicide, but only after a certain term. For some policies it’s as short as 1 year.
Basically you’d have to get some other easily identifiable disease that kills you before Alzheimer’s does it’s damage to avoid autopsy.